There is also the problem when sharing a Substack Note or Post, the URLs are inconsistent and have different link structures.
Depending on whether you’re sharing from the browser from the app or from the article link.
I find that when I share other people‘s articles via iMessage, the thumbnail is maintained when I try to share my own articles that thumbnail is replaced with a generic one.
On top of that, when you share via iMessage or another app, the thumbnail doesn’t appear, even though Substack generates separate thumbnails for these posts.
This makes you wonder: if they’re already creating thumbnails, why don’t they just include them in the share function?
I’m completely lost and frustrated to the point of giving up on this app. I have tons of short comedies that I wanted to post on SubStack as my “author newsletter” (because I have no interest in straightforward newsletters). And this experience has been all negative. I don’t know who I’m following. I don’t know how to connect with others. I don’t know how to find anything. I only found this article by complaining on a Google search about how confusing SubStack is. I click and re-click different parts of a post to attempt to interface with it and end up stuck on the picture or in a comment input box that I wasn’t trying to access. It’s been all bad. All. 100% Bad.
Thank you for writing this! I find their UI is completely unintuitive and will hold them back from expanding as a platform. For example, I was just on notes and could not figure out how to go to someone's home page! Then, when I couldn't do that, it showed the substacks that this person was following and it said click to see the rest of the list. But nothing happened! Frustrating!
Yes yes yes. As a business analyst who works with a customer facing UI team, I agree the navigation is confusing. Part of the problem for me is it’s not intuitive and having different functionality in the app vs the site (this is not uncommon though and can be overcome). I would much rather substack make the current experience better rather than add new features. They risk it becoming unwieldy when the reason so many like it is the ease of use.
I like what is on Substack but trying to Navigate it on the app is near impossible. For instance, I was watching video of Jim Acosta and tried to pause it to leave a comment, I got bounced to some other comment thread and became completely lost. The more I use it the worse everything gets. I guaranty you I am seeing this page now but may never be able to find it again. About to give up on it.
One defect you do not mention is associated with the Home screen. You get a set of images on the top, and there is a nice x in the top right corner of the image. I thought that the x would mean, 'remove this article, I don't want to see it, I'm not interested'. So I clicked on it, and the article went away, and I thought _great_ just what I wanted. And I do this for several years, and throw away thousands, maybe tens of thousands of things I had zero interest in.
Alas. The X there means *would you like to save this article to read later*. Right now I have
the slowest user experience on mobile because I have so many articles saved for later. And there is no way to get rid of them without reading them from the 'read saved articles' interface, one at a time. And they don't expire if you leave them unread for weeks, months, years. There is no way to say 'delete all my saved articles' or delete all from before a certain date. It's frustrating. If you get traction on improving the interface, please recommend that this gets changed. Thank you.
Just joined and I expected better given its popularity. It feels like a 90s throwback. I'm also also a UX designer - and its it's too much for me. Everything I click on brings me to a feed of "stuff".
The skill of many writers on Substack appears to lie in direct contrast to the platrom itself, and its organisation. It reminds me of year three of my German degree studying the works of Franz Kafka, and then dropping acid. How does this even work?
I thought it was just me. It is convoluted, confounding, confusing. I even took a Substack so called 'Masterclass' on their YouTube channel, didn't help much.
I just spent 20 minutes trying to understand how everyone on Substack seems to have both a personal profile and a separately named publication — and still couldn’t figure out the right setup. This is a perfect example of why user-first design matters and why observing your user getting stuck during real-time interactions is key. People have a very low tolerance for friction.
You are a hero Michael! This is the intro to Substack I needed.
I'm a fairly well-known writer on Medium (16K+ followers), but I've struggled to "get into" Substack because of it's appalling interface. I can never find my way back to where I was.
Substack has too many pages--and too many options when publishing ("add a header to your emails... and a banner... and a cover image". Not to mention all the buttons we can add and the billion-and-one options for subscriptions. Okay, I exaggerate, it's like 5, but it's still too much).
Do you have another guide for the ridiculous amounts of options?
This superfluous UX design seems a fundamental flaw and friction point for new writers and readers. Even working out the difference between posts, notes, comments, shares, restacks etc--with no real explanation from Substack--is a grind.
I'm a digital native, a successful blogger of 4 years, who writes on tech, and even I find it discombobulating!
Yes, I am glad you are promoting this, especially given your past experience and expertise.
Between their pricing model and issues such as this, it makes you wonder just what is the business model that said executives have in mind.
I gather some subset of Substack authors have a substantial following/subscription base (paid and/or unpaid? 10,000 or more?). While most of the rest have a much smaller following, especially if the topic is not political or is aimed at a particular hobby or defineable area, such as nuclear energy, etc.
The real question becomes how can the readers (being presumably more numerous than the writers and the paying customers) get the executive's attention?
Substack’s navigation is the main reason I spend so little time here, even though I subscribe to a few creators here. Thank you for posting this.
Thank you! I thought it was just my old ass brain that couldn’t make it make sense.
As a UX designer, I can say that navigation difficulties are never because of an “old ass brain.”
Technology needs to adapt to human needs.
There is also the problem when sharing a Substack Note or Post, the URLs are inconsistent and have different link structures.
Depending on whether you’re sharing from the browser from the app or from the article link.
