I’ve mostly used iNaturalist Next to look at existing content (primarily notifications), because I take most of my nature photos with a DSLR. But every once in a while I take a photo intended for iNat with my iPhone, and sometimes I use iNat Next to upload them. When I do, my brain always gets stuck for a little while on the “Add an ID” page. Here’s an example from just now:
My first reaction to this screen every time is “How do I add an ID?”. It looks like a list of possibilities, one of which is already chosen. Since it’s already selected, it seems pointless to tap on it; that seems like it would just redundantly select the already-selected item. Or maybe unselect it? My brain is looking for something that looks like “tap this to confirm this choice”, and fails to find it. Then after a moment I remember “oh yeah, when I last did this three weeks ago I just tapped on the already-selected item to get through to the next screen”.
I worry that this will be many people’s first-use (or, like me, only-occasional-use) reaction to this screen. Using the light green background and the green-circled check mark is very similar to standard computer/phone UI of how a selected item in a list is highlighted. I do understand that the idea is to quickly lead people’s eyes to the most likely candidate, but I’m probably not the only person who will be confused by this.
I agree, I’ve had exactly the same reaction to this page each of the few times I’ve used iNat Next. I also look at this and wonder, how do I input my own ID if it isn’t on the list the CV gives me? It is not obvious.
I don’t know if this would work for others, but honestly, just eliminating the checkmark from the “selection circle” on the right side would help my perception of the menu. especially for the top suggestion, even just having an empty green circle would give less of an impression that the choice is already selected — maybe a lighter hue would be better too though?
I’m very glad you posted this. I mostly use the website to load photos and submit observations, but occasionally I try iNat Next with my iPhone, and I agree it is not intuitive how to add an ID. If the correct ID is suggested, I eventually figure out I can tap that choice to proceed. I like @sbrobeson’s suggestion to uncheck the list of options, to lead the user toward checking / choosing one. But I second the comment by @dlevitis about adding one’s own ID if none of the CV suggestions are correct. I still have not figured out (or have forgotten since the last time I tried the app) how to type in my own ID. Why isn’t there a blank box somewhere on this “ADD AN ID” screen that brings up a keyboard?
