I heard that votes have been changed to behave closer to how people would expect, and boost is staying here as well. So I had an idea how to bring it all together in the interface.
Sidenote: you don't have to click the links here, the images are also posted inline in the comments below.
An app (either Artemis or an official one) might use a swipe gesture to visually hint at the relation between upvoting and boosting, as shown in the attached animation. Here's a static app mockup with both swipe levels displayed. I'd also imagine that there should be a setting that auto-upvotes posts when boosting.
And on the web, it's probably a good idea to consolidate all the voting buttons into a single block by adding an additional button at the top.
Edit: I’m disappointed in you guys. How come no one noticed the memes? :)
Ah, it does move, my mistake. Should the image link then be removed from screen-reader output when it is no longer on the screen? Would I have to unboost a post to be able to expand the image preview again, and then reboost?
A setting to turn off animations would be lovely, I hope someone is able to build that in if they implement this.
The icon distinction for the third image with the three in a column is the one I think isn't quite distinct. I see a different version is diagonal though, which helps a lot. If i understand correctly. I am viewing from a small screen with sight problems though.
And I wasn't clear with my both like / boost question, I apologise. Is it still possible for me to boost a post without also liking it?
Edit: it would be good to check if Apple has patented this design interaction too, they love to patent everything and then sue.
Have you seen how it works on iPhones? You release the block at one of the positions, it upvotes/boosts the post and returns to normal. It’s not patented, it’s part of system interactions and is included in Apple’s human interface guidelines. Apollo used a similar thing, for example, but it’s used everywhere from notes to mail.
Boosting and upvoting are separate actions, and as I suggested in the post it’s probably a good idea to give users a setting to upvote on boost or simply boost the post. So it would be down to user preference, nothing forced. So if you were to turn/leave this option off, the boost action would only boost the post.