It’s St. Patrick’s Day.
How It’s Made
Live from Critiqué
Messaging Icebreakers
We know people on Tumblr love messaging. We also know they have a hard time sending their first message. How can a community of people who mostly don’t know each other IRL feel comfortable starting direct conversations with to each other? One solution we’re trying right now is icebreakers.
If you start a conversation with a mutual right now (try it!), you’ll see something like this:
Iteration
We went through through a few iterations of this interface, taking initial cues from the bites of information expected on a biz card—
—which seemed too formal, and were further pared down and made smaller:
A visually-centered information nugget felt right, and we experimented with further options inspired by other aspects of the Tumblr universe, such as displaying the recipient’s last few posts, or the entirety of their tumblr description:
Final Form
In the end, we rallied around a brief yet informative interface which adapted according to the the user’s context. Besides their username (obviously), we’ve added a small line that tells you one or two things a person posts about the most.
What if you’re not already mutuals? For one-way follows (or people who don’t follow each other at all), the messaging interface now gives you that context, too:
The recipient also gets information about the people who are messaging them: the sender’s username, description, and how long they’ve been following for.
This information should be enough to let you know if the person is a lurker, if they’re a dedicated follower, or if the two of you are mutuals.
As an additional layer of safety, we’ve included a small “Hey does this look like spam?” button, just in case of…well, spam.
This collection of interfaces makes up what we’ve dubbed “Icebreakers”, in the hope that they’ll help smooth out conversations between strangers, and maybe give ‘em something to talk about.
It’s our birthday!
An interesting idea.
The State of Design in 2017
Seeking: Summer Intern
Wanna design real Tumblr features? We’re looking for a smart and motivated student to join our product design team for the summer. Together with engineering, we invent and design everything across our mobile and web apps.
If you have experience designing and prototyping user interfaces, obsessing over the tiniest of details, and want to collaborate with the people that make this Tumblr thing happen, we’d love to hear from you.
Read more about Tumblr internships and apply here.
We are pleased and humbled to introduce Tumblr’s newest product designer, Davina Kim!
Welcome! Where are you from and what were you up to before joining Tumblr?
Hi! I’m from NYC, native new yawka :) and previously I was a Product Designer at Animoto
What’s an unusual skill you’ve got that might shock or amaze?
I can’t think of an unusual skill at the moment but I have an AMAZING and SHOCKINGLY CUTE doggo.
What’s a bad piece of advice you’ve heard and how would you make it less bad?
“Stop eating doughnuts.” I made it less bad by saying “treat yoself!” and eating a doughnut.
Finish this sentence: I like big _______ and I cannot lie
doughnuts
What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever watched someone else do?
Wash all the dishes in the sink but leave one utensil or cup. Whhhhyyyyy??? It’s a mystery!
What’s a word you can’t stand? (Besides “moist”)
Smear.
And finally—what’s the best thing you’ve seen on Tumblr recently?
I like this cycling doggo 😂
