Welcome Centre Improvements

Talk about community-managed projects in Kitely
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Moonrise Azalee
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Moonrise Azalee »

I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with Don, and it is for those reasons that when I first came to Kitley, although the welcome centre is 'beautiful' it scored low for me. So, two things
First Impressions - YES!
1) A tree in the centre draws all the focus there, and away from info on the perimeter. The centre should really be a welcome board - maybe with signature Kitely Kites suspended from it like on the outskirts. On that board have the info that is currently placed around the perimeter. But in more of a squared form.
2) One section of the board Kitely Info, with the 'get land', 'visit marketplace' 'explore worlds' etc and the other half of the board with some agreed upon landmarks that a starter avatar can use to begin their journey.
3) around the perimeter, some nicely done cafe tables with chairs, a place for greeters or residents to sit without being RIGHT there in the new person's face when they rez. We have many seating areas around that region that are not utilized, having some sitting/chill space around the actual welcoming area would be better.
4) have the paths leading away from the centre go directly to a useful area on that region. With a Sign saying WHERE the path is leading. (when arriving in a world for the first time, things can take a long time to rezz and often draw distance is set low) One path to the Kitely Town Meeting area, one path to the Explore Worlds, one to Marketplace Spotlight and one to Customize Your Avatar - with possibly some avis put together using the rather decent newer skins and clothing found at Clutterfly. Each avatar box offered by clutterfly offers skin colour options etc and a starter outfit. It's already packaged so would be easy to put together.

New Residents - to keep in mind
1) Although some people may feel that a friendly face is the first thing people want to see, I can say from my own point of view that this is not always the case.
2) Some people feel awkward when arriving, confused, looking like an obvious newbie and want to quietly find their own way, and need those tools available. Not everyone is comfortable meeting new folks and some are here BECAUSE they want to hide away from the world, and have something special and private for them. I think in fact that that makes up a far larger percentage than we might realize.
3) At least half the time, in the welcome area, since being a greeter, I have seen new residents come in, you offer a hello, they dont answer and log off.
4) So - make sure that welcomers are able to sit off to the side, casually, and that the tools for a new person to make their own way are available to them at first sight.

Like Don says, if a person has to wander too far or far at all to find what they need, they will go elsewhere. There are over 200 grids out there and people have many choices - which IS great, but Kitely is the most stable opensim grid Ive ever been on, the prices are amazing and the people are great - giving people a reason to stick around and discover that for themselves is a big priority.
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Dot Matrix
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Dot Matrix »

Serene Jewell wrote:Have you all seen this? Here's the kind of entry point you could build with a big budget! In the end, they do admit that the most important thing is the greeters. :D

While this is a great example of a big expensive build, I think there are some ideas we could borrow. Where they have all these fun things for newbies in one place, on Kitely, our residents can build these fun things on their own worlds and we can point newbies to them. Anyway, lots of food for thought if you are a builder in opensim.

http://www.slartist.com/firestorm-gatew ... a1836.html
Bold added for emphasis...

There are a lot of good ideas both in the video and in this thread. Anyone want to develop some of them on their own land so that the full gamut of requirements can be met?
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

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Constance Peregrine
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Constance Peregrine »

I would like to throw in the old idea of expanding this to a 2x2 varregion. Since vars are here it also shows that technical improvement not known in SL.

It also allows for stuff to be spread out more if that is of any use.

regards
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Freda Frostbite »

Dot, I think there are several worlds that have resources for newcomers. The problem is newcomers have no way of knowing they are out there, not unless they happen to come inworld when a greeter is on duty in KWC. We either need greeters on duty 24/7 or some mechanism for telling newcomers about them even when no one is available to greet in KWC.
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Serene Jewell
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Serene Jewell »

A box of landmarks should help with this. Of course there is the issue that newbies don't know how to access the landmarks. I had one of those today. "Thank you, how do I use a landmark." I know there are some web pages somewhere that address that question, but we need our own. Somewhere.
Last edited by Serene Jewell on Sun Jun 19, 2016 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Don Smith »

Howdy....

