make discord more user friendly and less anxiety inducing
message is heavily based off a message sent to the Facebook page which i was advised to put here:
i'm going to be quite honest. i want to like and enjoy discord, i really do. but, i find the UI heavily anxiety inducing and difficult to use. on other platforms i have a list of messages with a name, a picture, message previews. i know who it is, i know what i'm jumping into, and everything is chronological so i have fairly good idea what happened when. on discord.... all i have is a list of pictures stuffed to the side... no idea what is on the other side if i open it up. someone could change their display name and picture and i could be lost as to who it is. on telegram and messenger there are at least ways to find the old profile picture which helps tell me who it is. then all the pictures are also in seemingly no order too! i'm so lost. i want to like discord, it's open source, some of my friends are ONLY on discord now, but.. i really, really can't get along with it. i feel like you should include a more traditional styled view for those who struggle, get anxious or both... it's not fun to literally lose friends because you just can't use an app effectively
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Hey there Lycia!
I understand that coming to new apps can be a pain and hard to learn and understand.
And.. yes, unfortunately as-far as social-media is concerned (especially to gamers) Discord is the GREATEST THING EVER. We often joke when someone even so much as mentions Skype as a formerly-used item.
Really the Discord UI is designed FOR the gaming community. If you're not a direct gamer than you don't understand 'Discord' as is... Unfortunately that being the case it also means they're not going to change Discord just because a very small handful of users do not understand it's UI or like it's inter-phases.Discord is not going to provide 'old profile pictures' because sometimes (as a gamer I know) we like to go incognito for awhile... We just "vanish" from our old-friends... We meet new people, we act completely different for awhile, new name, new profile-picture, new character... new person. That's just how people are with-in the gaming world.
I can not bring you comfort and tell you why we do this, or that we'll ever stop. I can not even give you a solid alternative to connect with your friends. For that, I am sorry... But Discord is designed for the gaming community and it fits us perfectly.
The UI (to gamers) is often viewed as perfectly set-up... It just takes a few minutes before you get the hang of it.
But for the 'no-name' thing...
Discord does provide names? I don't understand the issue with that.Click the home button. (top-left)
You can see all the servers you're in. (left-side)
They're in icon form by default but you can mouse-over them and the name of that server will appear.
Just to the right of that you see all of your recent direct-message conversations...
With images and their names provided to their right.
I've never 'lost' a friend because of Discord...
Also... You can add 'notes' to people by clicking on their profile.
Possible solution to your issues...
Simply add a note of who every person is and the information you need about them.- Right-Click their name.
- Click on 'Profile'
- Click 'click to add a note'
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Type your note.
EX: Prior Discord Name: Miku
Steam Name: Yami
Skype: !@#&*(@ - Press {ENTER} key.
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well, i tried it for a while and i thought it was great until i realised the pictures weren't in order? so i actually ended up never replying to people... for months, because i don't know their lil picture is down there. and after a while when i realised there's no message preview it just began to get kinda scary really when i fell out with someone over something and i had no idea what was behind that picture when i open it. the notes idea isn't bad... but it doesn't show when i hover, a nicknames thing like steam might not be bad. yeah i forgot name hovering is a thing because it has been so long, i'll make sure to edit the original message to be accurate. it might be focussed on gaming, but it sure has taken on as a general messenger too. some of my friends are exclusively on discord, but because i really do neglect my discord (about 85 unread threads i think it said) i pretty much lose them, a bit like that one friend i have who only messages on kik. i don't like kik because it literally clears old messages but it's all they use so i just... lost them.
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Hello again!
Any new DM(s)(Direct-Messages) show-up in your server-list with a separator between them and servers.
If you're looking for people who sent new messages all you have to do it look there.
Again, you have to remember that Discord is meant for gamers... We take a lot of Screenshots and Screen-share etc. Some screenshot applications do not allow you to edit on the fly. What you screenshot is what you screenshot. So you're screenshotting personal-conversations and personal information if there are 'chat-previews'.
If you're actually interested in keeping in touch with your friends (you said some of the only use Discord) than you can not exactly 'neglect' Discord and do that.
Also, pretty much everything in life comes with a learning curve... Even (especially) computer applications.
You really can't come here to a feedback forum with a bunch of people who LOVE Discord and how it's set-up (none of who feel the way you do) and expect us to just change it when you say things such as "neglecting discord" and show that you really have not put in a lot of effort to understand it as an application.
Though from what I've gathered at this point it seems you're using Discord as a mobile app (maybe). Try to use the computer application for a few days and actually get to know it. Go through the settings and personalize it a little bit. Add notes on all of your friends, leave the busy servers that you don't take-part in, stuff like that.
Just get to know Discord. It's a lot different from Skype and Kik... We have a great lil' community here.
