stepps: stylised leaves and white flower on dark grey background ([bob] easy company text)
stepps ([personal profile] stepps) wrote in [community profile] getting_started 2010-05-09 10:20 pm (UTC)

While a lot of the features are the attraction for LJ users, I think a tour needs to be very brief and simplistic. It is after all a tour to get people orientated, and then they are to go off and mess around on their own, knowing were the kitchen is, the bathroom, and where to find the person in charge or the other housemates when need be.

I like the kind of tours that have a lot of screenshots, so that one can see clearly where a feature is located or how it'll look while it's working. Screencasts of an action can be helpful too.

I think a guide of the menus, with some explanation of what each does (eg what is the reading circle, what is a community) is essential, along with things like where and how you can customise your layout and icons, where and how to find people and subscribe to them (I remember after making my LJ I was at a loss as to what to do then. Took a while to actually find the friends feed page, and figure out how to find and add friends). How to post (including adding cuts, images, embedded media).

The kind of guides I've used on other sites that have been helpful are the ones that don't give you too much info on one page, and move you through a set of pages with different info for different things you could do. I've included the tours from other sites that have actually helped me a lot (both of these sites take you to the tour after you create your account, which is the best way to not miss it, I think).

Some blogging sites I know also give example blogs to see what people use them for, how they've been customised, what they look like with text and media posted. This could include comms?

Delicious.com Getting Started
Soundcloud Tour

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