Block User
A person needs to be able to block another person on the platform because of harassment, disagreements, or other interactions that may be disrupting their experience on the platform.
How Does This Mitigate Hate?
Allowing users to block or restrict other people from seeing their content or from engaging in any kind of interaction can help protect themselves from bad actors or unwanted harassment.
When to use it?
Use this pattern to allow users to remove connections.
Use this pattern to manage unwanted relationships.
Use this pattern to allow users to remove someone from their feed even if they aren’t connected to them directly.
Use this pattern to allow users to remove unwanted viewers of their content and prevent those people from commenting, liking or otherwise engaging with their content.
How does it work?
Allow the option for users to block other users.
A blocked user should not be notified or allowed to know if they have been blocked / who they were blocked by.
A blocked user should not be able to search the blocker or see any content posted by them.
Provide an easy way to remove connections without embarrassing the user.
Provide a “Remove”, “Unfollow” or “Block” call to action button or link near the connection’s name or relationship status.
Provide the ability to block a person from any place in the interface.
Clearly indicate the consequences of each action including blocking, restricting, muting or removing a connection.
Examples
Instagram offers people the ability to block another account.
(Screenshots taken July 2021)
Instagram offers the ability to restrict another account as an option instead of fully blocking them.
(Screenshots taken July 2021).
Clubhouse allows you to block other users. More information could be shared about the consequences of blocking someone.
(Screenshots taken July 2021)
Facebook allows blocking and clearly shows what limitations are placed on the account being blocked.
(Screenshots taken July 2021)
References
Crumlish, Christian, and Erin Malone. Designing Social Interfaces : Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience. 2nd ed. Sebastopol, Ca: O’Reilly Media, Inc., August, 2015. Unfriending Pattern, pp. 458-461.
Vilk, Viktorya, Elodie Vialle, and Matt Bailey. “No Excuse for Abuse: What Social Media Companies Can Do Now to Combat Online Harassment and Empower Users.” Edited by Summer Lopez and Suzanne Nossel. PEN AMERICA. PEN America, March 31, 2021. https://pen.org/report/no-excuse-for-abuse/.