I've been using Steem for several months and I can say that is a great platform with bright future. However, I noticed certain shortcomings and limitations in the interface which prevent it from being an even better.
HOME PAGE. I recognized Steemit home page as a major drawback. More precisely, a large amount of non-filtered information coming from the users we follow. The average Steem user follows few hundreds other users therefore, its home page can be overloaded with their posts. It takes a lot of time and attention to find the content that we need at a certain moment. This problem also exists on Facebook, Twitter and other social network platforms. Therefore, Steem has a post categorization mechanism which can help solve this problem.
E.G. I'm publishing posts in a lot of different categories from "bitcoin", "altcoin", "crypto", "trading" across "banking" to "music" and "film". If some of my follower follows me because of my "altcoin" category posts he will also received all my posts from all other categories.
Sometimes it can be useful for them, but in most cases this will be unwanted information. If we could control and filter certain categories on home page we will reduce unwanted information and more easily examine the content from that we are interested.
Therefore, in addition to the existing "Follow all categories / mute" approach I suggest user controlled category filter. 50 shades of gray between white and black!
I also miss the opportunity for my internal categorization of users (normal, important, very important). One or more internal categories should also be part of the filter. A lot of time would be saved in this way.
EXPLORE. From my point of view the biggest problem at the moment is that in this way we can access only the most popular categories. I think we need a category search engine and ability to explore through previously selected categories regardless of whether they are popular or not. There are many similar categories because they are interpreted by everyone in their own way (E.G. crypto, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrencies, altcoins ...). It would be useful to have the possibility that each user has his own internal categories. In this way, the user could link one of his internal categories with several "public" categories.
MY STEEM - local database and public blockchain. All functionalities I've mentioned before does not fit best in public blockchain approach. Internal categorizations, personal filters and settings should not be present on public blockchain. From my point of view such kind of information should be stored in local database on personal computer. Such a "MY STEEM" local database should be closely connected and related to Steem blockchain.
API Improvements and Steem browser. There are lot of useful applications in Steemit app. center like Asksteem of Steemstats. From my point of view It is good that there are many useful functionalities but the problem is that they are separated in different applications. Consolidation is needed in a unique user interface. We need Steem API improvements which will enable the creation of interoperable functionalities, some kinds of smart user interface elements. I would like to see special STEEM BROWSER which would have incorporated the most important Steem user interface elements and the ability to upgrade with other smart user interface elements of our choice.
