Presentation of public and private instances

Question

In my application there exist publicly available and browsable objects. However, users are also able to register, authenticate and then author and manage their own personal instances of these same object types.

In cleaning up some of the back-end persistence store and trying to optimize routes, I realized I needed some help.

Would it make sense to combine the browsing of these public and private objects onto a single page?

Option 1 - Separation

Unauthenticated users visit the application and navigate to '/browse' where they can search and filter all publicly available instances.

Authenticated users log in and are also able to navigate to '/manage' where they are presented with only the objects which they own. They then perform advanced operations as owners etc...

Option 2 - Combination

Unauthenticated users visit the application and navigate to '/explore' where they can search and filter all publicly available instances.

Authenticated users log in and navigate to '/explore' where they see their personal instances in addition to publicly available instances. Their personal instances are highlighted in such a way to differentiate them from public instances. There is presumably a toggle on screen effectively doing a "Show only private instances" function.

I'm not sure exactly if there is a clear winner in my situation and am looking for guidance/examples where something like this may have been done. A combined presentation makes for a single route ('/explore') which cleans things up, but I'm concerned about users having to hunt for one of their private instances among the masses.

Answer 1

but I'm concerned about users having to hunt for one of their private instances among the masses.

This is the crux, and the solution is effective filtering

Live filtering, allowing the user to filter or search by name or other distinct and known attribute, cuts through the public/private issue.

Toggling between views, using a link or button, is a simple way to instantly segregate a specific category of items in a mixed page.

In combination, these filters would afford a usable experience.

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

Answer 2

From your text it seems as if the user logs in to modify their public/private images, whereas every user can view public images.

From this I would suggest keeping them separate. First having public and private images together for the logged in user will be confusing, whereas having two separate pages for private (images only the user can see) and public (images everyone can see, including those the user has made public), will create a sense of security. Also associated tasks will be faster.