UX: Adding people to a group

Richard D. Bartlett Public Seen by 234

The most pressing UX problem we've discovered from our user testing over the past couple weeks is the process for adding people to your group.

To my mind, this is split into two parts:

the group settings for access/permissions/privacy are confusing and restrictive;
and, the invitation form is overly ambitious and under designed, so the end result is a confusing form that we've watched multiple users fail to navigate.

The devs are well underway on a much improved group settings form, which will be live in the next few days. This includes a change which will mean new groups will start with "Anyone can ask to join" enabled by default - one component of making groups easier to access.

Simplifying the invitation form

There are lots of jobs we want to do with this form. In order of priority:

(must have) user types email address, presses enter or clicks submit, invitation is sent
(must have) it's easy to bring in multiple people
(nice to have) it's easy to select people without knowing their email address, e.g. by providing a list of Loomio users that share a group with you, or by integrating with your email address book
(nice to have) add a custom message to explain why people should join the group

Right now, we're focussed on fixing the very pressing UX problem of the first 2 bullet points, and building up from there.

Update: I shared one design, got some feedback, and have now updated a second design here:

I had a look at how Slack handles invitations...

...then went through a few loops and got to this iteration of the invite people form:

...which lets you add a custom message:

And if you are inviting someone to a subgroup:

...you just click to add parent members:

Additionally, we're exploring the idea of adding a "team sharing link", which will work like Google Doc's "anyone with link" setting:

(That is a question we'll look at more deeply in the next week or two though.)

We're planning to build it and run a couple of user tests ASAP.

I'm keen to hear how you respond to these mockups before we build anything - does it look to you like an improvement on the current form?

Greg Cassel Wed 11 Nov 2015 7:36PM

P.S. truly love this work Rich :)

Robert Guthrie Wed 11 Nov 2015 8:12PM

@richarddbartlett yes we have had this come up a few times in the past. In situations of high trust it's a better experience but these cases where people are not happy about it can cause a lot of trouble.

I think this UX could solve the problem.. (imagine ..... )
You can instantly add members to subgroups, when they already belong to the organisation, but you must invite people who are new the the organisation (ie: parent group) even if they have a loomio account.

Greg Cassel Wed 11 Nov 2015 9:04PM

I actually don't think it's generally healthy for people to be added even to subgroups without an intentional click on their part. However it's easy for us to unintentionally end up addressing several distinct issues here.

I'd definitely love an option to make parent group members automatically eligible for subgroup membership, depending on the nature of the subgroup. Some subgroups are supposed to involve trust - based, team- based task management process-- where everyone is especially comfortable with everyone else --and some are supposed to involve specific areas of expertise and/or credentials. I would love to downplay the latter, but I do think it can have a place in otherwise inclusive communities. I would love for Loomio to be flexible enough to accommodate such use-cases.

I'd personally prefer a special option for subgroups only, which makes all parent group members eligible for membership upon a single click, which could be either by invitation or independent initiative.

Robert Guthrie Wed 11 Nov 2015 10:40PM

The idea of another setting, to me, it sounds like too many options, and very hard to explain.

I think it comes from a lack of clarity about the role of a subgroup, and the absence of another type of group relationship - the network.

If you're adding people to a subgroup and they're so unhappy that they're complaining.. then I reckon the subgroup must be inappropriate for the group.

Greg Cassel Wed 11 Nov 2015 11:28PM

Well I'm kind of extreme in my emphasis on intentional joining even at the subgroup or committee/task level. As long as subgroups have the option to require approval of their new members, I guess things will be fine.

Ultimately I think groups should be able to have various types of relationships, including but not emphasizing the typical uses of 'subgroup'. However, that's a longer term issue which requires its own focus. Sorry for muddying waters here!

Poll Created Fri 13 Nov 2015 9:02PM

Do You want to invite people by mail sent by Loomio? Closed Tue 17 Nov 2015 8:07PM

Therefore You must know their mail addresses and type them - one or more - into a form.

After this proposal:
1. Do You want to add people without having a choice for the invited?
2. Do You want to invite people by your own mail with a link and the description of what Loomio is for and the description of the group, even for private groups?