Redesigned Second Life Homepage for new visitors going Live

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!



[Please see the blog for an image of the page or look here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30915194@N04/3114257770/ ]

I'd like to hear more about why this is only for new people and not new residents, if there's anything y'all have on that.

Took me a bit (ie: I actually had to read the post) before I figured out I had to log out to see the new stuff. Why is this just for newbies?

It really doesn't work. I wanted to see it live so thanks to Ms Tsure I logged out and it's just way too busy, the titles aren't informative, it's not user friendly, it doesn't tell anyone about the world, it looks like someone's flckr page, it's not intuitive, I'll be amazed if this attracts new signups at a greater rate than the old page. Oh and the woman with the huge boobs who was eyecatching has gone!

Moving my mouse scrolls along, that's simply not good.

I had high hopes for this so I hope I'm wrong.

My first reaction when looking at the new nonresident homepage was that the pictures just aren't very good. Maybe it's because they have to be so small, but they seem to be mostly just headshots with vague stuff in the back, or very simple cartoony views of a pyramid or whatever. Surely there are much more exciting and interesting things we could show from SL? I mean, if a picture might as well be an IMVU screenshot, it's not really showing off what's unique and exciting about SL...

Kat,you said, and I quote "* 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."

So yeah great, wait one, hangon, I dont see any business specific stuff, all I see is dance, shop, play, learn, flirt, build. Sounds like a gimmick to me, if i were a new user. It really looks like a fad.

Second point. Theres no link to a non flash version VISIBLE immediately. A big nogo for me.

Third point. Loading speed. Even with a very powerful computer and 20mb internet, there is still at least a two second delay on any flash microvideos playing, and it all feels very cumbersome and heavy and bogged down.

Fourth Point. If I were a new user, the flash site tells me nothing at all about the platform and its capabilities, I mean, these "videos" are useless quite frankly, to prove this, I showed the website to a good friend of mine, and I asked them to tell me about what it was, after 2 minutes of using the website, and all that came out was a big "what?"

that starts us off anyway

It reminds me of the old, old, old SL website only horizontal not vertical (well, it's black heh), which is a kind of historical tie-in. It functioned fine on my machine. I was disappointed that the pictures were rectangles (I had had something entirely different in my mind prior to the posting of the screenshot) but they aren't as bad in rl as they look. I liked the looping as it is useful for any width of monitor.

It does look like someone's web gallery, and the design isn't very interesting, but it shows tiny snippets that might whet the appetite of potential customers. I don't know.

I have to say I love the parts of the current website that gain saturation when you mouse over them.

It's still Big Spaceship and not Second Life. It's still a black background picture wall with little to no real information displayed.

Plus it sends an even more conflicting message of what kind of user you are looking to attract. I mean, we thought you were after the big businesses and not social users, but that's what this webpage screams.. in black. And pictures.

While I hate to see you change the other pages... this is going to be a BIG shock to those new users who do create an account and get dumped into the "plain old but useful" blue and white webpages. In short, it's too abrupt a change and doesn't mesh with the rest of the site. It says, "We paid so much money for the non-logined in front page, we didn't have money for the rest of the site!"

I don't want to be harsh, but I really just don't like the new page.

I'm pretty sure no one said they liked this page.

Full steam ahead!

It looks like someone's IPhone to me, but maybe they're trying to attract more Mac users?

Honestly, all that negative feedback, and the Lindens can only get defensive about their decisions--and ignore the feedback. Honestly, what's the point anymore?

Kam

Since LL doesn't get involved in financial disputes between residents, how can they claim to provide for a "safe" shopping experience?

Lindens say hello and they get negative feedback...

I didn't think it was bad at all. Not terribly useful for me, being old and all, but it loaded very quickly and looked ok to me.

Not all of them, only the ones who are causing pain and they know who they are and they deserve every bit of it.

My main issue with it is that it doesn't exemplify the world very well at all, If I was new I'd just assume that was a gallery and wonder where the info was.

Funny you mention the iPhone Kamael. On my iPhone I am still seeing the old home page even after making sure I wasn't logged in and clearing cookies - from what I see it looks like they are redirecting to the old homepage when javascript is supported but not flash. With Firefox (including the NoScript add-on that I use) on my desktop on the other hand I get a black screen, a couple of links, and the following message:

"This content requires that you have Javascript enabled and the latest version of Macromedia Flash Player installed. Get Flash"

Just as a suggestion for LL - you may want to mention in that error message on the new page that the links at the top of the screen do not require js or flash. If I hadn't already known otherwise, I would have assumed that the plugin error on the page meant that this was a flash-only site and I would have probably gone elsewhere without clicking any of the links.

Alternatively, since the rest of the site really doesn't require flash anyway, you may want to consider not showing this error message at all, but instead include some default information (a subset of the content on the old homepage maybe.) This would allow you to keep the new look but would improve the experience for users with screen readers as well as for those who do not use javascript and flash.

--Cog

What exactly does "Communication" and "Feedback" mean to you at Linden Lab? Please. I would like to know, because I think we must have different definitions of these terms.

Why do you even ASK for our "FEEDBACK" and "OPINION" when you just ignore them? I for one and tired of your constant bullshit.

It's neither FEEDBACK or COMMUNICATION when you ignore EVERYTHING we say to you.

