Discover articles

Discover articles

Article discovery is the work of finding something to read in the site's shared article collection, in the articles from people you follow, or under a particular tag. Your Feed is the following feed, Global Feed is the global feed, and a tag route supplies a tag-filtered list. Use the Home screen to choose a feed, review article summaries, and open an article when its subject interests you. The Home screen leads to the article page; an author's name leads to that author's profile.

Before you start

You choose between the available feeds from the Home screen. Sign in before using the personal feed. A tag-filtered feed starts from a tag route, while the global feed is the default Home view.

Prerequisites

• Know whether you need articles from the people you follow or from the whole collection.
• Sign in if you need Your Feed.
• Have the tag you want to use if you are opening a tag-filtered feed.

When you are signed out, the Home screen includes the conduit banner and the text “A place to share your knowledge.”

Find a feed

Use this procedure when you need to reach a following, global, or tag-filtered list of articles.

Prerequisites

• You are on the Home screen.
• You are signed in before selecting Your Feed.

Steps

1. Choose the list that matches what you want to read.

   If you need to…	Select
   Read articles from people you follow	Your Feed
   Read the complete article collection	Global Feed
   Read articles grouped under a tag	Open the tag route for the tag you want to review.

Result: The selected feed or tag-filtered article list is on screen.

Understand the discovery screen

The discovery screen is a feed view: feed choices are at the top, Popular Tags is in the sidebar, and article previews fill the main area. An article preview is a short version of an article; it contains the article title, description, author information, date, and tags. A page-number control appears when the results span more than one page.

The personal-feed message includes a link to Global Feed, which takes you to the global list.

Choose and filter results

Choose a feed when you want to change the collection being reviewed. Use a tag route when a specific subject is more useful than a broad feed.

Prerequisites

• You are on the Home screen.
• You are signed in if you are choosing Your Feed.

Steps

1. Select the route that matches your reading goal.

   Reading goal	Route or control
   Read from people you follow	Select Your Feed.
   Read the global collection	Select Global Feed.
   Read one subject's articles	Open the tag route for that subject.

2. Confirm that the selected feed is active at the top of the Home screen.

Result: The Home screen shows the articles for the selected following feed, global feed, or tag filter.

Work through the results

The results list uses page 1 when no positive page number is in the route. When the article count is greater than 10, the list creates page numbers from the total count; selecting another page changes the results page.

Prerequisites

• You have opened a feed or tag-filtered list.

Steps

1. Review the current article previews.

2. Choose what to do with the results.

   If…	Then
   More than one page is available	Select the page number you want to open.
   The loaded list has no articles	Read No articles are here... yet..
   Your Feed has no followed articles	Read Your feed is empty. Go to the Global Feed to discover articles..

Result: The selected results page is on screen, or the appropriate empty-list message tells you that there are no articles to review in that list. If the results do not reach this state, continue with When results do not load.

When results do not load

While articles are loading, the article area shows a loading placeholder. Article and tag request failures do not provide a user-facing error message in this flow.

Prerequisites

• You have opened a feed or tag-filtered list.

Steps

1. Check the article area until the loading placeholder is replaced by results or an empty-list message.

2. If the results do not reach their result state, use the applicable guidance.

   If…	Do this
   The article request does not reach a result state	Use General error messages for shared error guidance.
   The tag area does not populate after opening a tag route	Use General error messages for shared error guidance.

Result: The article area either reaches its result state or remains covered by the shared error guidance. Continue with Open an article when results are available.

Open an article

Use an article preview when its title or description tells you that the article is relevant; use the author's profile when you want author information.

Prerequisites

• You have an article preview on screen.

Steps

1. Choose the destination that matches what you want to do.

   If you want to…	Select or open
   Read the article	Read more... or the article title in the preview
   View the author	The author's name
   Continue to sign in from a favorite action	The favorite button beside the article metadata

Result: The article route or the author's profile is on screen. Continue with Read an article or View a profile.