Favorites
From Social Patterns
Contents |
Problem
User wants to mark an item (person, place or thing) as a preferred object.
Slideshare groups the call to action for making a presentation a favorite with other tools. Favorites is indicated by the heart icon, which was first popularized by AOL.
Use When
- Use this pattern when you want to let a user create their own list of preferred items.
- Use instead of requiring a user to bookmark the page that the item is on.
Solution
- Allow users to create a list of favorite objects on your site.
The iconography and text label prior to marking the item a favorite on flickr.com
The icon for making an item a Fave is in close proximity to the photo on flickr.com. Once the user has made the item a favorite, the icon changes color indicating it is now a fave.
- Provide a “Favorite this” link closely associated to each object.
- When selected, consider allowing the user to add tags, their own description or other metadata that will help them recall the item later.
A Favorites collection on flickr. The photos are browsable as a collection and can be searched.
- Allow favorite items to be browsed and to be searched by keyword or tag.
- Collect favorited items together on their own page for easy access.
- Associate the collected favorited items with the user’s profile or identity.
- Consider allowing the user to share their collection of favorited items with their friends and connections.
- Don’t associate favorites wit People as that may lead to negative community behavior.
- Allow the object creator to see who has “favorited” one of their items.
Rationale
Allowing users to interact with the content on your site supports a sense of ownership by the community and encourages cross-user conversation and interaction. Favorites is a simple way to create cross-user interaction.
