# Personalizing your workspace Your workspace has three related surfaces: **Your Settings** is where you maintain your account details, Profile is where you view a person's information and articles, and **Favorited Articles** is the profile view for articles that person has favorited. | If you need to… | Go to | |---|---| | Change your account details | [Update your settings](#update-your-settings) | | View a person's profile and articles | [View your profile and favorited articles](#view-your-profile-and-favorited-articles) or [View a profile](doc:view-a-profile) | | View favorited articles | [View your profile and favorited articles](#view-your-profile-and-favorited-articles) or [View favorited articles](doc:view-favorited-articles) | | Follow or unfollow another person | [Follow an author](doc:follow-an-author) | **Result:** You can choose the surface that matches the account or article task you want to complete. ## Before you start **Prerequisites** - Sign in before opening **Your Settings**; the surface requires authentication. - Have the values ready for the fields in the following table. | Field | What to have ready | |---|---| | **URL of profile picture** | The picture URL you want to use | | **Your username** | The username you want displayed | | **Short bio about you** | The short description you want displayed | | **Email** | The email address for the account | | **Password** | A new password only when you want to change it | **Result:** You have signed in and have the account values needed for the Settings fields. ## Find your settings and profile 1. Open the surface that matches your task. | If you need to… | Open or select… | |---|---| | Change account details | **Your Settings** | | View a person's profile | The profile for that username | | View that person's favorited articles | **Favorited Articles** | **Result:** You are on the Settings surface, a profile, or that profile's **Favorited Articles** view. ## Understand the surfaces The Settings surface contains five account fields, an update action, and a logout action. A profile contains the person's picture, username, biography, article tabs, and a profile action whose label depends on whose profile you opened. | Surface | What you can use | |---|---| | Settings | **URL of profile picture**, **Your username**, **Short bio about you**, **Email**, **Password**, and **Update Settings** | | Profile | **Edit Profile Settings** for your own profile | | Profile | The follow or unfollow action for another profile | | Article lists | **My Articles** and **Favorited Articles** | | Settings | **Or click here to logout.** | When a profile is loading, it displays `Loading profile...`. When loading ends in an error, it displays `This profile could not be loaded. Please try again later.`. When you select **Favorited Articles**, the article list uses that username as its favorites filter. On the profile's article view, the article list uses that username as its author filter. **Result:** You can identify the fields, tabs, messages, and profile action available on the surface you opened. ## Update your settings Change the account details shown on your profile from **Your Settings**. **Prerequisites** - You are signed in. - You know which account values you want to change. **Steps** 1. Open **Your Settings**. 2. Review or change the fields in the form. | If you need to change… | Enter the value in… | |---|---| | Your profile picture | **URL of profile picture** | | Your displayed name | **Your username** | | Your biography | **Short bio about you** | | Your account email | **Email** | | Your password | **Password** | 3. Select **Update Settings**. 4. Review the profile page. **Result:** A successful update clears the current validation list and opens the profile for the username you submitted. If the service returns validation errors, the Settings surface displays the returned field and message values in a validation list. ## View your profile and favorited articles Use the profile to view a person's identity details and article lists. **My Articles** lists articles associated with the profile's username; **Favorited Articles** lists articles that username has favorited. **Prerequisites** - You have a profile username to open. **Steps** 1. Open the profile for the username you want to view. 2. Check the profile username and biography to confirm that you opened the intended profile. 3. Select the tab that matches what you want to view. | If you want to view… | Select… | |---|---| | Articles associated with the profile | **My Articles** | | Articles favorited by the profile | **Favorited Articles** | **Result:** The selected tab is active, and the article list shows the corresponding author or favorites view. The list is configured for five articles per page. ## Handle profile branches and errors The profile surface chooses what you can do from the profile state and whose profile you opened. | What you encounter | What appears | |---|---| | The profile request is still in progress | `Loading profile...` | | The profile request ends unsuccessfully | `This profile could not be loaded. Please try again later.` | | The profile belongs to you | **Edit Profile Settings** | | The profile belongs to someone else and you follow that person | The unfollow action | | The profile belongs to someone else and you do not follow that person | The follow action | | You open the favorites route | The article list is filtered by the profile username's favorites | | You open the profile route | The article list is filtered by the profile username as author | Selecting the follow or unfollow action updates the profile when the operation succeeds. If either operation fails, the profile remains unchanged. **Result:** You can distinguish the profile state and choose the available profile action without treating an unavailable branch as another control. ## When it goes wrong Use the message on screen to identify the branch you are in, then take the matching action. | What you see | What it means | What to do | |---|---|---| | `Loading profile...` | The profile content has not loaded yet. | Wait for the profile request to finish. | | `This profile could not be loaded. Please try again later.` | The profile could not be loaded. | Try opening the profile again later. | | A validation list after selecting **Update Settings** | The service returned account-validation errors. | Read the listed field and message, correct the corresponding value, and select **Update Settings** again. | **Result:** You know which profile message or validation response to act on. ## Know what to do next After a successful Settings update, the profile for the submitted username opens. From there, use **My Articles** for that profile's articles or **Favorited Articles** for its favorited articles. For detailed follow-on tasks, continue to [Update your settings](doc:update-your-settings), [View a profile](doc:view-a-profile), [Follow an author](doc:follow-an-author), or [View favorited articles](doc:view-favorited-articles).