Why I love Snapchat

Post by jrowley » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 9:39 PM UTC

nmat wrote: post #41

minimaxir wrote: post #12

The problem I have with Snapchat is that there are many deliberate, counterintuitive UI/UX decisions which make the app hard to use. This causes a lot of bad post-hoc rationalization from many startups that "Snapchat is a multibillion dollar startup, and they have these bad UX features, therefore if we have these X features we will be successful too!" And thus the startup ecosystem as a whole gets dragged down.

The bad UI generates a sort of viral effect. I know a lot of young kids who use snapchat and often the conversation starts with 'How did you do that effect on that video?' or 'How do you send a text message without a picture?'. Snapchat is one of few apps that has a lot of hidden features for power users that are not explained anywhere. I am not saying that it is a good thing, but it makes people talk about it.

Post by squeaky-clean » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 9:52 PM UTC

bshimmin wrote: post #51

Is there a strong overlap between "people who don't know (or care) who DJ Khaled is" and "people who are unlikely ever to see any value in Snapchat"?

Post by kobayashi » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

justin wrote: post #46

jmduke wrote: post #25

I was about to make a snarky comment disagreeing with Justin -- as one of those folks who can't deal with Snapchat, I think it's a weird encapsulation of a lot of my complaints of newer social apps. The UX feels deliberately confusing and disorienting; it promotes a culture of manufactured intimacy; I have to deal with a bunch of software developers thinking they're hip by saying 'bless up' and flooding their social…

To address some of your points: I think celeb culture's existence on Snapchat and other platforms doesn't have much to do with what I wrote about how Snapchat works. You get feedback in the form of private snaps and messages, not public #s of comments and likes. So, it isn't a public competition. This is true for celebs and for myself and for every day users. But it still feels nice to get positive feedback (like som…

Post by winsome » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 9:56 PM UTC

squeaky-clean wrote: post #42

joenot443 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What decisions specifically are you talking about?

What I hate most are the ton of features which are supposed to be "discoverable." Or in other words, you have no idea they exist until someone else tells you about it (and how did they find out)? For example, aside from the traditional way of adding a friend, you can point your camera, in Snapchat, at someone else's phone displaying the profile screen, and it will automatically add them as a friend. Only one other pe…

Post by hammock » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 10:03 PM UTC

Bahamut wrote: post #34

jmduke wrote: post #25

I was about to make a snarky comment disagreeing with Justin -- as one of those folks who can't deal with Snapchat, I think it's a weird encapsulation of a lot of my complaints of newer social apps. The UX feels deliberately confusing and disorienting; it promotes a culture of manufactured intimacy; I have to deal with a bunch of software developers thinking they're hip by saying 'bless up' and flooding their social…

Wholeheartedly agree - I spent 2 weeks at a friend's place just a week ago, and my friend I was in became obsessed with recording videos purely for Snapchat every time. Instead of focusing on the moment with friends, she was more concerned with posting something on Snapchat for our circle to see. I don't want everything I do blasted on social media - I want to enjoy the moments I spend with friends. Snapchat is the o…