bonnie 🧞‍♀️

Portrait of a Young Woman, Jean-Etienne Liotard 

We’re making some changes to the activity view on web — starting with unread notifications that will be highlighted blue, as well as multi-colored labels to identify those who you’re closest with.

Why are we doing this?

You may have previously noticed that some activity items were highlighted, and some weren’t. What you may not know is why this was, and you’re not alone.

The previous, light blue highlighting indicated items that were from people you follow. Obvious, right? Well, no, not really. There are design patterns in interfaces that have become standardized from widespread usage to mean a certain thing. Highlighting notifications light blue is one of those that have come to mean “unseen” or “unread.” Which is what it will now mean here, too.

How do I know which are from people I follow?

Good news! We now have colorful labels to identify activity from people you follow. On top of that, we’ve created a new label called “Mutuals” to show people you follow and who follow you back so that you can keep track of those closest to you.

Before and after

Before: Blue highlighting used to signify activity from people you follow.

After: New highlight color now used on unread activity

After: Colorful new labels to distinguish activity from people you follow (following) and who follow you back (mutuals).

More to come

This is the first of several improvements we are making to activity and notifications—so stay tuned for further updates as they come!

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