WeFollow for Twitter fails at usability

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 09:52

Today I read a tweet that someone had joined WeFollow. Looked interesting so I checked it out.

What WeFollow does is reasonably self explanatory - according to the page title it's a 'A User Powered Twitter Directory'.

But I'm a bit slow and a bit suspicious so I like to find out more about a service before I sign up for it. But I couldn't find any page or section that described what WeFollow does.

The Terms and Conditions state under the section 'Description of Service' that " Subject to full compliance with the Terms of Use, WeFollow may offer to provide certain services and content, as described more fully on the Site, ("Services"). Ok - so where are they described "more fully'?.

Perhaps someone will find it and tell me where it is, but the point is that it should be easy to find the description of a service.

What was of even more concern was that if you click on 'Add Yourself to WeFollow' Twitter asks for permission to access and update your data and a friendly reminder to "ensure you trust this website with your information before proceeding". I question anyones ability to do that without knowing exactly what the site does and doesn't do - as stated by the provider.

WeFollow was developed by Kevin Rose who was involved in starting up Digg. I only know this from reading an article on CNET - which I searched for to find out what WeFollow was and how it worked. Helpfully, the article also told me what you have to do to add yourself.

WeFollow will probably be picked up by a lot of Twitter users, particularly those that have been around for a while. But if Twitter goes main-stream (assuming it will) application developers will have to do better if they want to attract late or cautious adopters. Or they risk being overtaken by those that do the basics better.

These kinds of omissions aren't uncommon, so in fairness WeFollow aren't alone. In fact many web sites fail to provide a clear description of who they are and what they do. So, we'd recommend the following for all web sites and services:

• Have a clear description of your service including what it does, what information the user will need to provide and how they sign up.
• Make it easy to access this information via a link from the main page
• Have a description of the business and the people behind a service as this helps to build trust - especially if you are counting on utilising a particular individuals reputation (assuming it's a positive one).
• If it's an application, have a link back to your website for help with the application if they need it.
• Remember if it's an application, users may not expect web conventions to apply - such as the logo linked to the website, so make it obvious.