I just joined Steemit this week (yay!) and produced my first story, an introduce yourself post, yesterday. Being a newbie to the platform, but not social media, I thought I would have no problem picking up how to work within the Steemit system.
To my surprise I found it a little confusing and learning my way around the platform was a little like a game of hide ‘n seek. It did not have the normal flow of a social media channel and there were no buttons with appropriate labeling that would help someone find what they were looking for, such as following and commenting.
I’ve been blogging and participating on social media for many years and feel that there are a few things that would make Steemit a little more user friendly when one first joins. Here are a few of my ideas that I believe would help grow the platform.
- Add a FOLLOW button. It took me forever to find the small down arrow next to the name, that when clicked, would give one an opportunity to follow or mute. (Thanks @Nomads for your great stories - hope it's OK if I used your story for an example)
- Prior to following someone, it would be nice to be able to visit their feed, say by clicking on their profile pic, so that your follow is based on more than just the article you’ve just read.
- I would like to see either a comment box or a button with the word “COMMENT” clearly stated. The word “Reply” was a little confusing as I thought of it as a way to contact the writer and not as a general comment on the article.
All that being said, I finally figured out how to go about commenting and following as well as upvoting my favorite stories. Steemit is a wonderful platform that I can see growing in popularity as it becomes better known. I will certainly do my best to pass on information about the opportunities here.
I'd love to hear what you think would make the platform easier to use and more intuitive for new users?
Cheers! Have a fantastic day!