Do not show poll results to logged out users without user action

[matgb]

Title:
Do not show poll results to logged out users without user action

Area:
Polls

Summary:
If a user is not logged in, they should see the 'Fill Out Poll' display, with the 'submit' box marked unavailable, with a prompt to login in order to be able to vote.

Description:
Currently, if the reader of an entry is logged out, they see the results of a poll, without seeing the option to take part in any way. This leads to many users to assume they can't vote or the poll is closed; this is especially true of readers from other, non-LJ derived sites.

This is leading less off-site readers to take part in polls, and creates a bad usability experience and poor workflow, especially for users who have not logged in with OpenID before.

Instead of showing the current poll results to logged out users, they should see by default the fill out poll display, with a clickable option to see the results instead. In addition, a clear link to the login page, with a returnto keyed in, makes it much more likely an individual user will actually take part.

Ideally, of course, the logging in bit can be AJAXified alongside the other plans for polls.

I have mocked up a partial example of this using some CSS:
http://matgb.dreamwidth.org/376612.html the poll is from Miss_S_B's journal (this suggestion is at her request), and the returnto link takes you there. Unfortunately, a logged in user using style=mine will see the box intended for logged out users, but that's the best I can do without a change in the base code.

Thinking through for drawbacks of this, none spring to mind, logged out users, even DW account holders not knowing they're logged out, shouldn't see the results immediately before they've voted, logged in users don't, and it improves both interop and usability.

Poll #4089 Do not show poll results to logged out users without user action

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
15 (42.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
10 (28.6%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
7 (20.0%)

(I have no opinion)
3 (8.6%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[azurelunatic]

If implemented, I would make sure the prompt to log in is at the top, below the master metadata of the poll, because I have more than once had a frustrating experience with a poll where I put some serious thought into filling stuff out, only to find out at the end that something did not go the way I planned it to, and I had wasted the time I took to fill things out. (Sometimes I did come back and fill it out again; sometimes I didn't.)

(I didn't see the mockup, as it doesn't appear to be displaying quite right in my alternate, logged-out browser, Chrome.)