Dumbing Down Xenforo

[DRE]

How much time have you spent dumbing down your xenforo site for slow individuals? It's like they refuse to hover over their username to see their options. As if they don't see the options available when clicking on someone's member card. Like they don't know how to do the most basic stuff.

 

[Mrs.T]

I have not dumbed my site down but have certainly spent way too much time explaining things.

 

[Slavik]

Left my users to find it themselves. They work it out eventually

 

[Russ]

I wouldn't say I dumbed it down, but I did send a message to every user saying they can:

Change their background preference
Customize their profile image
Choose an Avatar
And Pick A Signature

Once you're done introduce yourself here.

More words but ya... I use links for those things.

 

[Andy.N]

I expect them to be generally smarter than average as the majority of them have a graduate degree in hard science

 

[jmurrayhead]

I used notices with specific criteria. If a user didn't have an avatar set, they would see a notice with a link to where they could do so. If they were new, they would have a notice with a link to the introductions thread, and so on.

 

[Adam Howard]

How much time have you spent dumbing down your xenforo site for slow individuals? It's like they refuse to hover over their username to see their options. As if they don't see the options available when clicking on someone's member card. Like they don't know how to do the most basic stuff.

Not everyone on my site is tech aware. It still remember a member who seriously thought the internet was AOL (no joke).

I recognize that no matter what forum software we use some people will always need a little help. Because everyone starts out some place.

But yes, sometimes I do feel the need to "dumb down" a few things. Either because people are completely new and aware of how things work any sense (tech noobs) or are part of the generation which takes no interest in learning & expects everything to be 2nd nature.

 

[Mouth]

As a part 2 to this question ... where is a really good user guide or help/faq to put on your site for users on how to best use XF?

 

[Sheldon]

As a part 2 to this question ... where is a really good user guide or help/faq to put on your site for users on how to best use XF?

I ran across one somewhere, racking my brain now to remember it...

 

[MagnusB]

I was/am working on a tutorial for my site using screenshots and a simple jquery slider. My intention was to absolutely position links on top of the screenshots and have a description below, so the user could "click the buttons" as they went through it. I kinda got stomped when I read through it and was unsure if it would add to the confusion or remove the confusion.

 

[Ingenious]

The most useful change I made was the button under the reply box, changing "upload a file" to "Upload a file or photo" because people were forever clicking on the picture icon in the toolbar and getting confused when wanting to upload photos (they didn't all associate files as also being photos).

Then I changed "Reply" to the right of each post to "Quote" to make it clear that it quotes too (to help cut down excessive quoting of almost every preceding post).

I also did some video tutorials on adding video to posts, adding images, checking new content. You can't beat being shown by video in the actual forum you're using.

Finally, used the excellent add-on which welcomes new members with a PM - so not only giving them a personal welcome but also running through what to do next and where to get help.

 

[Morgain]

My members are not gamers or techies
I changed quite a few labels in Phrases - added a sidebar on almost all pages - used Library to credate guide pages which I link to - and put a LATEST! (Whats New) link button on the end of the breadcrumbs and in sidebar - used Nodes as Tabs to create simplified navbar,

Yeah I dumb it down.