4 ms·

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

by 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.
    - regularfry 8mo ago
      > People who are serious about achieving something will use a laptop Two decades ago it was said "People who are serious about achieving something will use a desktop" in response to laptops being underpowered.
areoform 8mo ago
> and have them watch the 2-minute onboarding video I'm going to be very honest here. The jock ain't watching no video. Dude has (possibly) early CTE. Do you think he has the attention span to sit through a two minute video? For a messaging app?? That's an automatic fail.
- addandsubtract 8mo ago
  Tbf, Discord takes way more than 2 minutes to understand.
  - pocksuppet 8mo ago
    But reveals it step-by-step. When you click on a Discord link without an account, it says: Hello! What is your name? You check there are no faefolk around, and then type your name. Now you are in the chat room and you can chat to people.
    - paulryanrogers 8mo ago
      A lot of discords have hoop jumping for rules or explainers. Then Nitro nags almost immediately and periodically thereafter. Server ops beg for Nitro boosts/packs. I've gotten through a few of these, but they're not trivial.
      - Dylan16807 8mo ago
        But the friend group server won't have hoops, and the other nags while annoying don't act as a barrier to basic use.
  - LogicFailsMe 8mo ago
    discord lost me at having to use task manager to shut it down on Windows.
    - 1337biz 8mo ago
      I am using it every day but never saw the need to download it.
folmar 8mo ago
I use it for a non-it non-engineer group and everyone is happy with browser experience. The mobile app is worse as it only allows writing in a few views that are not easy to access, and is becoming slower over time.

by tabbott 8mo ago

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.
  - regularfry 8mo ago
    > People who are serious about achieving something will use a laptop Two decades ago it was said "People who are serious about achieving something will use a desktop" in response to laptops being underpowered.

areoform 8mo ago

> and have them watch the 2-minute onboarding video I'm going to be very honest here. The jock ain't watching no video. Dude has (possibly) early CTE. Do you think he has the attention span to sit through a two minute video? For a messaging app?? That's an automatic fail.

addandsubtract 8mo ago
Tbf, Discord takes way more than 2 minutes to understand.
- pocksuppet 8mo ago
  But reveals it step-by-step. When you click on a Discord link without an account, it says: Hello! What is your name? You check there are no faefolk around, and then type your name. Now you are in the chat room and you can chat to people.
  - paulryanrogers 8mo ago
    A lot of discords have hoop jumping for rules or explainers. Then Nitro nags almost immediately and periodically thereafter. Server ops beg for Nitro boosts/packs. I've gotten through a few of these, but they're not trivial.
    - Dylan16807 8mo ago
      But the friend group server won't have hoops, and the other nags while annoying don't act as a barrier to basic use.
- LogicFailsMe 8mo ago
  discord lost me at having to use task manager to shut it down on Windows.
  - 1337biz 8mo ago
    I am using it every day but never saw the need to download it.

folmar 8mo ago

I use it for a non-it non-engineer group and everyone is happy with browser experience. The mobile app is worse as it only allows writing in a few views that are not easy to access, and is becoming slower over time.