7 ms·

Does your app pass the grandma and quarterback test? Can I get my grandma and the group's jock/quaterback to use it without handholding?

crabmusket 8mo ago
Data point of one: in my small community group that has moved to Zulip we do have a grandma contributing. No jocks though so I can't speak to that. I would also like to note that Slack did not pass the grandma test in our case. I highly doubt that Discord would given how hyperactive the UI is.
- Vinnl 8mo ago
  As a software engineer who's had to interact with Discord only a handful of times, I had no idea when other people could hear me or where I had to click to find people I was looking for.
  - crabmusket 8mo ago
    I've only rarely used it for voice, so I think I'm not in the right demographic. But I find its text/chat UI janky as hell.
tabbott 8mo ago
I'd say so, especially if you start on desktop and have them watch the 2-minute onboarding video. We are satisfied with what we see with our internal usability studies with nontechnical users. Among customers, one reference that I can quickly cite is this one: https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/ https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/ > Agents at GUT contact use Zulip every day to communicate with their team leads. “Most of our agents are in their 60s or 70s, so the software must be as simple as possible. That’s why we love Zulip,” says Erik Dittert, who’s been leading GUT contact’s IT team for the past 20 years. I would recommend doing a little training/handholding call/video when moving over a community -- but this is true for any new app. My mom needed training to do basic things in Squarespace, and I had a friend who worked at Slack whose manager started every chat message with "Hi <name>" and ended it with a signature, like you would an email. :)
- crabmusket 8mo ago
  > start on desktop Echoing this. Navigation is better and clearer on desktop. The mobile apps works really well once you know what you're doing. Part of onboarding into Zulip is being able to get an "overview" of the community and the discussions that are currently happening, and this is easier on desktop.
  - guhidalg 8mo ago
    In my experience, the median user for communication apps is mobile _only_. Before that, it better be a website that works well on phones, and decently on desktop. As a developer I don't like it, but reality doesn't have to appease me.
    - crabmusket 8mo ago
      This is a case where people can start talking past each other. In my view and experience, Zulip is a collaboration platform for groups who want to get shit done. I wouldn't recommend it for a "place to hang out". People who are serious about achieving something will use a laptop. Similarly, in a cousin comment - they will watch a short onboarding video. No platform is "intuitive" for everyone. WhatsApp and Signal are "basically just SMS" so they can lean on the knowledge phone users built in the 00s and 10s. Anything else is a new mental model and takes some adjustment. EDIT: also if you are an open source community, or a company, and you choose Discord for your support/project collab community... do better. (Looking at you CloudFlare)
      - int_19h 8mo ago
        > People who are serious about achieving something will use a laptop. That really depends on what that "something" is.
        crabmusket 8mo ago
        That's true, and there are also people - like my partner - who only own a mobile device. She unfortunately wouldn't be able to have what I regard as the ideal experience joining a Zulip.

crabmusket 8mo ago

Data point of one: in my small community group that has moved to Zulip we do have a grandma contributing. No jocks though so I can't speak to that. I would also like to note that Slack did not pass the grandma test in our case. I highly doubt that Discord would given how hyperactive the UI is.

Vinnl 8mo ago
As a software engineer who's had to interact with Discord only a handful of times, I had no idea when other people could hear me or where I had to click to find people I was looking for.
- crabmusket 8mo ago
  I've only rarely used it for voice, so I think I'm not in the right demographic. But I find its text/chat UI janky as hell.

tabbott 8mo ago

I'd say so, especially if you start on desktop and have them watch the 2-minute onboarding video. We are satisfied with what we see with our internal usability studies with nontechnical users. Among customers, one reference that I can quickly cite is this one: https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/ https://zulip.com/case-studies/gut-contact/ > Agents at GUT contact use Zulip every day to communicate with their team leads. “Most of our agents are in their 60s or 70s, so the software must be as simple as possible. That’s why we love Zulip,” says Erik Dittert, who’s been leading GUT contact’s IT team for the past 20 years. I would recommend doing a little training/handholding call/video when moving over a community -- but this is true for any new app. My mom needed training to do basic things in Squarespace, and I had a friend who worked at Slack whose manager started every chat message with "Hi <name>" and ended it with a signature, like you would an email. :)

crabmusket 8mo ago
> start on desktop Echoing this. Navigation is better and clearer on desktop. The mobile apps works really well once you know what you're doing. Part of onboarding into Zulip is being able to get an "overview" of the community and the discussions that are currently happening, and this is easier on desktop.
- guhidalg 8mo ago
  In my experience, the median user for communication apps is mobile _only_. Before that, it better be a website that works well on phones, and decently on desktop. As a developer I don't like it, but reality doesn't have to appease me.
  - crabmusket 8mo ago
    This is a case where people can start talking past each other. In my view and experience, Zulip is a collaboration platform for groups who want to get shit done. I wouldn't recommend it for a "place to hang out". People who are serious about achieving something will use a laptop. Similarly, in a cousin comment - they will watch a short onboarding video. No platform is "intuitive" for everyone. WhatsApp and Signal are "basically just SMS" so they can lean on the knowledge phone users built in the 00s and 10s. Anything else is a new mental model and takes some adjustment. EDIT: also if you are an open source community, or a company, and you choose Discord for your support/project collab community... do better. (Looking at you CloudFlare)
    - int_19h 8mo ago
      > People who are serious about achieving something will use a laptop. That really depends on what that "something" is.
      - crabmusket 8mo ago
        That's true, and there are also people - like my partner - who only own a mobile device. She unfortunately wouldn't be able to have what I regard as the ideal experience joining a Zulip.