As part of a new site design I've put in the functionality to track and count unique page views. This is predominately used to create a list of popular articles and blog posts.
Is there a negative or positive side effect of showing how many views a page has? My current thinking is that if a page has lots of views, the user would feel the content is more trustworthy (because people trust the majority). However, if the number is low, will this have the opposite effect of making people distrust the site?
Other than the problem of trust, is showing this information getting in the way of a better experience? Are we just throwing too much information at them?
Answer
Whenever you show people some new information, you have to think about what you are trying to achieve and what that user will do with the information. Only show them if they are relevant to an action that a user may take, or if you have some evidence that it will positively affect user behaviour more than it will distract.
In the case of page views, there are very few reasons to show them. The only ones that I can think of off hand apply to discussions as it tells you how many people have seen a question or conversation - which may affect your behaviour. For example, if you were to ask a question with 1k views but no answers, it may indicate that you need do improve your question.
In the particular case of StackExchange, badges are awarded for large numbers of views, and so that makes views relevant. You may also notice that it is only in the question listing that the views are clearly shown. When looking at the question, they are far less noticeable.
I do not see any good reason for you to include page views for anyone other than admins or moderators (if you have them). It will create an additional design element to handle and distract users from what you really want them to be doing.
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