Tuftian design for usernames display

Question

I'm working on a website with a major social networking component.

I want the short username display (1 icon (maybe 2) + a styled username) to indicate:

1. presence (active, idle, away, offline) - font weight
2. avatar (autogen or uploaded) - 16x16px prefixed icon
3. explicit relationship to current user (followee, follower, mutual friend, FOAF, none) - hue?
4. implicit relationship to current user (scalar based on level of interaction) - saturation?
5. predicted match (multiscalar based on AI) - replaces avatar icon?

More info and details will be in a tooltip. This core part will be displayed all over the place (think e.g. the styling of usernames in StackOverflow comments, not in post signatures), and therefore needs to be compact and elegant. It doesn't need to show these data perfectly - that's what the tooltip is for - but it should give at least a subtle indication.

"Explicit relationship" means Facebook/Twitter-type "friending". This is more a permissions thing than a real "relationship" one per se.

One security feature it gives is to help prevent someone from trying to fool you with a username that looks similar to one of your friends' - you'll notice that they are implicitly colored as unrelated to you. Explicit status also affects what actions are available in the tooltip (e.g. you can't friend a friend, or poke a non-friend).

"Implicit relationship" means e.g. the difference between the 2 people you talk to all the time, the 10 you have regular contact with, the 50 you listed as your "friend" but never talk to, and the 50 you don't (yet) list as your "friend" but have talked to.

"Predicted liking" is the output of a very complex backend AI, à la OKCupid's "match score"; its purpose is to gently nudge you towards talking to people you'll probably like more. In the zero-knowledge-about-you case, it reduces to a Slashdot-style "objective" karma rating. I may also want to display some semi-categorical hints, like whether the AI thinks you'll find this person 'funny' vs 'interesting'.

How can I indicate indicate the things above in a maximally graceful way?

Answer 1

It might not be a good idea to show so many things at once in the small amount of space you will probably allocate to the display of the username. I think, at best you can show 3-4 things at once without confusing the user. More than that, and the user will be confused as to what is what. The task of remembering will defeat all usability aspects.

Another way to show all the stuff would be using a popup-like thing, but even that is not a good idea for the amount of information that you want to show :( I think you will probably be better off if you can simplify the problem so that you end up with fewer variables.