Bad UX is keeping the majority of people away from Lemmy
Bad UX is keeping the majority of people away from Lemmy
This reddit post likely has tens if not hundreds of thousands of views, look at the top comment.
Lemmy is losing so many potential new users because the UX sucks for the vast majority of people.
What can we do?
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Couldn't we design an "onboarder" where when you get started on lemmy, a "let's get you started" wizard asks you 2 or 3 questions and based on your answers, it proposes 2 or 3 servers (or directly assigns you to one)?
join-lemmy.org already has this in a way:
The problem here is that those are filters, and the newcomer will usually still be faced with several options, which will still make them scratch their head.
A wizard is a good idea, with simple questions, rather than filter buttons.
But it needs to end up telling you "here you go, this is the one you want!", giving you just a single instance. Doesn't matter that multiple will probably match the answers given - then just pick one at random. Chances are, they will be equally happy on either, and if not, well, it isn't very hard to switch to a new instance later on, when they have become regular Lemmists.
Join-lemmy suggests outdated and defederated instances: https://lemmy.world/post/24220536
Thanks for sharing! Very much aligned with what i have in mind... Only difference would be to narrow down to 1 or 2 (if at all) on the landing screen - maybe all other options are under a "advanced user? Click here to expand server selection" or something like that...
Join-lemmy suggests outdated and defederated instances: https://lemmy.world/post/24220536
I usually go with https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37336391
I agree, but people (read: instance owners) might disagree who gets to be seen up top and who won't make that cut.
It's a tough dilemma in itself, I will say. In the end, I think we should move this part of the joining experience until after new users are familar with the software.
So new users land at "lemmy.noob" or something, and when they are ready to spread their wings, they can choose the things I showed above to go and find the right home for them.
Centralization detected
Good point. I don't have all the answers to this predicament, but I think most of us agree that we need to improve on the onboarding experience.
Something like this sounds great