Being more welcoming

There's been a good amount of change and improvements in the TempusGameIt client over the past year. We've also had a little bit of growth too and one of the areas that I wanted to focus on was the new user experience. While we strive the make the app intuitive and onboarding easy, it still felt like the current flow when a user starts using the app for the first time was less than ideal.

Problem 1: Where's the App? 

The most striking issue is that when a user downloads the app, installs it, and then runs it, nothing happens! Since the app itself runs in the system tray, unless you're paying attention, there's no clear indication that anything has happened. What a terrible first run experience!

Problem 2: Marginally Helpful Guidance 

Once the user actually figures out how to access the application via their browser, the app has mixed usefulness.

 It is good that a user will be prompted to log in. It's also helpful that we explain that an account will be created if they don't have one yet.

 

Things get more problematic after logging in though. While we communicate actions that the user can perform--scan or review options--we don't do a good job of communicating why they would want to do one or the other. Also, when they click on the "Check my options" button, they are routed to the options page, where there's a lot to process in one go for a brand new user;.

 

There's also some confusion too, because we show the catalog menu on the left hand side, and it is a point of distraction for a new user. What are these options? Should I be interacting with them? Do I need to press the Add button?

The Solution: Revamped Welcoming

Fixing the first problem is pretty straightforward. When the app starts and there's no logged in user and their catalog is empty, then we automatically launch the website. This brings them straight into the application on run and keeps them from having to figure out what the heck is going on.

The second problem required a little more effort, but I am personally very pleased how it turned out. Instead of dropping the user into a hybrid view of the catalog page, we now present them with a welcome experience.

 

Users now have a dedicated welcome screen. We now have a carousel that presents features of the system in a concise manner, and will also allow the user to directly modify some basic settings. We have also included the single Scan button at the bottom of the page, which reduces the potential for being routed to a more confusing option page.

After the user logs in, the carousel updates to give them a personalized welcome message and also encourages them to visit their account on the live website to enable steam integration.

 

The next set of items in the carousel communicates how the app runs, and presents the user with the option to start on login.

 

Next we show how the app finds games on a user's machine via locators. These are the same components that are shown on the options page, so they'll be specific to the platform on which the app is running. We also present them with the option to add additional paths to search. The goal is that by reviewing these two panes they understand by default how the app locates games and also present them with the opportunity have the app look in additional spots.

 

Finally, we close the loop on the introduction by providing direct links to the discord as well as the trello board. This helps new users get connected to the direction of the app and to the community discord to chat and share any issues that they may be experience as they onboard.

 

This is the original toot from a few weeks ago and I believe the work that we did completely hits the points outlined. A new user should be presented with a focused view of what the system does and give. the chance to tweak a few configuration points that will directly affect their initial run of the system.

Whats Next?

The next batch of usability features are adding "Learn more" touch points throughout the system that present information in the same card format as above. Once a user has scanned their system and found their installed games, there are additional points of interest to highlight where they can further tweak how things work. There are also some rough edges in the catalog redesign (Suggested Games and Needs Review) that can use additional explanation beyond the simple tooltip.