But you can't come to a feedback forum and ask us to completely rewrite Discord because one person is having issues.
Regards,
ShaMe-3 -
well i tried discord on mobile and pc for months but i found discord to just generally be the app i was slowest on (i started using telegram and discord around the same time). the thing is once someone knows you have discord and use it everyone wants to be added on there. i meant more that it would be nice to see these as available UI options rather than a complete rewrite. i feel like perhaps i should try discord again but... i don't know if i can deal with a busy discord, which is probably what it would become again unfortunately if i started using it more like i used to. but then again back when i started not many people seemed to use discord, so perhaps it's better now? i'll have to see i guess. maybe now i'm switching between apps less it'll be better who knows
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Hello,
Try Discord again... Use these tips if you feel that it's "crammed"
- Use notes too keep track of people.
- Keep 'server count' to a minimum.
- Disable server notifications.The Discord UI has always been SOMEWHAT a relative of the Curse (LLC) UI.
The UI is something MOST gamers have used before and are completely comfortable with.
It's even slightly similar to Skype's set-up.
You're the only person I've seen that has these issues...
Also, why come leave feedback and tell us to change something if you admit to not even TRYING to learn how to use Discord recently?
I don't understand your frustrations nor your standpoint. A lot of the things that you say do not correspond with a normal situations that I deal with and I work with-in the customer service industry...
Regards,
ShaMe-2 -
well i gave it another try properly... yesterday or the day before? so i refreshed myself on the main issue really. no matter what i do, my unread messages pile up, while i do have my other issues with discord too, i think the biggest issue is the fact that the left pane where you have all the unread messages is in no particular order. it's not chronological, it's not alphabetical, it's not by number of messages.... it'd be fine if it was shuffled up but it's not, everyone still stays in the same order. so if someone keeps messaging me, but they're at the bottom and i don't notice the notifications... well, i may never realise they messaged me. that's the chronological issue i meant. yes the middle pane is chronological, but then the names aren't marked if they're unread, so that's not much help. i would never expect a whole ui to be rewrote, that wasn't what i meant. an option to choose how the left pane is sorted or if in the centre pane unread chats were shaded differently would solve the largest issue i have with discord that prevents me using it. i still wouldn't find it the most usable if i just wanna quickly reply to someone's message but it'd be just about usable
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The left panel isn't a list of unread messages, it's a list of servers you're in. These aren't direct conversations with you in particular, they're collections of chatrooms that many people can participate in. Most of the messages aren't messages intended for you in particular. This is why it was suggested to disable server notifications - if you do this, the red badge with a number of unread messages will *only* show up for messages that mention you by name. If there's a red badge with a number in it, check those first since they're intended for you. After that, you can read the rest of the unread messages at your leisure, since it's a chatroom and you aren't expected to read every single message sent in a chatroom. Most people only read the messages that show up while they're actually looking at a channel. The names in the middle panel *are* shaded differently for unread messages - ones with unread messages are a very bright gray, almost white, and there's a half-circle to the right of its name. Ones without unread messages are a much darker shade of gray. Here's an image example of how it looks when you've disabled server notifications:
The top channel has an unread message, so it's a brighter shade of grey. The second channel has an unread message that mentions me by name, so it's the same brighter shade of grey and has a badge indicating that there's 1 message that mentions me by name. The third channel has no unread messages, so it's a darker shade of grey. The same red badge will show up on the server icon in the left panel to indicate that I have an unread message, like this:
The top server has no unread messages. The bottom one has unread messages, indicated by the half-circle, and one message intended for me in particular that mentioned me by name, indicated by the red badge.
This makes it really easy to locate messages intended for you in particular, since there'll only be a big red square over the icon if someone has mentioned you by name in a message. If there isn't a big red square, the message isn't intended for you in particular - it's meant for whoever is actually looking at the channel right as the person who sent it was typing it. If you aren't in the channel as they send the message and you don't see the message, it isn't a big deal. You aren't the intended recipient, otherwise they would have mentioned you by name if you weren't already in the room chatting. After all, some people having a conversation in a different room in real life wouldn't expect you to know everything they've talked about while you weren't there. It's the same with Discord.
To turn off server notifications so that you only get notified when someone mentions you by name, right-click the icon in the left panel and click "Notification Settings". Select the "Only @mentions" option to only receive notifications when a message mentions you by name. You will need to do this for each server. This is how pretty much everyone uses Discord, so you will not make people upset by disabling notifications for messages that don't mention you by name.
Messages sent directly to you ("direct messages") will always be accessible from the very top icon in the left panel (above the server list, right below the Discord logo), and when you click that icon, it will sort the messages sent directly to you in chronological order in the middle panel.
