I started a discussion in the Fedibridge community about lowering the barriers to onboarding average users. In part of the discussion, someone pointed me to pangora.social/join as an example of a good onboarding page. I mentioned some shortcomings, and they suggested I post them here. So here I am. Slightly edited copy-paste follows. Just food for thought from someone who consults on UI/UX clarity:
(pangora.social/join) is not bad. But the graphics are immediately distracting, and if you don’t understand what they’re meant to symbolize, they’re just annoying. I still think a just a handful of general instances is a better idea because most people don’t think of social media a place they go for one or two interests, but a place they go for everything including those interests. Having said that, it’s a good flow…until you drill down far enough for it to become a cul-de-sac problem:
- Entertainment — OK, sounds good
- Movies & TV — so far so good
- Star Trek (and nothing else) — well, no, so…now what? I guess this isn’t for me
Yes, you can go back to the previous screen, but now you know there’s nothing here specific to your interests, so if you do stick around, you’re have to just cast about for something to latch on to that's non-specific to your interests.
This is why it would be better to just have a couple general instances, get people onboard, then have them start exploring.
(That last bit referred to a previous part of the conversation in which I was arguing for the common promotion of a very few instances where the sign-up flow is simple enough to not confuse the uninitiated.)
Do with this what you will. :)