What do Customers want in a home page?

So, what app is your favorite to consumer content on?

I personally use a lot of TikTok and Twitter. I also watch a lot of Youtube.

Why does it matter?

Well, it matters in the context of this blog post becasue we are examining the ways users choose to consume content and some of the drawbacks to it.

This is an issue that Frontend UI & UX teams are primarily interested in.

Consider this workflow, I browse content on a "ForYou" type of recommendation page and engage with a video or post. I then say to myself "I would like to see more of this person/subject". So I follow them.

Do you know what happens next behind the screen?

The algorithm will then show me miore of this content but ONLY in the "Following" page. And will actually typically negatively affect the recommendation rate in the "For You" page.

Do you see the problem here?

Many users will engage like this and then will be frustrated they dont see more content. But the content is there but only in the "Following" page. This begs the question: Do you trust your algorithm enough to get rid of the Following page? Sure it may work properly but what is users want to "collect" content creators.

The new "Thread" app chooses to forego a "Following" page. They clearly trust their algorithm enough to do this. But is this the right move?

Personally for me there are two schools of thought here:

• The "Following" page is a good way to "collect" content creators and see their content in one place.
• The "For You" page is the only page you need. If you want to see more of a content creator, just engage with their content.

My urge to collect and catagorize creators overpowers my need to have all my content in the same place.

Perhaps reminding users that they have a "Following" page would be a good solution.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think this is an interesting conversation for developers to face, but with threads shaping up to be the next billion user app minus a "Following" page, I think we will see a lot of apps follow suit.

Schedule a time with me to talk about this further!