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I am building a feature that gives my users the ability to "Appreciate" other users' images, posts and content. But I can not find a elegant method of displaying the two different types of Appreciations which is of course, Given Appreciations and Received Appreciations.

site screen shot

This is what the header of a user's profile looks like at the moment — notice the two different Appreciations. The top right version is Received Appreciations and the smaller bottom one is content they have appreciated.

This is what I have came up with so far but I still think it looks out of place and unclear - the labels are now explicitly Given Appreciations and Received Appreciations.

second screen shot (Please excuse the darker text on the smaller bottom one. That's its hover state.)

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  • Thank you for including images, i attempted too but was not able. – Trendee Apr 11 '12 at 21:00
  • Seems similar to the classic problem of Twitter following vs followers – Ben Brocka Apr 11 '12 at 21:06
  • @BenBrocka Now another issue arise's as i have followers and following on my website. Haha. Nevermind, this is the main one for me. Any ideas on how to tackle it? – Trendee Apr 11 '12 at 21:29
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Twitter has a similar problem with it's "Followers" vs "Following" stats. Note however that they have found two different but related words for the two concepts - the things vs the actions. Most English speaking users would read the word "following" in it's verb sense, and not the collective noun sense.

In your case you could try "Appreciateds" vs "Appreciations", but that just sounds clunky.

You might need to revisit the terminology you want to use, maybe use something different from "Appreciations".

Alternatively, perhaps revisit the need to show both stats. Twitter, for example, lets you "Favorite" tweets you see, but does not expose which of your tweets have been favorited.

And on the gripping hand maybe you don't need to explicitly call out the difference in the labels if the surrounding contexts (blurred in your images) lend sufficient exposition.

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  • I agree with what you said about trying to use a different term for the action. But is this the case of something users will eventually understand? Like twitters Followers/Following? – Trendee Apr 12 '12 at 11:42
  • I'm pretty sure "appreciateds" isn't even actually a word, which might provide extra resistance to long term adoption. – Erics Apr 12 '12 at 16:00
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    I think what you're looking for is the gerund form. So, use "appreciating" vs. "appreciated" (no need for plural). – Taj Moore Apr 12 '12 at 18:34
  • Do you think that those terms will be fine for my users? – Trendee Apr 12 '12 at 19:00
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If the important distinction is the actor (the person who did the appreciating), then a pronoun might help?:

  • "I appreciated"
  • "They appreciated"
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  • I think this might be a good option during launch. But it doesn't fit in with my one word navigations i have on user profiles. Do you think it is a stupid idea that when i get a fair user base i could subtly put it back with a FAQ doc regarding it? – Trendee Apr 13 '12 at 10:10
  • If the usage is obvious through action (e.g. if consistent location and context makes it clear), it matters less how you name the two ideas. Once you have a user base, it should be possible to test whether changing the word affects use. – Ronald Apr 13 '12 at 13:34

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