By the way, you can sort your server list in the left panel however you want. Click and drag to place a server in whatever spot on the list you want. You can put them in alphabetical order, the order you use them the most, or whatever order you like. Note that you'll need to use the in-browser or desktop client to do this - the mobile client doesn't support reordering your server list at the moment. Channels are sorted in the order that the person running the server wants them to be sorted in. This is so that server administrators can order the channels and group them together based on a theme. Presumably, the most important channels will be at the top. Channels toward the bottom of the list are presumably less important and it isn't a big deal if you miss messages in them.
Please let me know if this was helpful or if there's anything I can explain better.
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hmmm yeah maybe the issue is better described with images.
so to start off with, here is the direct messages from the centre pane (why is the quality so bad! oh well):
the bottom one is unread and the top is read... but you would have no idea just looking at this. now, here is my left pane (with some numbers added for reference):
these are some unread messages from the left pane. i like the idea of being able to quickly jump to unread messages, it's why i had a phase where i was trying to get everyone to message me only on discord. the problem i have though is that the chronological order isn't 4321 like in this image... it's 1423... almost completely in reverse. if i replied to all my messages from them, and they all message me again... it will be in the same order. once i realised this i had a problem, discord was making me talk to the same people over and over, without realising i had messages from other people too. i can't reorder people, but even if i could, i don't want to, i just want to know who's unread, and how recent it is. the left pane shows the unread, but it doesn't seem to follow any sorting rule except for an arbitrary one, and the centre pane is ordered chronologically... however there's no indication who's unread. i hope that makes sense.
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WOW! ShaMe, how ridiculously unprofessional of you to respond to user feedback about the UI with, too bad, it must be your problem, LOL.
What is the point of taking user feedback if you have no intention of taking any action on it.
LOL what a joke.
The UI is far from friendly to anyone who isn't a developer or hardcore geek. You shouldn't take feedback if you have no concern at all for other demographics. You sound very cold and close minded.
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I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm not and have never been affiliated with Discord in any way. I have no control over what actions they take or what demographics they keep in mind when developing.
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This was posed as a comment directed at the user with the name ShaMe as stated in the beginning of the post. Its an old post in the Discord feedback forum, maybe that user name is no longer active or something. Not sure why Zendesk sent it to you. Theres no option for me to reply directly to a specific post. just add a comment at the end of the thread. Not sure why you thought it was directed at you.
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Looking at their post history, I'm pretty sure that person isn't a member of Discord staff either. They only have 11 comments, all of them come from around the same time of this post, and some of them directly imply that they aren't staff. Just like me, it looks like they aren't affiliated with Discord in any way, and have no control over what actions they take or what demographics they keep in mind when developing.
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It's horrible. People keep telling me to come on Discord, but every time I try for them nothing has changed. On any other platform if you just want to know what the newest PMs you received are... You can! I know the middle pane is meant to show that, but the lack of numbers means you can't be sure whether or not you've accidentally never got round to answering. If you accidentally open the message without realising? It'll now just show as read, and the other user won't know you've read (or rather, "read") it, so you might accidentally ghost them thinking they never responded. I know you can click/tap and hold to see a message preview, but you literally do not have to do that anywhere else, and it's a time wasting process. Of course I would never expect a whole rewrite, but it's terrible that after 2 years to the best of my knowledge they still aren't features. I'm going to slowly lose most of my friends because of a messaging app, and that really sucks.
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Sophie,
I totally agree. Discord is the most non-intuitive, frustrating website on the planet. And I have 40 years of experience with computers/software. It's what I do for a living. I wrote my own ecommerce website for my business. And I can't get to first base with Discocrd. Can't view posts, can't search posts, heck, I just spent 2 hours trying to figure out why I keep getting "Claim Account". The advice I got was to first log out. Should be easy, right? WRONG! How the heck do you log out?? You have to click on Settings. Really? Why the hell is Log Out under settings??????? This has been the most frustrating experience I've ever had with a website. And by the way, Sophie, I also couldn't figure out how to reply to your message where your entire name would appear at the top, so I just typed in "Sophie". You probably won't get notified because of this, but I guess that's par for the course on Discord.
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"Discord is intended for gamers".
Nail on head. No wonder I hate it here.0 -
Discord has by far the best and most intuitive features of any messaging platform.
However, the design of the user-interface is absolutely abysmal and unusable.
Additionally, despite having some of the most advanced features, it rather astonishingly still lacks many of the most basic and fundamental features that other platforms provide.2 -
ShaMe and Jerl are mostly spitting facts. Everyone else in this thread seems to be on really heavy copium and looking for issues where there are none.
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DIscord is anxiety inducing, yes. Very difficult to navigate. Not intuitive. Keep trying, but still hate it.
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