Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2nzaucx">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Qinwei Zhu 
Quora is always a great source of knowledge to me. I get the best answer of my questions from the best people in certain field. However, I found myself sometimes just scroll through all the answers and unable to focus on valuable answers to read them thoroughly. I feel bad because I think:
<blockquote>The knowledge deserves more attention than what I am currently giving.</blockquote>
At first, I blamed myself for not being patient enough. But as a designer, I allow myself to see it differently: Was Quora designed in the way that supports slow and deep reading? What is the pace of reading that Quora is designed for?
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2nu4ZdO">An Example of Quora’s Question Page
Why the pace matters?
The pace of applications refers to how fast users receive information during a task and to what extent could they digest the information. An example of designing tasks in different pace is the way Google Form and TypeForm are designed ( The example is given in the Cornell DPD 2017 class slides).
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2nz9PIl">Google Form vs. Typeform
In Google Form, people scan the form fast and give perfunctory answers. However, in Typeform, people are more willing to spend time and answer questions more carefully. The pace of answers is deliberately slowed down by letting users only focus on one question at a time.
<blockquote>Could Quora also slow down its pace for people who wants to focus and read carefully?</blockquote>
<h4>How other products approach its pace?</h4>
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2ntMMgi">Medium and Zhihu
I enjoy reading on Medium and Zhihu and I am able to pay attention to details while reading. I think there are some design decisions that enable them to achieve this:
<ol>
<li>Medium’s interface is super clean and it feels like I am reading a piece of white paper. Even some of the articles are very short, I have the mindset of reading an article and thus I slow down and read it carefully.</li>
<li>Zhihu uses card design for different answers and thus leave more white space than Quora between each answer. Also, Zhihu doesn’t have a fixed sidebar for related questions which makes the page cleaner.</li>
<li>Users on Medium and Zhihu are more willing to use images to express their idea for some reasons, which increases the readability of their writing.</li>
</ol>
To sum this up:
<blockquote>Clean and separated contents as long as the usage of image slows down the pace of reading and allows me to pay attention to more details.</blockquote>
<h4>An Interesting Existing Design Pattern in Quora</h4>
Happily, I find a way to slow down my reading in Quora while using an existing feature :
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2nz1F2L">A screenshot of Salman Abdulkarim’s answer for a question
This is the overlay that shows the most popular answer when I click on one question in a question list page. I found myself reading this page in the same way as reading a separate article. Also the transparent overlay background provides me a sense of where I am.
I think this design could be used not only for the preview of a question, but also for reading answers when users find something valuable and want to just focus on the content. Additionally, the Quora iOS app also has a similar overlay design. So applying this pattern to review answers under a question also won’t affect the consistency through the desktop and mobile experiences.
<blockquote>The overlay design pattern in Quora could be used on question page to support slow and deep reading while also keep the consistency with the mobile end.</blockquote>
<h4>A Quick Sketch for a Possible Solution</h4>
<img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2ntY30l">
<h4>Next Step</h4>
The idea has not been tested by any user but I am interested in bringing it to people as soon as I have time to develop it into a low-fi or mid-fi prototype. There are lot’s of assumptions and questions need to be put into the user testing, including:
<ol>
<li>Do people really read slower and deeper in overlay windows?</li>
<li>If use an extend button, will people be able to find it?</li>
<li>If use hover &amp; click, is it too much for users who want to stay in the current experience of reading?</li>
</ol>
You are very welcomed to share your comments/thoughts/feedback with me!?
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<a href="http://ift.tt/2ntRV7X">Redesign the Pace of Reading in Quora</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">Prototyping: From UX to Front End</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Redesign the Pace of Reading in Quora

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