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Optimizely Open-Sources Guiders.js, a Library to Help You Guide New Users

blog.optimizely.com

21–29 of 29 posts

Re: Optimizely Open-Sources Guiders.js, a Library to Help You Guide New Users

#23
Does any know what other sites apart from Optimizely that use Guiders.js or have a similar interactive tour? I have been developing something very similar for my app and am very interested in seeing examples of how to best structure the walk-through.

Re: Optimizely Open-Sources Guiders.js, a Library to Help You Guide New Users

#24
post #19

This sounds like a great idea, but I (as a webapp user) would probably say "No thanks" to the guide to take a first look at a website before trying to go through a bunch of dialog boxes. I wonder what % of users will go through a guide like this.

I believe you missed the point, this is to help users start interacting with the app, it's not on the homepage. So as someone visiting the site you would see if you like its idea or not and then, if you do, you would for instance try a demo. That's where this kicks in, it helps you with your first actions.

It might make sense for some apps to use this directly on the homepage but that would probably be the exception to the rule.

Re: Optimizely Open-Sources Guiders.js, a Library to Help You Guide New Users

#26
I built a similar library on top of YUI called Feature Cue while I was at Yahoo! Sadly it was never open sourced, got rewritten, over-engineered and (as far as I know) faded into obscurity.

I'm glad the Optimizely guys have released their version, because based on our user testing novice users really respond well to this kind of interactive product tour.

Re: Optimizely Open-Sources Guiders.js, a Library to Help You Guide New Users

#28
post #20
post #19

This sounds like a great idea, but I (as a webapp user) would probably say "No thanks" to the guide to take a first look at a website before trying to go through a bunch of dialog boxes. I wonder what % of users will go through a guide like this.

What would help you start then? Another type of documentation? Just browsing the app?

An easy to activate the guide later on. (You probably have that - I just mean that I would like to get rid of the first popup offering a guide to see the product itself)

Its a great idea, and I'll try to use in my app.

Re: Optimizely Open-Sources Guiders.js, a Library to Help You Guide New Users

#29
post #24
post #19

This sounds like a great idea, but I (as a webapp user) would probably say "No thanks" to the guide to take a first look at a website before trying to go through a bunch of dialog boxes. I wonder what % of users will go through a guide like this.

I believe you missed the point, this is to help users start interacting with the app, it's not on the homepage. So as someone visiting the site you would see if you like its idea or not and then, if you do, you would for instance try a demo. That's where this kicks in, it helps you with your first actions. It might make sense for some apps to use this directly on the homepage but that would probably be the exception…

You're right - I made the exception the rule. Thanks for the clarification.
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