New Resident Experience Observations

Please list suggestions below based on your observations of the new resident experience. While no changes to Orientation Islands or Help Islands are planned at this time due to resources, it would be good to compile information for possible future use! 
*Tips and tricks used to help resolve new user issues welcome here as well as in the notecard library.
==Help Islands==
* The sign on the HI's is broken (no hand) and is recognized by only 1% of the new residents landing there. The information in there isn't very helpfull either besides explaining what roles there are in SL (Lindens, Volunteers, Mentors...). Personally I hand them a note on arrival. It is about what they can learn on the HI's and what goals they should have reached before using the Exit. For most this seems to work fine. They do not ask 'where am I and what do I do here?', neither most them do not run for the Exit right away (there will always be exceptions).
I never like to have to switch to a website for information (besides it usually makes me crash also). Information should be in-world. Not on websites or in Wiki's only. Most new residents have no clue about the existance either. Context sensitive help would be great, but most likely hard to implement. A more simple solution could be notecards. For instance, if there would be an 'information wall' with loads of notecards about various subjects on the HI's, that would save everyone a lot of (basic) questions. Information availability will also encourage trying things in reverse. All that would also be available for the times when there are no mentors on the HI's. If all would be there in multiple languages also, it would even be better. - Lisa Lowe 22 August 2007
==Orientation Islands==
Put observations regarding Melting Dot orientation island in MDStyle Orientation Island
* Please get rid of this self guided approach. Go to a linear approach for the basic 4 tasks and then have the hub self pick at the end of completing the 4 tasks to enhance there skills. --Destiny Niles 17:44, 15 August 2007 (PDT)
* Allow an option to enter the player's native language on sign-up. This would get automatically inserted into the avatar profile to allow us to get them help in their language more efficiently. This information could also be used to pre-sort new avatars to language-localized orientation islands. Warda Kawabata 22:11, 15 August 2007 (PDT)
* I agree with getting rid of the self guided approach. The first time I mentored, I thought "Hey I'll go to OI because that's the first place new accounts show up." When I got there, I found a slew of newbies who had absolutely no idea what they were supposed to do, and even the ones who had figured out what to do had no idea how to leave OI. I had to explain several times how to click on the sign and obtain a LM to exit the island. It was so overwhelming, I stayed away from OI for several days. Newbies often have no idea that something as simple as a pole or a sign can contain other objects like notecards and landmarks. Help Island is a little better, with the big rotating EXIT sign, but again if they didn't learn how to use landmarks or how to find them in their inventory, even that can be of little help. Personally, when I started SL, there was an option upon creating your account to select having a greeter, or having a mentor to guide you. Then you got to pick from a handful of available mentors by reading their little profile and choosing who you thought would best be able to help you. I thought that was still in existance when I applied to be a mentor, and fully expected that to be part of my mentor experience. I would love to be able to log in to something saying that I am available and being contacted when somebody has chosen to have me guide them. If there is a certain reason this was taken away, I'm unaware of it, so somebody could shoot me a message and let me know why :) I've also noticed that although we have over 1000 mentors in the program, any time I arrive at HI or OI to help, I am the ONLY mentor there! Only one time have I seen another mentor around when I was helping. I think it would help a lot if that system was started again, and that would hook up newbies with available mentors. The language problems could be solved this way too, as each mentor's volunteer profile would state their languages, so the newby could choose the mentor that they already know speaks their language. This could also weed out any mentors that don't do any volunteering for a certain period of time, so we would know when more volunteers are needed. --Buttercup Doolittle
* I do not agree with removing the selfpaced guide on the OI's. Though there are lots of volunteers, only a handfull will be actively mentoring, so there will never be enough mentors for all the OI's. Probably the reason why the guide is there anyway. Just too many new residents joining every day.
However the use of the Guide should be clear before the even join. And in their own language would be a great idea also (only 3 now). I see too many wander around not knowing what to do there because they lost the hud (crashes/technical problems), do not recognize it, do not understand it or otherwise lost track. Using clearly visible signs they should be able to fix that themselves. As stated under HI's about 'information walls', there should be information available also about things learned in the Guide.
At the moment the giant Help Island sign is a nice escape for the ones lost on the OI's. But when things work ok, it shouldn't be less clear in sight. They should be sort of 'forced' to do the Guide instead and find the key to the HI. You can also compare this to other games that have various skill-levels. You are required to do a whole level first before entering a new one. The challenge quickly improves your skills and will enhance the user experience. - Lisa Lowe 22 August 2007
* Although a one to one help would be great, it seems to me that we could not assure that a Mentor will be available when they rezz. I agree as well with the selfpaced guide on the OI's. This new approach it seems to me a lot more complete and fun than the linear approach that we had before. However, what we find on OI's is that new users don't understand that those are the basic skills for their every day life in world. And we should understand it as a common issue with all users of a new application: we want to jump using it right away. So, I would say that it may be good letting them know from start about what the OI's is for, how the process will be and how long it could take to finish it, stressing that as soon they finish it, they will be able to jump in world. With OIHUD they could know how their progressions is towards finishing it, but it is not clear enough for newbies. In addition, having a clear exit sign on OI's could help them both to keep trying to finish tutorials as well as an easy way to find their next station. Also, we could give them some incentives too. Besides the "succeed gesture" when they finish a task, others incentives could be some freebies related to their just learned skills. We know that they will get a lot of freebies, maybe more that they could handle in their inventory, but it may help them to keep towards finishing it.--Vindice VanDornan 10:57, 25 August 2007 (PDT)