Suggestion: What Next? sign

[Snoots Dwagon]

As part of the ongoing "suggestions to improve use of Kitely", there's one I can think of that would be really useful:

A large, visible "What do I do Next?" sign. This would contain a notecard and an IM on how to read it (for newbies). The notecard would tell new people about the Market Display, "How to improve your avatar appearance", the Prime Attractions teleport area, Kitely Market, point to the EVENTS sign (which sigh... I only noticed for the first time yesterday, although I've been here for months), and other prominent things of interest on Kitely. The notecard would be short, friendly, informative... easy to read and understand and quick-to-the-point.

The purpose of course, would be to get new members started so they don't stand at Welcome trying to figure things out. Why? Because we're somewhat past the day of hoping to attract experienced user from some other huge grid... and need to cater more to those who are experiencing a virtual world for the first time. They may come here because their friends told them about it, or they read about it on the Net, or learned about it on their own and are coming into see what it's all about. Such people need hand-held guidance.

It was mentioned that Kitely attracts well over 1,000 new people a week... and loses that many people just as quickly. That's what we aim to fix. We want to retain as many of those new visitors as possible by capturing their interest and getting them to invest some of their hobby funds in Kitely.

At yesterday's Town Meeting we re-implemented the GREETER system, which is a great idea. To assist the Greeters, a "What Next?" sign would be of great help... especially if it's odd hours and no one is around to Greet.

[Snoots Dwagon]

Thank you Snoots,

Just one correction, we get more than a thousand new user registrations each month due to "walk-ins", i.e. accounts that are created by people that weren't registered to Kitely by their organization and thus have no support structure to help them find their way around our service. All but a few hundred of those people end up closing their accounts within the first few weeks. In other words, the majority of deleted accounts belong to new users who tried out our service but couldn't find what they were looking for.

It's therefore quite clear that helping people find what they're looking for can help us increase our retention rate. Our old Kitely Welcome Center had signs near the landing point that helped new users learn what's available. The information contained in those signs has been moved in our current welcome center to an information kiosk that is located close to the landing point. New users often look at the signs in that kiosk, so its location isn't the problem. That said, it's possible that the signs that we have don't address all the needs of new users.

[Snoots Dwagon]

Thanks Ilan. In the past I've found that not only the presence of signs, but their form, visibility and attention-getting nature are of great importance. As an illustration of this: why is it that EVENTS sign has been there all this time but in all these months I've never noticed it? I've noticed Events signs at other grids, so why did I only "discover" it when it was mentioned at the Town Meeting yesterday?

As a group founder and world owner in the past, I've tested all kinds of signs to discover which ones work best. And as a merchant I've had to use effective signs to draw people to my merchandise. (The signs have to sell the product, because if they don't, what will?)

So some thoughts on the Welcome Center presentation:

* It could be the Events sign isn't attention-getting. Similar to the concept of the spaceship on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that wasn't invisible, but simply caused everyone to ignore it... perhaps the nature of that sign says to new users, "Just another sign"... and they ignore it (as I evidently did).

* In my dwagony mind... for an Events sign to catch attention it has to be right by the landing point, and has to actually list events, 24/7. The current sign only lists events when touched... and it takes some time for those events to rez. So Kitely could either have it constantly display a list of current and upcoming events (which is effective), or it could clearly say "Click here to see our current list of events" and have it call up the web page on the user's browser. Either way would perhaps work better to letting new visitors know that Kitely is active. (Of course it might help to encourage residents to host more events. That's a whole nuther topic.)

EDIT: Ilan and I both checked out the Events sign and the sign itself looks fine. So maybe it's just the location: hiding behind the fountain. I'll be honest... I don't know how I missed that sign all this time. But I did... and that's the thing.

* It's been my experience over the years, in every case I can remember, that the best Welcome areas have a clear, open center so people can see everything... with pertinent information open and facing that center and easily visible. (The current kiosks to me feel somewhat claustrophobic. Just a personal opinion)

Kitely has a huge fountain in the center that people have to walk around to see different things. One person can't see another person from the opposite side. I'm thinking the Welcome Center might benefit if that fountain were removed to open up visibility. That would also make it easier for Greeters to visibly speak to people... several at a time if needed.

Just some ideas for consideration. : )

[Snoots Dwagon]

Hi Snoots,

There are two signs in the Kitely Welcome Center landing point, one is the greeters board and the other is the events sign which says:

Kitely
Events Calendar
Find out what's happening
Click to view

[Snoots Dwagon]

Yesh agreed. I just updated my post above. : )

[Snoots Dwagon]

Disclaimer: Dwagon thoughts is not guaranteed to always be spot on. But they do mix the salad.

Another thought: there are several informational signs in a kiosk off to the side. But two things:

1. The front pillars hide the signs from immediate view. Might consider removing those two pillars to open up visibility.

2. The signs might be more visible and eye-catching if they were fullbright.

Just throwing stuff out there. : )

[Ada Radius]

Another issue is that a lot of people who end up liking virtual reality are left-right dyslexic like me. We perceive 3D space probably better than most people, but don't do well forced into left-right decisions. LOVE 3D space. People with so-called normal left-right perception tend to try to force left-right decisions in the 3D space, because that's more comfortable for them.

So: what Snoots has tested and found to work, ya it does. Don't make people walk around a fountain or force them to learn to fly to go over the fountain to figure out where we are. Make the landing spot in the middle of a circle of information. A few paths out of the circle, clearly marked with arrows or hedges or whatever, to walk to the merchants gallery, the meeting place, the dance place. We do like to walk around to discover stuff and get oriented, if it's not too difficult. If that's not possible or in a hurry, then teleports to every important location in the world.

[Chris Namaste]

yes,totally feel same as snoots & ada
(have same eye thingee as ada), and same ideas

and yup,had missed same 'arrows' , as snoots described in welcome

(this is not negative,just trying, with minimum of efforts,to make it easier for new arriving pple to find all & to have-keep more residents for kitely)
thankyou
christa

[Ada Radius]

Hi Ada,

There are already big clearly marked arrows with labeles on all the paths from the landing point. The events sign is a few meters from the landing point and doesn't contain any information that a new user would need to know to get to that sign. In addition, the information that sign contains is already presented in the viewer login page that people see before they even go inworld.

[Ada Radius]

Hi Ada,

There are already big clearly marked arrows with labeles on all the paths from the landing point. The events sign is a few meters from the landing point and doesn't contain any information that a new user would need to know to get to that sign. In addition, the information that sign contains is already presented in the viewer login page that people see before they even go inworld.

Ya, the arrows are good, big, clearly labeled, very pretty. But to the noobie point of view: I open up Firestorm, or I'm coming in from wherever, I'm at the website and find Kitely Welcome Center and click Enter World. It looks like my only path is the one that says "change your avatar". I can also see part of the signboard and the the big fountain. So I follow the one path I see and it leads me to two ugly avatar choices. I might even figure out how to cam back and see six ugly avatar choices. If I got here because someone said "go to the Sunday Community meetings to meet the cool Kitely people", I not only don't want to go there looking like that, I can't figure out how to get to the meeting.