Community modules are very common in Internet products. After a community cold launch, the design of the comments section is something product managers need to focus on. Today we will take a look at the comments section of c-side media class design considerations.
The comment section is an extension of this main dynamic content/topic, and good comment section design can help generate UGC content and even improve business transformation. It is also the bridge between content producer and consumer. It is also the main visible gathering place for the community’s active users.
At present, there are three common forms of comments in mainstream communities and media products:
This paper will focus on these three structures and combine them with the cases I landed in my work.
The comment area design of tree branch architecture needs to combine algorithm. The entire comment area shows the content of the main post and the comments recommended by the algorithm. The content of other comments is narrowed down, and usually such algorithms have bubble sort or “like” heat rankings.
This allows users to browse as much quality UGC content as possible, typically on products with a lot of reviews.
Mainstream products using this form are: Weibo/Momo/Jianshu/Tiantian Kuai bao/Jike/Tencent News
They are jiji, Weibo and Jianshu
Advantages and disadvantages of the tree branch architecture
advantage
The tree branch architecture is beneficial for users to simply reply comments and generate content due to the selection of algorithm. It is also possible to generate user interaction on a comment topic (actively quarrel with a comment user). Ultimately, UGC activity in the community can be improved.
Second, because the product is in a scenario where there is a lot of criticism. The design of tree structure can effectively filter irrelevant or watery content. Get good content exposed
disadvantages
Due to the folding design, the commentary content on display is limited. The content generated by subsequent comments is difficult to be recommended by the algorithm, and popular comments become the main path for users to participate in the reply. It is possible that several comments will be looted by a large number of marines. Similar micro blog, Baidu post bar also exists a few popular comments to sell pornographic information malicious behavior.
Optimized on this base design are Toutiao/Volcano videos, which are folded by all comments. Although the above problems can be avoided, it will reduce the enthusiasm of participating in the interaction because the path of replying to a comment is too deep.
Toutiao’s comment section folds
On this basis, Toutiao/Volcano video folds all the dialogue replies, only showing the number of replies below the comments, making the comments more inclined to the “content” itself. However, the response path of subsequent users will become deeper, which will reduce the effect of user interaction.
There will be two different product designs. The first is to quote the content of the comment, and the second is to quote the user (by @).
The first type of products are: Douyin/netease Cloud Music
Cloud music, Douyin
The first type of products are: B station/pulse
B station/pulse
Linear comments on product design strengths and weaknesses
advantages
Compared with tree architecture, linear comment area design logic is simpler, functions are more portable, there is no complex logic algorithm, universal adaptability. Basically you see a lot of Internet products doing this during the cold start of the product.
If the user experience is good, it can also ensure that the comments section meets the daily needs of users. After all, there wasn’t a lot of UGC content in the community during the cold launch.
Linear comment content follows time latitude display. On the basis of that, some algorithms can be added to expose the content of high-quality comments. Can bring more objective, impartial comment section experience.
Note that the algorithm here is based on the latitude of each comment, rather than algorithmic ordering of a single fulcrum in a tree structure.
disadvantages
Because no tree structure is folded, it can lead to a lot of flooded content being exposed. The experience of reading content in the comments section will be very bad. Even with algorithms that put good reviews first, users can still scroll down to view them.
All comments and interactions between comments take time latitude, so there is no way to focus on any one comment. It’s more difficult for the user to browse, because there’s a good chance that one of the comments he wants to see has been interpolated between other comments due to time constraints. Can not effectively drive users to participate in the comment sub-interactive content atmosphere
The building structure is the classic design of comment area of netease News, and the comment area of A station also adopts this design.
Netease News /A station
The reason for building a building is that we often post a few floors in the comment section of the bar will have such a field. Compare content information to building a house. The interaction under the first comment generated by the first comment is the first layer. The second comment creates the second level of interaction. In this way, it is a number of dynamic main comments for the building process. (It is not known if there is a maximum, most of the time there is no limit)
advantages
The building design will display all the quoted floor information, so that you can clearly see the whole dialogue response process, visual impact, reading consistency is good, and look very busy.
And the effect of building will also form a culture of comments. Count 1, 2, 3, 4….. “
Read the comments between floors to form some divine replies and novels etc.
disadvantages
Building because the content is displayed the same from floor to floor, the comments section can appear to be filled with a lot of the same content. Netease later avoided such a situation by adopting content that showed the earliest replies.
Another latitude is to pay attention to how to form a visual effect, and how to guide the outside eating melon people to participate in the comment area. If no users come in, the comments section of the building will be short and thin. The comments section is going to be really bad
Another approach that many community products use today is to simply comment in the comments section without being able to respond to comments.
There is a lack of effective interaction, but before or in the middle of cold priming. We don’t have enough users to generate enough content on our own to land the rest of the community first. After all, the rational use of development resources is the product manager’s requirement for life cycle control.
Each module can be very complex, but if you have such a need to do such things now, the product manager needs to consider everything.
Today’s article thanks to the wechat official account: Qinfengrec original. Because I could not get in touch with myself, I made some optimization based on the case of community design and product Design in the comment section.
All right, here’s today’s product. 2 product cases of my work per week
Recommended reading:
Do it for a year and recruit 100 product managers
My first book. Here it is