BigBarracuda
Verified Trader,
First and foremost, let's please keep this to constructive feedback. Think of it as you taking the time to identify opportunities for improvement. It'll more than likely become part of the new norm so trying to influence the "virtuality" (yes I made up that word) could be significantly important! It'll be very tempting to turn your post into a venting session, try to avoid that please. If necessary try to be as specific as possible as your points may be evaluated for ease of implementation as well as improvement of the experience.
The way I see it we benefit from having a couple of folks on this site that can probably present our thread to the EXPO team (toward the next Virtual Expo). Keeping it constructive will keep the readers more interested in addressing what they find. I would like to ask the website moderators to delete any posts that don't bring some level of constructive criticism or positive suggestions.
For example, and to start things off:
My first attempt was on Friday afternoon, I already had my log in name and password (this was a fairly simple process). I was able to click on the link to the Virtual Show but it really wasn't obvious nor intuitive. For the log in process, consider making it a very large button, maybe even bright colours. You want the start up step to be the most simple, most easy to find step of the entire process. If people can't find it easily, they will move onto other things in life.
Once I was in, again it didn't feel easy to get into what I wanted to get into. Were the links there? Yes, but all the advertising noise made them less apparent. Once I found the links, I sat back and surfed a bit without joining any specific discussions/presentations; to try to get a feel for the layout. It certainly didn't come to me quickly, but I could get the general gist, but again it was a lot of concentration/thinking to get to that point.
From there I thought I would go into a booth to see that experience. The first few I went to were a shot of an empty chair. Consider providing the vendors some instructions on what to do while they are away (ie a sign saying "Back in 10 mins" or whatever). Seeing nothing on the screen leaves me feeling nothing, so I moved on, never to go back to that booth.
When I did find a vendor on the screen, I could hear him talking, and see his text messages down the right, but again it was not intuitive to me as to how to get in. I knew I had to take a step or two to get there, but it simply wasn't clear to me. I ended up moving on, but please consider more visual concepts when laying that booth experience out. Maybe even a banner that says "nobody can hear you or see you until you click here" on a very large button.
At that point something came up in real life and I had to shut down. It's now Saturday, and I received an email that today was the last day. I think this is a great idea and would suggest you keep this in place. However, today my password doesn't work, re-setting my password doesn't work. Further update: I've got past the password issue, but now I'm stuck on a page that says "reception" and "Authenticating...". I seem to be stuck there because nothing is happening. Again getting into the Expo is far too bumpy and needs to be smoothed out. Having attendees frustrated right out of the gate will only make their opinions more jaded as they try the next steps.
Due to extensive trials, I have also come to realize that internet browser selection is important, consider putting that information somewhere too.
Lastly, I'm my job they utilize a system referred to as UAT (User Acceptance Testing), maybe consider doing that before the next expo. The trick to this is to find people that won't simply give you the thumbs up. Find people that can provide constructive points, but are also comfortable showing their frustration. It feels so close to a good experience, but it'll take some professional layout skills to get it there (and no, I'm not that guy).
Glenn Conners
The way I see it we benefit from having a couple of folks on this site that can probably present our thread to the EXPO team (toward the next Virtual Expo). Keeping it constructive will keep the readers more interested in addressing what they find. I would like to ask the website moderators to delete any posts that don't bring some level of constructive criticism or positive suggestions.
For example, and to start things off:
My first attempt was on Friday afternoon, I already had my log in name and password (this was a fairly simple process). I was able to click on the link to the Virtual Show but it really wasn't obvious nor intuitive. For the log in process, consider making it a very large button, maybe even bright colours. You want the start up step to be the most simple, most easy to find step of the entire process. If people can't find it easily, they will move onto other things in life.
Once I was in, again it didn't feel easy to get into what I wanted to get into. Were the links there? Yes, but all the advertising noise made them less apparent. Once I found the links, I sat back and surfed a bit without joining any specific discussions/presentations; to try to get a feel for the layout. It certainly didn't come to me quickly, but I could get the general gist, but again it was a lot of concentration/thinking to get to that point.
From there I thought I would go into a booth to see that experience. The first few I went to were a shot of an empty chair. Consider providing the vendors some instructions on what to do while they are away (ie a sign saying "Back in 10 mins" or whatever). Seeing nothing on the screen leaves me feeling nothing, so I moved on, never to go back to that booth.
When I did find a vendor on the screen, I could hear him talking, and see his text messages down the right, but again it was not intuitive to me as to how to get in. I knew I had to take a step or two to get there, but it simply wasn't clear to me. I ended up moving on, but please consider more visual concepts when laying that booth experience out. Maybe even a banner that says "nobody can hear you or see you until you click here" on a very large button.
At that point something came up in real life and I had to shut down. It's now Saturday, and I received an email that today was the last day. I think this is a great idea and would suggest you keep this in place. However, today my password doesn't work, re-setting my password doesn't work. Further update: I've got past the password issue, but now I'm stuck on a page that says "reception" and "Authenticating...". I seem to be stuck there because nothing is happening. Again getting into the Expo is far too bumpy and needs to be smoothed out. Having attendees frustrated right out of the gate will only make their opinions more jaded as they try the next steps.
Due to extensive trials, I have also come to realize that internet browser selection is important, consider putting that information somewhere too.
Lastly, I'm my job they utilize a system referred to as UAT (User Acceptance Testing), maybe consider doing that before the next expo. The trick to this is to find people that won't simply give you the thumbs up. Find people that can provide constructive points, but are also comfortable showing their frustration. It feels so close to a good experience, but it'll take some professional layout skills to get it there (and no, I'm not that guy).
Glenn Conners
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