Second Life: Testing a new home page this week

You make some good points. I dont disagree where you going with this.

I think LL and spacepeople just trying to find a balance between people who like fullon webpages and people who prefer static. And like all compromises it falls somewhere in between. And as an inbetween is pretty good I think. I also think is way better than it was before. So its a start in the right direction. And ya maybe oneday will be like you say. I think that be pretty good as well.

It just come up straight away when I clik my link button. Was quite fast and I was able to scroll around and the pod thingies pop up quite quickly. About the same speed for me as they do on other sites that use these.

Edit: I using XP and IE with all latest patches.

Generic, very generic. So many pictures but none of them are really indicative of the breadth and depth of Second Life.

Has Big Spaceship actually spent any time in SL?

Plus when you actually login, it goes back to the boring old page.

The noob says:

*Unique 3D gaming. - Nope, it certainly isn't that.

*Where will you go first? - Erm...I dunno? What is second life anyway?

*romantic connections. - Gives entirely the wrong impression of what SL is.

*Play - probably the worst of the videos. Cute chick, nice city. But they're not DOING anything.

And finally - since when did orange/yellow go with duck egg's green!?

This page does not show the diversity of SL at all. There is so much more that could be displayed here without all of the individual movies. I managed to do a reasonable job with an animated storyboard for a video I'm making. (bear in mind the finished thing wont be a GIF, this is just ideas generation).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28058818@N08/3124715899/sizes/o/

You have to be logged out of the website to see the page.

I AM logged out of the website. AND I have Flash enabled. AND I disabled my proxies. AND I did a force reload (shift reload). AND I uninstalled FlashBlock. And I'm still seeing a non-flash page.

I'm using Firefox 3 on Windows 2000 SP4 with Flash 9.

Just logged out. Went to my homepage and came back. The new SL homepage is still up for me (XP/IE). Dont know why its not showing up for you in FF. Might just be a browser test thing at the moment.

Not so. Works in Safari 3 and 4 for me.

I kind of have an issue with a full flash implementation and think you should consider an html alternative. My main concerns are as follows, and likely have already been described in the myriad pages preceeding me:

1) Flash is extremely resource intensive. The current site is slow, but at least it's only loading text and small picture data when I try to update the grid/online status.

2) 64-bit browsers do not support flash, this means I have to open a second browser to view your website. This will result in annoying messages and windows opening and attempting to install software on an incompatible browser.

I think usability should definitely be the predominant concern when designing any web site/application. You have no reason to use flash aside from making the site look pretty, it serves no purpose towards improving the current user experience, and I think you would do well to simply refine and update the current website with a more modern design.

Here is a twist... why not have a standard NON-Flash webpage, with a link on the bottom, pointing to a Flash alternative?

What a refreshing change that would be?

I tried re-enabling IE and using that. No dice.

Don't worry Argent, it's a snoozer. Wouldn't make me sign up if I were new!

Well, my design idea works entirely on CSS with only small flash applets! ^^

Just want to agree. I also believe that "overthink" is a common problem with this kind of project. The homepage is not worth a lot of effort, to my mind. I feel that the current one is a bit boxy and boring, but SL will live or die though "attraction, not promotion" as they say. All this fuss and flash is nonsense: LL should devote 90% of its energy & effort toward the overwheliming reason SL has stalled and is not achieving "stickiness" with potential users.......

lag

90 percent. Anyone listening at LL? Hate to be overly-cynical before Christmas, but I think not.

Also, how great would it have been if LL had had a competition, or entertained bids from the SL resis who are web developers (like the ones who are discussing here). LL could even farm out the bid mechanics to a third party to avoid any perception of FICiness/favoritism. The pride and interest would possibly be tremendous, and even after the inevitable organizational hassle, LL would save boo-koo bucks compared to what they're been shelling out to the big space ship, no doubt.

The homepage is a distraction.

Well, my friend. Hiring Big Spacehip, in my opinion, isn't much more than a PR stunt anyway. I even took a look at Big Spacehip's website and it's nothing to write home about, I assure you.
But I keep trying to send the message across to those who count the pennies at Linden Lab that the best PR stunt they can pull is to use their own residents AND it is cost-effective!

Just looking at the flash page for the first time.

I don't like pictures that change size as I move my cursor around.

If I move the cursor over to the right, to slide it over to the other monitor, the flash display starts scrolling, showing the "unloaded texture" gridlike animation, and the cursor appears on teh other monitor, leaving the first monitor scrolling until I put the cursor back in that monitor. This is using the Synergy input sharing system to use one keyboard and mouse with two computers and two monitors.

The page dims out on the sides. I don't like that. It looks like the monitor has gone bad. I like the entire screen to be as clear as possible and uniform in how the monitor output looks. Also the dimmed pictures are a bit uglier than the undimmed version.

If someone clicks the dance option, and creates an account, do they get any special info on dancing, good dance spots, any dance animations other than the same ones we've been getting for ages? Any links to Torley's videos that might enhance their ability to "Show off your favorite dance moves at one of the many nightclubs within Second Life"?

Are the videos supposed to have soundtracks?

That was one of the first things I tackled with my idea for a 'proper' showcase. Categorized information on whatever the person wants!