Really, I need to understand WHY you constantly do this? You ask for our FEEDBACK on OpenSpace SIM, and what happens? NOTHING, you do exactly as you want and don't care what the Community says. Here we are again, this time a webpage.

I think I understand what you are doing and quite frankly it's a bunch of crud. You aren't listening or communicating with the Community here, you are just trying to appease everyone. You don't really care what we have to say, you just do whatever you want, and then as a last thought you let us feel like we can make a difference, when you know we can't, because you aren't listening and you don't give a crud about us; what's it like to sell out to your coroporate God Katt?

My friends, this is exactly what I've been saying for TWO YEARS, Linden Lab doesn't care, and is using these forums as mere distractions. It's time for everyone to finally stand up and say this is enough. Email * and let them know you are tired of this constant "give us Feddback" and then do nothing with it. We need to get control of Linden Lab before they kill Second Life and now the Second Life Website! Email Robin and Philip daily asking for answer until they either decide to change (not likely) or at least acknowledge what's going on.

BTW - The new WEBSITE, sucks. I hope you spent Hundreds of Thousands of dollars on it, because you deserve to lose your money and have the company die die die.

Oh Thank God!! /faints

Oh for crying out loud. The photo (the woman with the huge boobs) was submitted, along with a write up on the island, without her prior knowledge. She wasn't exactly happy with the photo, but it did bring a load of new people to the island, so she didn't sweat it.

It is simply amazing that you would choose to throw that comment in with your complaints about the new stuff.

Thanks for the question Sindy - while Linden teams are working on core areas to make Second Life better for Residents, we are also working on projects to make it easier for folks new to SL.

Of course, Lindens are at work on many projects, for instance including LLnet, (see "LLnet 30 days ahead of schedule" in this post: http://blog.secondlife.com/author/frankambrose/ ) One of the projects in the mix is working with Big Spaceship on this new page for those who are not already Residents.

As for the page itself, I'd be happier if you all liked it a great deal - but I can also tell you that the numbers themselves were pretty instructive.

Many of you told us you didn't much like the page, and we were listening, and we still are.

Why? The reason the page is now live, even after the negative feedback, is this: when we compared random non-Second Life Residents, arriving at the old and the new page designs, specifically comparing the core metrics of traffic, registrations, logins, economic and inworld activity, the new page design gave better results.

More of the people who landed at the new page design went on to register, logged in, spent time inworld, and so on.

Why might that matter to more experienced Residents?

New Residents can expand the social and economic opportunities for everyone.

And of course, this is only one of the important things we're working on, as the LLnet project and much more is also ongoing.

Thanks,

-- Katt

Good questions.

1., I think the focus is on "next" here: "...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."

2. I'd think the page detects simply redirects those not using Flash, rather than have a link waiting for you to click.

3. Sorry to hear it loads slowly for you.

4. The page does seem to be producing good results in action.

-- Katt

Fair point Ciaran - I can't speak to what the designers planned, but I'd say the "more" info is available, but the interactive pods seem to be getting results.

I hope going forward that once more of the work is complete you'll be happier with the presentation of important info (throughout the site.)

We are listening, and I appreciate your questions and ideas.

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.
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Started another topic on this one?
/352/61/297990/11.html#post2265872

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Just as I predicted, you haven't listened to anyone....

I'll be back to reply to comments more, but wanted to let you know it may not be until morning.

The Resident vs. Linden snowball fight wore me out

We are listening, AWM, and we're not ignoring what you say. - But the "success" of this particular page does have to be judged also on the results it gets for those folks I like to think of as Future-Residents, (for the reasons I went into above.)

Thanks!

I couldn't see a link for Copybot anywhere....

The implications of this, is not how many clicked 'Join SL' but how long they stay and what they do one there..... Bringing ppls through the door is easy.. keeping them and being productive, adding to the community, now that the true metrics... Looking at stats over the past 2 years, the account retention has been in decline and a very slippery slope it has become.
No pretty pictured flash or otherwise webpage is going to change that.

For everybody's sake, please don't introduce this set-up for existing residents. What a complete waste of time. This is exactly the same kind of set up Cool Iris already offers, except that is a lot better.

I do see that you've moved for an emphasis on 'Flirt' as well now. So we're going to become residents of a big dating network, right? After all, all those TV documentaries have only ever tapped in on folk having virtual affairs, so why not drain that well. Forget the creativity and artistic merits that the application offers, let's all get down and dirty!

And as a final spit in my own personal face, I didn't see a single image of a tiny on there at all.

You screwed folk out of more Openspace sim income to pay for that?

What are pods in this context?

I saw a grid of rectangular pictures. Click on some of them and you get a video and a link to the signup page. If you move your cursor to the right you can make it scroll faster than it can display.

Where's the pods at? There's nothing poddish about it that I can see.

What's the interactive part? The way that the pictures change sized as you mouse around? Is that interactive? Or the way that you click on still images and they turn into moving videos like on youtube, is that interactive? I'm not really clear on what is particularly interactive about this page more than any other page.

I suspect that the page might work for getting people to the signup page because there's very few words in the path to the sign-up. It will attract people who don't like to read. They sign up before they realize what they are getting involved in.

I asked this elsewhere but I don't think I saw it answered: If they take the sign-up link after watching the dance video do they get a different result than if they take the sign-up link after watching some other video?

Hmm, I wonder what the result would be if the new user homepage was the sign-up page itself?