In the past year, short video products are in the limelight. Before kuaishou’s traffic miracle, after the strong rise of Douyin, it managed to fight its way out in the red sea of traffic.
However, this article is not about Kuaishou or Douyin. Let’s look beyond the specific products and take a look at the design of comment sections in community and media products.
In community and media products, the comment section is an extension of the topic/content. In an online community, the comment section is the bridge between content producers and content consumers, and the main battlefield of user interaction within the community.
At present, there are three common forms of comments in mainstream communities and media products:
1. Tree branch structure
The tree branch structure is the thematic design. The comment area only displays the comments on the main post and part of the dialogue replies. By folding up other comments and dialogues on the main post, the comments on the main post can become a separate interactive sub-module.
Mainstream products using this form are: Weibo/Momo/Jianshu/Tiantian Kuai bao/Jike/Tencent News
1.
Tree branches folding structure will resume dialogue content, each comment content can become subject interactive module, is conducive to the content of the dialogue type, short type reply, if you comment on the content itself is topic, theme design convenient user browse dialog (quarrel/discussion) process, can attract more users to participate, extending ZhuTie topic, Improve community interaction and create a more lively atmosphere in the comments section.
In a relatively lively comment area, a large part of the reply content is secondary interaction with the original post content, and the comment area will be filled with a large number of reply messages unrelated to the original post content. By folding the reply content, a large number of low-quality reply content can be filtered out. Meanwhile, some high-quality reply can be exposed through the algorithm, which gives consideration to browsing and driving interaction.
2,
The tree branch structure is relatively less exposed to subsequent comments due to the limited sorting method and display position. Directly replying to popular comments has become a shortcut to increase exposure, which may result in flooding of the reply area of popular comments. For example, a lot of selling information in the popular comment area of Weibo and popular comment reply in the Post bar can be seen.
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.
Two, linear branch structure
The linear branch design includes two different types, one is to quote the original comment in the reply form, and the other is to @ the original post user, but do not quote the original comment
The former representative products are: Douyin/netease Cloud Music
Note: Cloud Music & Tiktok
The latter represents products: B station/pulse
1.
Linear branch structure design is more lightweight, functional logic is relatively simple, wide application, can be competent for various types of network communities.
Tree branch because of folding dialogue reply content, the browsing path of user dialogue reply content becomes deeper. Although some high-quality reply can be exposed through the algorithm, many “god reply” will still be sunk. The linear structure is displayed according to the time line of the reply content, and then the algorithm is used to increase the exposure of high-quality comments. It is relatively fair for each reply content and can create a more objective comment area.
2,
If the comments are filled with a large number of low-quality and discontinuous conversation replies, the browsing experience of the comment area will be poor for subsequent users.
At the same time, all the comments are arranged in chronological order, and there is no continuity in the reply content of conversations between users. It is difficult for users who want to watch the excitement or observe the browsing, and the whole comment area is not busy enough, which cannot effectively drive subsequent users to participate in the current interaction.
Three, building type structure
The building structure is the classic design of comment area of netease News, and the comment area of A station also adopts this design.
Note: Netease news & A station
Building is a very graphic way of saying that content information is compared to the foundation, the comments of the first layer are equivalent to the first floor, the replies of the second layer are the second floor based on the comments of the first layer, and so on… Similar to the process of building a building (supposedly up to 70 stories).
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.
Under the vast number of net friends, even formed a kind of comment culture, various gods compete to comment, in the comment area self-mockery/satire secular and so on, and finally can evolve into a small say, a poem.
Note: Comment culture in netease News comment section
Building the way at the same time also has a problem, a large number of news comment on building, middle floor display is the same or similar content, comments will appear a lot of repetitive content, look so later, netease to optimize the function of the building, will review a large number of repeat folding, building information display only the earliest as well as the content of the reply.
The comment area of building construction focuses on how to cover the floor to achieve visual effect, and only with the participation of a large number of users, can the effect of building design be played. If there is no large number of users and participate in maintaining the effect of building construction, it is a big challenge to adopt building design, and the comment area will be “ugly”.
Regarding netease comment design, you can refer to this article: Past life of netease comment culture – Jane Book
In addition to the original comments section structure, the content of the only comment and cannot be undone, lack of effective interaction mechanism, more is the product of the early time, the rapid iteration in the design, such as the first and immediate early comments area, only support for content of one-way comments, reply to dialogue between the user, in the subsequent versions of the iterative process, Gradually improve the comments section.
The above is some summary about the design of the comment section. Welcome to follow wechat official number: Qinfengrec
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