Dont get me wrong, I like the look of what you have done, but this is a principal about whether people think flash is viable in the first place... my comment was to reverse the 'html link at the bottom to a non-flash version' format and have the flash option at the bottom... why force ppls to search for something as an alternative, when the vast majority don't like the offered default to begin with? That alone would be a minus for its design.

Well of course flash is viable. Flash was intended to create animations and small applets to enhance web pages, not completely replace them - in my view. Minimal flash applets can work very well indeed, but a large proportion of making a webpage functional can still be done using CSS.
Current residents are the ones likely to have flash and stuff disabled, I find. That's fine because the current residents will not benefit as much from the Exploration Bar as New Residents will. I tried to think about how such an applet would be done in CSS and couldn't think of a viable way. Flash is the best way to execute it. But you can always close the exploration and news bars completely, if you wish. The point of the page is that you choose what you want on it. If you don't want any flash - don't have any. Close the flash applets and be done with it

Just wanted to say beautiful JOB with the Chirstmas sences at log in. They are wonderful ,Truly makes me wanna log into SL You GO Linden Lab

You mean the Journey Sim photo of me that I never knew was taken for showcase? And my boobs do not fill a sim lol!

now that I have seen the flash page. I like it I like the black look.. but thats me I know many hate it and I know its a no no in web design.

Flash never has bothered me much only when FF needs a plug in.

I think that it is much to busy for the web surfer that my pop in on a search for SL or just surfing by, but hey I didn't pay spaceship to build it I would have sent it back.. I can do that with CoffeeCup softwear and that's just sad

Finally got it to load, by turning flashblock *on*. Don't ask me why.

So after I clicked the (> icon flashblock puts up, it took about 10-15 seconds to start showing content, and maybe 30 seconds to load the page full of images.

I'm surprised, that's pretty fast. Still, about 10x slower than the non-flash page.

The interface is not bad. I don't like how it just throws you to the sign-up page if you click around too much, though. Was that deliberate?

I pretty much agree with every comment here, and have my woes with flash:

-Often slow response time in clicking or moving in flash
-Click-ables usually are testy and unreliable
-Animations and everything that would be considered "gorgeous" or similar is more-often-then-not quite slow/laggy and irritating to maneuver in.
-Usually takes way too much time to load, and like many others here, leads me to leave the website, because of how long it takes to load.

(Before viewing the webpage ^ )

(After v )

-Was slow to load, and constantly having to reload the same pictures
-Side to side by waving mouse around, but no up and down? Kinda weird.
-Pictures growing/shrinking gets annoying when trying to scroll :/
-Pictures, like some have said already, don't really show the breadth or depth of SL at all.
-Random pictures have RL people in it? Weird lack of consistency
-Some pictures don't really show anything at all? I'm looking at one that says "build" and shows the back-right hemisphere of a blonde womans head, the tip of her shoulder, and maybe her leg? The hell is that supposed to be? (Plus, it has nothing to do with building) Or the one with 2-prim tree's filling up 1/2 of the picture, and then a random unlabeled, uninteresting building? I'm sure the full-sized pictures are nice, but the cropped sections of the picture look bad. (many more examples too)

Positive notes:
-Download SL is *finally* clear and defined on the front page, how many years did that take?
-Black background is a great choice, yet amusing, when the RC viewers way back when, were promoting that blinding silver/baby blue as a positive, inviting environment. At least someone realized that mid-tones and darker colour's are easier on the eyes when done right.
-It moves slow, but smoothly at least.
- *Login* is clearly displayed as well, I like that.



Question I do pose:

Why make HTML the alternative, and not the Flash one?

Bear in mind some of the pics are movies (the ones with the labels). But the people in the dance video aren't dancing at all. Just...looking prissy.

As you may have read on the blog last week, we’ve been testing a redesigned home page for new visitors, those who have never logged in to Second Life. The goal of the new homepage is to show off the breadth and richness of the Second Life experience. Test results show the new page performed well, so we’re going live this week. For Second Life Residents, the current homepage will remain the same for now.

Over the past week we’ve been comparing the core metrics (traffic, registrations, logins, economic and inworld activity) of the new page with our existing new user home page. The data is encouraging: the new design performed better in almost all aspects, so we are moving full steam ahead with launching the redesigned page.

We’ve been paying attention to the conversations on this topic in the forums, and we’d like to address some of the great questions Residents have posed:

Ongoing improvements and considerations include:

* Flash – a very small number of people who come through the new user home page either have flash disabled or not installed, so we have provided an alternate, non-Flash experience for them.

* Accessibility – the header and footer are CSS/HTML, so the global navigation will quickly get folks with screen readers to the content they need.

* Business friendliness – this iteration of the new user home page has two pods dedicated to education and virtual meetings, but our next task will be to make sure that people who are focused on the business uses of Second Life can find the information they need rapidly.

In the next two weeks, we will keep a close eye on the metrics to make sure that the page is performing as we expect. As we noted in the last post, this is just the first of several changes that we will be rolling out to improve the new user experience and to increase registrations.

Thank you to all the Residents who have contributed great feedback and ideas. When the page is live, let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Please stay tuned for future developments!



See the Blog Post:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/12/23/redesigned-second-life-homepage-for-new-visitors-going-live/


New Forum Thread:
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