I find that when I share other people‘s articles via iMessage, the thumbnail is maintained when I try to share my own articles that thumbnail is replaced with a generic one.
On top of that, when you share via iMessage or another app, the thumbnail doesn’t appear, even though Substack generates separate thumbnails for these posts.
This makes you wonder: if they’re already creating thumbnails, why don’t they just include them in the share function?
I’m completely lost and frustrated to the point of giving up on this app. I have tons of short comedies that I wanted to post on SubStack as my “author newsletter” (because I have no interest in straightforward newsletters). And this experience has been all negative. I don’t know who I’m following. I don’t know how to connect with others. I don’t know how to find anything. I only found this article by complaining on a Google search about how confusing SubStack is. I click and re-click different parts of a post to attempt to interface with it and end up stuck on the picture or in a comment input box that I wasn’t trying to access. It’s been all bad. All. 100% Bad.
Thank you for writing this! I find their UI is completely unintuitive and will hold them back from expanding as a platform. For example, I was just on notes and could not figure out how to go to someone's home page! Then, when I couldn't do that, it showed the substacks that this person was following and it said click to see the rest of the list. But nothing happened! Frustrating!
And you haven't even touched on the audio interface. Yikes.
I agree. The UI is primitive and chaotic.
I would not go that far. The UI has many good points.
My main problem is with the multiplicity of Home pages and an apparent inability to navigate between them.
Yes yes yes. As a business analyst who works with a customer facing UI team, I agree the navigation is confusing. Part of the problem for me is it’s not intuitive and having different functionality in the app vs the site (this is not uncommon though and can be overcome). I would much rather substack make the current experience better rather than add new features. They risk it becoming unwieldy when the reason so many like it is the ease of use.
I like what is on Substack but trying to Navigate it on the app is near impossible. For instance, I was watching video of Jim Acosta and tried to pause it to leave a comment, I got bounced to some other comment thread and became completely lost. The more I use it the worse everything gets. I guaranty you I am seeing this page now but may never be able to find it again. About to give up on it.
One defect you do not mention is associated with the Home screen. You get a set of images on the top, and there is a nice x in the top right corner of the image. I thought that the x would mean, 'remove this article, I don't want to see it, I'm not interested'. So I clicked on it, and the article went away, and I thought _great_ just what I wanted. And I do this for several years, and throw away thousands, maybe tens of thousands of things I had zero interest in.
Alas. The X there means *would you like to save this article to read later*. Right now I have
the slowest user experience on mobile because I have so many articles saved for later. And there is no way to get rid of them without reading them from the 'read saved articles' interface, one at a time. And they don't expire if you leave them unread for weeks, months, years. There is no way to say 'delete all my saved articles' or delete all from before a certain date. It's frustrating. If you get traction on improving the interface, please recommend that this gets changed. Thank you.
Ouch. Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. I have not use that functionality and based on your description, I will not do so any time soon!
Note: somebody seems to have fixed the speed problem here. Thank you whoever-it-was.
Just joined and I expected better given its popularity. It feels like a 90s throwback. I'm also also a UX designer - and its it's too much for me. Everything I click on brings me to a feed of "stuff".
The skill of many writers on Substack appears to lie in direct contrast to the platrom itself, and its organisation. It reminds me of year three of my German degree studying the works of Franz Kafka, and then dropping acid. How does this even work?
I thought it was just me. It is convoluted, confounding, confusing. I even took a Substack so called 'Masterclass' on their YouTube channel, didn't help much.
I just spent 20 minutes trying to understand how everyone on Substack seems to have both a personal profile and a separately named publication — and still couldn’t figure out the right setup. This is a perfect example of why user-first design matters and why observing your user getting stuck during real-time interactions is key. People have a very low tolerance for friction.
It is similar to authors writing multiple books or writing for multiple magazines.
Yeah, I get the idea and analogy behind it, but the UX is indeed so confusing it takes longer than it should to set up such structure.
You are a hero Michael! This is the intro to Substack I needed.
I'm a fairly well-known writer on Medium (16K+ followers), but I've struggled to "get into" Substack because of it's appalling interface. I can never find my way back to where I was.
Substack has too many pages--and too many options when publishing ("add a header to your emails... and a banner... and a cover image". Not to mention all the buttons we can add and the billion-and-one options for subscriptions. Okay, I exaggerate, it's like 5, but it's still too much).
Do you have another guide for the ridiculous amounts of options?
This superfluous UX design seems a fundamental flaw and friction point for new writers and readers. Even working out the difference between posts, notes, comments, shares, restacks etc--with no real explanation from Substack--is a grind.
I'm a digital native, a successful blogger of 4 years, who writes on tech, and even I find it discombobulating!
Thanks again for this guide!
Yes, I am glad you are promoting this, especially given your past experience and expertise.
Between their pricing model and issues such as this, it makes you wonder just what is the business model that said executives have in mind.
I gather some subset of Substack authors have a substantial following/subscription base (paid and/or unpaid? 10,000 or more?). While most of the rest have a much smaller following, especially if the topic is not political or is aimed at a particular hobby or defineable area, such as nuclear energy, etc.
The real question becomes how can the readers (being presumably more numerous than the writers and the paying customers) get the executive's attention?