Loomio

Setting up a new group

AT Aaron Thornton Public Seen by 48

Here's a mockup of the process

Setting up a new group on Loomio is currently pretty confusing. There's a lot of information that's either missing or duplicated. The ideal system would be a coherent start-to-finish process, guiding the novice user to set up a thriving Loomio community. Ben and I started a first draft of what this New Group wizard might look like:

  1. Set up group name, description + privacy settings
  2. Start a new discussion
  3. Start a new decision
  4. Send invites

The idea would be to train the user as they go through the process of completing these steps.

What do you think about this process?


For reference, Here's the doc I was working on previously

BK

Benjamin Knight Sun 11 Nov 2012 8:34AM

I don't seem to have access to see these mockups buddy, point me in the right direction?

JL

Jon Lemmon Sun 11 Nov 2012 8:35PM

I've changed the privileges on the project. Try again now.

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Tue 20 Nov 2012 4:50AM

Had a good yarn with Jon on this one. Outlined the scope of the challenge. Getting this process right is pretty much the key to good engagement. Here's the elements we have to coordinate into a coherent flow:

  1. Super-admin approves group request: creates a new group and sends the acceptance email to the group admin
  2. Group admin receives acceptance email, clicks on invite token link
  3. If admin is not logged in, take them to 'sign up or sign in' page
  4. Go to Welcome page: intent is to convey 'successfully setting up a new Loomio group will require a concerted investment of your time'.
  5. Set group settings (privacy + description)
  6. Read example discussion
  7. Start a new discussion or two
  8. Pre-invite members: introduce Loomio to group participants before sending them the invite email.
  9. Invite members

Point 5: group settings can potentially be included in the welcome page.
Point 6, 7: this is messy as hell, need to figure out a clean way to ensure admins start a good discussion.
Point 8: how do we ensure this step happens? Is there a workaround? How do we supply out pre-written template?

PS

Paul Smith Tue 20 Nov 2012 10:32PM

@Richard I really like that flow.

Point 6 could be simplified if we set up a dummy discussion in the Help subgroup.

A workaround for Point 8 might be to include some of the "How It Works" page so that each new member is introduced to loomio right from the invite?

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Mon 3 Dec 2012 5:00AM

I've updated the context with today's work. It's pretty wordy but I think it has to be - you want people to realise that setting up a successful group takes a bit of effort.

Please everybody jump in and cut it to shreds :)

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Tue 4 Dec 2012 8:42AM

@robertguthrie twisted my arm so I converted this into a proper balsamiq mockup. Go here for the first page of the wizard and click the little ▶ arrow on the top right to flick through all the steps of the wizard.

JL

Jon Lemmon Tue 4 Dec 2012 7:49PM

Really nice to see this in mockup form.

I found the "Invite Your Group" page a bit confusing. I think we should consider moving the form where you invite members to the top of that page. I also think we should consider putting the template email on the next screen and combine it with the advice to get in touch with the group after inviting them. Otherwise it seems like a bit of overkill telling the group admin to send their members two separate emails directly before and after they invite them.

Just my 2 cents...

RG

Robert Guthrie Tue 4 Dec 2012 11:35PM

I'm gonna stay out of this from now, sorry but I need some brain for other stuff. Nice one on the using good development process @richardd.bartlett

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Wed 5 Dec 2012 2:28AM

Okay I've taken on some feedback and done a new version of the mockup. Check it out and tell me what you think.

If you follow the wizard through you'll see it's quite opinionated, which I think it needs to be, but I'm not yet sure my opinions are the right ones to force on people :P

The main question I have at the moment is at Step 4: Invite Your Group. I've mocked it up with a default message that can't be edited. It would be nice to include a user-editable personal message somewhere but I'm not sure how to do that in a way that satisfies the criteria of a good invitation.

As I see it those criteria are something like:

  1. has one big invite link at the top of the page
  2. incentivises participation (i.e. 'this is the decision, sign up so you can have your say')
  3. explains what Loomio is
BK

Benjamin Knight Wed 5 Dec 2012 7:01PM

I like! How feasible is it to build so that people can save their progress at each step? From experience people often have a really hard time thinking of their first discussion/decision (sometimes takes days to come up with something that makes any sense at all), so I can imagine extreme frustration without save points.
Thoughts?

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