562498 - [RFC] "First time here?" experience

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, enhancement)

Description

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

Attachment: StackOverflow, first time visitor experience

We were doing some user testing recently, and it seems like in spite of our efforts to tell first time users what add-ons actually are, people don't spend a whole lot of effort on reading. We discussed it a little today, and the interesting question came up of just how many people are even entering the site from the front page. If people google for stuff, won't they just end up on the details pages?

Request for comments: Should we show some sort of "anchor" for first-time users on our details pages so they can find out more about add-ons if they want to? I can imagine a details page being rather intimidating for a first-timer.

A bar on the top, like stackoverflow does, perhaps? (see the attached image)

Comment 1

[Dave Garrett]

(In reply to comment #0)
> A bar on the top, like stackoverflow does, perhaps? (see the attached image)

I've always found these sorts of on-top-of-content top/bottom bars a little annoying, though that may just be my opinion. An alternative might be a triangle-ish shaped overlay in the lower right corner. It would be more compact and with most AMO pages' layout it wouldn't cover up much. Would also allow for some vertical space for eye-catching graphics of some sort.

Another idea, in addition to or instead of others, would be to add a concise "What are addons?" help box to the header. There's plenty of free space to work with to the right of the application banner for something short and simple.

Comment 2

[Justin Scott [:fligtar]]

This is a good idea. We'll take a look at this after zamboni settles down.

Comment 3

[Andy McKay]

Attachment: First time notification in imapala

I think this is covered in imapala. Although its a bit short on the details.

Comment 4

[Wil Clouser [:clouserw]]

This is covered by that banner on all pages and we're also getting an intro video on the front page.  Calling this fixed.