One of my beefs with Linden Lab lately has been that they don’t talk enough, I guess the counter argument is that they’re busy doing things to improve the experience and don’t have time to discuss them all with us, however I think this is a bit of a shame. I keep discovering little gems … largely by mistake, because I don’t even realise they are there!
Viewer 3 has a much improved login screen which has the destination guide and events at the fore, but also links to the blog. However a big improvement is how well this screen now reacts, when you mouse over a destination guide location, you get some blurb and you click to select the login location to that of the destination guide location you just moused over:
Then we have events, events is slightly different to the destination guide in so much as if you click an event, your login location is automatically set to that of the upcoming event, however I do like the way the event goes from being merely a link, to a funky widget, which is exactly the sort of widget I’d like access to when blogging about events! I suppose I could take a screenshot, but that’s cheap.
I discovered both of these features by accident, firstly I found the destination guide feature yesterday because Venexia caught my eye and today I thought I’d play a bit more, I fully expected the events link to take me to the website, rather than present me with that funky widget.
The same goes for the blog, I exepcted it to just be a link to the website, but instead, the blog appears in my login screen window:
This is good because it keeps the experience within the login screen window, so when you’re finished, you go inworld! Sensible ploy and a massive improvement, really, Linden Lab should be shouting about these improvements.
Inworld there are some older improvements, one is search, the destination guide I like a lot in terms of presentation but the fact that you can one click teleport or bring up the map is really handy:
One thing I haven’t got my head around, and another thing Linden Lab aren’t talking to us about, is this trending business, in the destination guide you get little fires, in search places you get the three lights, places can be hot, active, busy etc.
I’m guessing this is to give people an indication of how busy a place is currently, which may well help them decide whether it’s worth going there or not. Maybe it’s a work in progress but I like what I’m seeing with these improvements, they may not be sexy, but they are damn useful and giving people an idea of what they can do before they login and letting them easily get to those places when they do login is a bloody good idea and whomever has been behind these developments should be happy with their work …… they should also be talking to us about it!
The login screen was revised during Viewer 2, pre-mesg release, and it is very good; I’ve been periodically needling Rodvik and Brett on the subject (although Viale is probably a better target) as the key thing the new log-in screen is missing (other than daily stats) is a link to the Grid Status Page.
To me, its inclusion is an absolute no-brainer: if LL are not going to clearly publicise core issues when they occur via in-world notices (something Rodvik has been telling me they are “looking in to” for around six months now), but are instead going to randomly through out warnings on Twitter or Plurk or whatever takes their fancy, they could at least have the Dashboard Grid Status summary displayed on the login screen to forewarn those about to launch SL of potential in-world issues.
So far, and like the return of in-world notices, I’ve been told that it shouldn’t be a hard thing to implement (Rodvik’s initial response was “Good idea!” – but then, how many have had similar and well-meaning Tweets from him?), and that LL are “looking in to it”. Given we’ve now had the login screen with only minor tweaks for the last 4 months, I’m not holding my breath on seeing anything soon. Blue as a colour suits me, but I don’t want to arrive as Christmas with it as my permanent complexion…
Again, this is why I sincerely hope Kim Salaer’s departure is possibly going to turn out to be for the better. My personal opinion is that she woefully misunderstood SL, and her vice-like grip on communications within the Lab is one of the primary reasons outward communications with the community have been dying a painfully slow death over the last 12+ months.
The Grid Status should have been there ages ago, I also asked them to put it in the forum ages ago or at the very least use the Lithium Twitter add on for the Second Life feed to go to the forum as plenty of people read the forums.
I honestly don’t know what Kim achieved during her time at Linden Lab but there have undoubtedly been improvements in marketing, increased signups and better presentation to new users, but I’ve complained many times about Linden Lab’s lack of talking to us. there is information in the forum but I still don’t get attracted to the blog, partially now because I don’t really expect there to be much there, which is a shame.
Brett ran through the new login screen at SLCC 2011. I’m just stunned that LL themselves didn’t actually make more of a dance over his presentation (indeed, ALL their presentations at the convention) – where are the slideshows? Where’s the links to the official SLCC website and videos?
As to marketing – I’m with you, it’s unclear as to what Kim achieved. Yes, the sign-up process was simplified (but this appears to have been a Rodvik-inspired approach), yes there have been mini-campaigns. BUT – where is the cohesive strategy? Where is the structure approach to promoting and marketing SL according to its strengths? Where is the associated PR.