I think a series of Big Clickable Signs, < to receive notecard > that says How to do things would be helpful. I have seen many of these work well before.
Example : Click here for Landmarks to Great Places, a picture of a LM symbol, and under it , in smaller letters says " A Landmark is a teleportation location you will click on to go to that destination", the notecard would go further in brief details about how you can get LM's, how to organize them and how to find LM links in places, like profiles, searches ect....

Each new Sign is on a path, leading the newcomer along a more informed welcome to how things work and things you can do. This , in conjunction with greeters would make an awesome experience for new folks and a refresher for some who arent so new < who could get notecards on various subjects without looking like a newbie getting them >

This Path of Information should be seen and be easily accessible from the point the new person pop's in at. Also, "Get FREE stuff here" should be seen easily from that spot too. Or something similar. There are many decent examples of how to do this across the hypergrid as well as in SL. The Firestorm video just released shows some great examples of this as well.
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Serene Jewell »

This is all offered in the spirit of incorporating all the good ideas people have posted in both the Welcome Center topics. I took Dot's great work and combed through both topics to incorporate everyone's ideas. I even made a little flow chart. I think there are too many posters and maybe there could be consolidation, but if a person is alone at the KWC, they want the answer to their questions and this may help them integrate into Kitely rather than leaving.
KWC Flow Chart - Standard.png
KWC Welcome Center

I assume people are landing in the info pavillion.

CHOICE - BEGINNER OR EXPERIENCED?

FOR BEGINNER
A SIGN AT EYE LEVEL ON LANDING…

“Are you new to virtual worlds? Click here.”
(Graham’s idea of skybox Startpoint for absolute beginners, a learning circle or path with posters on how to open inventory, chat, walk, dress, etc)
or
“Are you new to virtual worlds? Use your arrow key to walk here”
(A path leads over the hill to the Startpoint area. This could be below the hill so it is not in view of the landing area or central area)


FOR EXPERIENCED
Posters that give out Notecards and Landmarks
In this order

- Join the Kitely Community Group - Find New Friends Fast - How to join

- Frequently Asked Questions - http://www.kitely.com/faq - (see note below!)

- Search - http://www.kitely.com/search - Explore other worlds using Kitely World Search

- Support Forums - http://www.kitely.com/forums - Find ansers fast in the Kitely Forums

- Kitely Events Calendar - link to calendar or media on a prim

- Kitely Community Meeting - You’re invited to join us! Every Sunday at 1pm PST here.

- Market - http://www.kitely.com/market - Get things for your world and your avatar

- Free Trial world - Get six free trial hours in your first Kitely World

- Services - http://www.kitely.com/services - Learn more about Kitely’s offering and its benefits

- Kitely Worlds - Starter, advanced, etc. explanation of options

- Landmarks - Freebies, Avatars, Sandboxes
- Landmarks - Arts, Entertainment Hangouts,
- Landmarks - Newcomer friendly, Worlds to Explore (thinking Devokan, etc.)
- Landmarks - Building supplies, scripts, textures
(note about Landmarks - Put landmarks in separate folders labeled ."Kitely Freebies, Avatars, Sandboxes June 2016" so that when the boxes are inevitably updated we users know which folder is current and can delete the old from our inventory. Greeter group has agreed to test landmarks monthly.)

Also at landing area:
Teleport to Avatar Area, Worlds Showcase, Meeting Area,
Possibly a Greeter board

———————————————————————————————————————————
FAQ PAGE
(This info should also be on the welcome card)
(This info should either be AT THE TOP of the existing FAQ page or on another page called User Guide)

- Explanation of Worlds on Demand from the user point of view (waiting for startup)

- How to Explore Worlds in Kitely

- Explanation of Search in the viewer and on the Kitely website

- Explain Hypergrid (or link to explanation with links to Hyperica and Opensimworld)

- Links at the bottom of the page
- Kitely Forums
- Explore worlds page
- Kitely Market
- Sign of the Kite site
- Kitely Services Page
Last edited by Serene Jewell on Wed Jun 22, 2016 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Welcome Centre Improvements

Post by Moonrise Azalee »

I would also note that the welcoming board with the info as mentionted by Serene, should be in the middle of the Kitely Welcome area, that now has a tree (which obstructs view). And still some seating/cafe tables round the side so people can sit casually, whether new folks or greeters, so that people arent all standing in a cluster at the base of the tree.
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