100WattWalrus

joined 2 weeks ago
sorted by: new top controversial old
FYI, Voyager sign-up page needs different coloring in c/voyagerapp@lemmy.world
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 14 hours ago

Screenshot, as requested. v.2.29.0. The answer field is a little more distinct here than when I last looked at it — at night, with my blue-screen filter on. But I think it's still fairly clear that the text box and the background are too similar in color.

Uploaded to Imgur because the [upload image] button here doesn't work. I select an image, I see the progress spinner gif, then...nothing.

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
4
Feedback on pangora.social/join (lemm.ee)
 

I started a discussion in the Fedibridge community about lowering the barriers to onboarding average users. In part of the discussion, someone pointed me to pangora.social/join as an example of a good onboarding page. I mentioned some shortcomings, and they suggested I post them here. So here I am. Slightly edited copy-paste follows. Just food for thought from someone who consults on UI/UX clarity:

(pangora.social/join) is not bad. But the graphics are immediately distracting, and if you don’t understand what they’re meant to symbolize, they’re just annoying. I still think a just a handful of general instances is a better idea because most people don’t think of social media a place they go for one or two interests, but a place they go for everything including those interests. Having said that, it’s a good flow…until you drill down far enough for it to become a cul-de-sac problem:

  • Entertainment — OK, sounds good
  • Movies & TV — so far so good
  • Star Trek (and nothing else) — well, no, so…now what? I guess this isn’t for me

Yes, you can go back to the previous screen, but now you know there’s nothing here specific to your interests, so if you do stick around, you’re have to just cast about for something to latch on to that's non-specific to your interests.

This is why it would be better to just have a couple general instances, get people onboard, then have them start exploring.

(That last bit referred to a previous part of the conversation in which I was arguing for the common promotion of a very few instances where the sign-up flow is simple enough to not confuse the uninitiated.)

Do with this what you will. :)

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Done. BTW, still don't understand the reason for/necessity of the "!"

18
FYI, Voyager sign-up page needs different coloring (lemm.ee)
 

Just a friendly UI/UX note for Voyager team: On my phone, the “Application answer” box — that sign-up page says must be filled out — is literally invisible because the box is black, and the background is…basically black. I had to tap, and tap, and tap, and tap around before I got a cursor where I could type my answer.

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

I do mention instances — couched in familiar context clues that help to both define and plant the seed that it's Lemmy lingo. And as I said, this was off the top of my head. It's a starting point. :)

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago

Decent point about r/nba — although that at least looks like part of a URL, which is more of a clue than, say, nba@lemmy.dbzer0.com, which looks like it's going to send an email to some seemingly random domain that is not related to the URL currently in my address bar.

I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm saying its an unnecessarily steep learning curve. :)

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

BTW, if anyone here has any connection with Voyager, let them know that their sign-up/application page needs different coloring. On my phone, the "Application answer" box — that the page says must be filled out — is literally invisible because the box is black, and the background is...basically black. I had to tap, and tap, and tap, and tap around before I got a cursor.

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

OK, so here's the thing: I follow this link...

https://lemm.ee/post/33870928 ...and I see that it's from 10 months ago, and I see above you say "they're still there, keeping the community active" — which is nice to hear... But looking at that page, I don't have the slightest idea how to get from that post to the rest of that community. Apparently, I click "thebirdspapaya_snark@lemmy.ca" at the top of the sidebar — but that's not readily apparent. There's no name for the community that I can see — only what looks like an email addy, which is meaningless to me as a casual visitor. And while you say the community is "active," when I do click that link, I see only 4 posts in the last month. Those posts do seem to have pretty good engagement, and lots of activity today, so I guess weekly threads are just how they roll.

But it doesn't, on the surface, look like a place where there's engaging new content on the regular. And the fact that the community name looks like an email address is just confusing — especially since both the community's header and subhead are exactly the same address.

I can see how to you this might look like thriving example of average users on Lemmy. But what I see is everything that makes Lemmy confusing and off-putting.

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There needs to be some kind of group effort — some kind of committee or something. Create couple general instances "co-owned" by 50 admins from 50 instances — something like that.

How the handful of "introductory" instances are created, chosen, and maintained is definitely an issue that needs to be worked out. But they could be instances that are deliberately as general-interest as possible, but feature content (possible in different colors?) from other instances. New users get their bearings, get a taste for what's out there, and slowly wander away from the "museum lobby" to start exploring different "galleries."

Ooo. I feel a metaphor coming on! going to do some brainstorming here:

  • Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, et al are like a huge Walmart — you can find a little of everything there, but the experience is uninspiring and uniform, and the people running it are all about the profit, not about quality or a good experience, or customer care, and a single point of entry and exit
  • The Fediverse is like a big farmer's market — a lot of independent merchants coming together with their different booths, and food trucks, and stages, and all kinds of different merchandise and services. You can come into the farmer's market from a bunch of different directions, and wander around or make a beeline for your favorite booths and hang out there all day.

Of course, that's somewhat undercuts my suggestion of having a general-interest instance, but maybe it's a farmer's market with a main entrance or something...

/work in progress

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

That's not bad. The graphics are immediately distracting, and if you don't understand what they're meant to symbolize, they're just annoying. I still think a just a handful of general instances is a better idea because most people don't think of social media a place they go for one or two interests, but a place they go for everything including those interests. Having said that, it's a good flow...until you drill down far enough for it to become a cul-de-sac problem:

  • Entertainment — OK, sounds good
  • Movies & TV — so far so good
  • Star Trek (and nothing else) — well, no, so...now what? I guess this isn't for me

Yes, you can go back to the previous screen, but now you know there's nothing here specific to your interests, so if you do stick around, you're stuck just casting about for something to latch on to.

