I’m a fairly new user, and I would say that the way iNat works is pretty clear and obvious (iOS user). I find the desktop uploader a bit less smooth as a workflow, but I can imagine that seasoned users have got used to it. I don’t believe the app or the upload process needs to be changed in any way to prevent users from submitting different organisms into one observation. Maybe a banner to remind users with few uploads would do.
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Or, we started there and only later discovered the app. I find the desktop uploader a smoother workflow when I have several observations to upload at the same time, because it can do batch uploads. Which is what @pmeisenheimer and I were saying was the cause of some inadvertent multispecies observations: being used to the desktop workflow of batch uploads, and having to switch workflows for the one-observation-at-a-time functionality of the app.
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If you look at observations that include photos of multiple, unrelated organisms, they are almost invariably made by users who are completely new to iNat (recently joined, few or no previous observations, many of the photos in those observations may be of ornamental plants, zoo animals, or other unsuitable subjects, etc.).
They are not confused because the app is different from the website: they are confused about how iNat works. Period.
So while the app may cause some initial difficulties for seasoned website users, this subset of users already knows what an observation should look like and is likely to be able to figure out that they need to do something differently. I imagine a better app design would also help them adapt to the new workflow, but they are not the primary user group who needs to be addressed here. Novice users are.
I agree with those who have suggested that part of the issue may stem from users expecting iNat to work like photo-sharing websites and not realizing what an observation represents.
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I absolutely agree with you, that the multi-species observations get made by new observers who haven’t quite figured out iNat yet. I’ve posted a couple of multi-species observations myself, but they were because I selected too many photos when I was uploading them. Whoops!
I wish there was an easy way iNat could send automated emails to new observers. Just signed up for iNat? “Welcome to iNaturalist! We’re so happy you joined the millions of observers observing wild species around the world. To help you learn how to use iNaturalist, we’re going to send you a few emails now and then while you make your first observations, so stay tuned for those. In the meantime, you should look at our Help pages here, etc.”
After the first 5 observations: “Hey, congratulations on uploading your first observations! We hope you’re finding iNaturalist easy to use, but if not, here are some hints about how to avoid some common mistakes beginners make…” And go on, briefly, about wild vs. captive/cultivated, one species per observation, looking at your notifications, whatever.
After the first 100 observations: “One hundred observations! Congratulations, we can tell you are seriously into appreciating the biodiversity around you. Thank you for making contributions to scientific data! Now, we’d like to ask to give back a little and help newer iNaturalists by making identifications on their observations. Remember how nice it was to see the first notifications that someone else agreed with your IDs on your first observations? And how that encouraged you to make even more observations? Well, think about making IDs yourself. We know that’s a little scary, so here’s some help…”
And so on.
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I realise it’d be a huge endeavour that would probably be best as a third-party companion app (and thus almost certainly not reaching that new user demographic), but I’d absolutely love a Clippy-style assistant for iNat drawing on a wiki-style knowledge base with functions like reminding you of what features to photograph or telling you what species you might want to observe at your place and time of year (thinking of the iNat Bingo for example).
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This has also happened when RAM low in camera. Observation didn’t save and open new as expected, I didn’t notice.
Oh, no! I hated Clippy!
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