Publish from draft view mode
What: Let us publish from the draft view page, without having to first go into edit mode.
Why: When opening a draft there’s no indication that you have to go into edit mode to publish, so it can be confusing to new users who don’t know how to publish their draft. Even for those who know what to do, given that clicking links on Medium right now is sort of slow and not always responsive to clicks, adding an extra click in the process is a non-trivial annoyance.
Why Not: Given Medium’s focus on simple, elegant, clean design we shouldn’t clutter the interface with unnecessary buttons. It’s also aesthetically nice to have three buttons each on the edit and view pages. Adding a Publish button to the draft view page may make users think that contributors would see it, too. You are changing the draft by publishing it, and that should be reflected by requiring the user to enter an edit mode to publish. Having redundant features can confuse the user as they may wonder if there’s a difference between the Publish button on the edit page and the one on the view page.
Why Anyway: Simplicity is nice, but not when it leads to confusion by forcing users to keep knowledge in their head (specifically, the knowledge of where the Publish button exists). Aesthetics are nice, but if you’re worried about the number of buttons, consider a rethinking of the basic interaction model - what if you had five or six functions you wanted to provide users on each page (Publish, Delete, Invite Collaborators, etc.)? Isn’t there a more elegant, concise way to interact with a draft besides a series of buttons? Given that there are differences between what the user sees in each mode (e.g. notes aren’t visible in edit mode) it seems like you want to give them the ability to take draft-wide action from either mode. A new mode of interaction with Publish (e.g. MS Office-style ribbon) would remove the confusion of seeing it in multiple places, as the consistency of the design of the container would communicate to users that the inner features were doing the same thing.