This is why it would be better to just have a couple general instances, get people onboard, then have them start exploring.

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Federation can be explained at the 10,000-foot level by just saying something like, "You know how Reddit subs are moderated by volunteer from the community, and Wikipedia is edited by volunteers? Lemmy has volunteers all the way down. It's coded by volunteers, it's hosted by hundreds of volunteers, and all those independent instances connect together to make a whole that serves the same purpose as a Reddit or Facebook." That's just off the top of my head. I was toying with a a simile about cruise ships vs. a flotilla of fishing boats, but that one got a way from me. I'll come up with better descriptions later. It's something I'm fairly good at.

My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup in c/fedibridge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
[–] 100WattWalrus@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Very much agree with this. Multiple onboarding instances that all work basically the same way, routing new users to them based on geography and language to start, and maybe when the sign-up in complete, the first post they see is an automated very basic primer that includes something about that Lemmy isn't owned by anyone, let alone by a giant corporation that wants to collect and sell their identity.

32
My first round of thoughts on lowering the barriers for signup (lemm.ee)
 

I was invited to comment here by u/BlazeAlt on Reddit last week regarding ways to lower the barriers to joining the Fediverse for average users — so here I go.

I'm sure a lot of this has been discussed ad nauseam, but I do have some specific starting suggestions at the end.

With corporate, single-instance social media, there's one place you go sign up, and you're in. You can find things that interest you with a simple search, and you can find people you know either by their names (Facebook) or by a very simple handle ([at]nickname). And if you're trying to build up an online identity — say, for your new podcast — if you're handle is unique enough you can end each episode with "and you can find us at MyNewPodcast on all the socials!"

Federated social media requires you to choose an instance before you can even sign up. But...

[average user voice]

  • What the hell's an "instance"?
  • How do I choose one?
  • Why do I have to choose one?
  • What do their names mean?
  • What does the instance I choose say about me? -Does choosing one over another have any effect on the experience I will have?
  • How does someone on another instance find me?
  • How do I find someone on another instance?
  • How do I find topics on another instance? -Does my choice of instance affect my access to those topics?
  • Are the rules different on each instance?
  • Who sets the rules?
  • Where do I find them?
  • What if I want to change instances?
  • Will anyone be able to find me?
  • How will they know I'm still me?

[/end average user voice]

Federated social media also requires weirdly complicated handles. [average user voice]

  • Why are there two @ signs?
  • What does it mean if there's a "!" instead of a "@" at the beginning?
  • What the hell are all these weird domain names?
  • Why can't I be just [at]TheSameHandleIUsedOnTwitter?
  • If I'm trying to create an online identity, what's to stop someone from using [at]MyHandle[at]SomeOtherInstance.url and posing as me?
  • What's the Lemmy equivalent of a blue check?
  • If there isn't one, how can anyone be sure someone on Lemmy saying they're me really is me? -I mean, other than starting my own instance with recognizable name — but then I have to learn how to host my own instance.

[/end average user voice]

To be clear: I'm not literally asking these questions. I'm just illustrating some of the hurdles to adoption I described above, and some of the ways in which federated social media is exponentially more complicated than corporate social media.

As for solutions, I don't have an all-encompassing proposal at the moment. But a good place to start would be to agree upon a single default instance for new users to sign up, so that instead of being faced with "first choose an instance," it would be...

Welcome to Lemmy.URL, where you can join Lemmy communities for any topic, all over the world! What do you want your username to be?

  • [____________]

OK, do you want your username to use a common lemmy "instance," like...

  • [ ] ____________ [at] lemmy.URL
  • [ ] ____________ [at] lemm.ee
  • [ ] ____________ [at] etc.

OR would you like more custom username connected to a particular Lemmy community, like...

  • [ ] ____________ [at] sci-fi-fans.url
  • [ ] ____________[at] knittingnuts.url
  • [find Lemmy instances where your username is available]
  • [I know which Lemmy instance I want to join first]

Choosing a community-based username doesn't affect how you use Lemmy — no matter what community you chose, you'll have access to all the same content, communities, users, and feeds.

The [find Lemmy instances] button would lead to a page where you check off various areas of interest to then get a curated subset of relevant instances with a reasonable amount of information about them to help new users select one.

The [I know which instance] button would have you fill in the name of the instance, check if your username is available, then take you to that sign-up page.

So...something akin to join-lemmy.org, but with a flow closers to what I've described above, with very few, easy, "common" default choices, and a little more help through the process of choosing a specialized instance (if you want one).

This onboarding suggestion doesn't solve most of the problems/questions in my bullet lists (ideas still forming), but it would help prevent what happened to me the first few times I looked into Lemmy, which was that as soon as I saw I had to choose an instance before I did anything else — with pretty much zero information on what that meant or how it would affect my use of Lemmy — I said, "I don't have the time for this."

BTW, as I write this, my first Lemmy post, I will also add that the comment fields need to be WYSIWYG for if Lemmy ever hopes to be populated by refugees from Reddit, etc. Creating the quote section above was a huge pain in the ass, that required multiple rounds of [Preview] [Edit] [Preview] [Edit] [Preview] [Edit] [Preview] [Edit].

Food for thought. Cheers.

view more: next ›