BitShares Forum
Main => Technical Support => Topic started by: KD on November 07, 2015, 04:27:50 am
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Hi Guys,
Some serious questions...
1. When do we want to start marketing this to the mass population?
2. When do we want to make this user friendly so we have a chance of it being used by the mass population?
Is it now? Is it 2016? 2017?
I hoped it would be with the release of Bitshares 2.0 but I have to say I think its not even close and I'll go through why in this post.
Now I'm a fairly technical person, computer literate and have been using computers for about 25 years, but not as technical as many on here I'm sure.
Just going through some basic stuff on an upgrade has me confused, so I started to look at it from the point of view of MOST people I come in contact with who are quite clueless when it comes to computers in general. I'm not completely sure who the community on here is made up of, but I would hazard a guess its predominantly male, aged 20 - 45 with good working knowledge of computers and a passion for technology.
That is not the general population! That is not the 90% of "consumers" who we want to take to this technology like they do to smartphones.
So here's my experience this afternoon with the empathy of perhaps a novice computer user, just so you can appreciate where I am coming from.
I wanted to upgrade my Bitshares 2.0 software to the latest release to get rid of the display bug recently mentioned, I like to keep my software updated to the latest version in any case. First I opened my current Bitshares 2.0 software to check what version I was using, usually this found under file or help "About Application"... it was there but threw a JavaScript error so I thought OK I'll just download the latest version.
I go over to the Bitshares.org website as I know this site is where to download the software (imagine I was given a card at an expo, or referred to the site in an email).
BitShares 2.0 is an industrial-grade financial smart contract platform. Sounds great!
I read some info under the Technology section... awesome I'm ready to download my software and start using Bitshares!
I click on "Download Now" because I want to install it on my computer.
Github? What's that? Oh OK Latest Release... BitShares 2.0.151101
All full nodes will need to upgrade to this release by Wed Nov 4 16:00:00 UTC 2015.
Huh? What's a full node? Oh wait its now November 7... sooo what does that mean, I can't get the software? hmmmm
Oh here we go, downloads...
BitShares-2.15.306-x64-cli-tools.exe
BitShares-light_2.0.151105.dmg
BitShares-light_2.0.151105.exe
bitshares-light_2.0.151105_amd64.deb
Source code (zip)
Source code (tar.gz)
Hmmm which one do I choose? What's a DMG? whats a DEB?
This actually did confuse me guys as I couldn't remember if I downloaded the light version or what.
So I downloaded that again, installed and now all I get is FILE/QUIT EDIT/... VIEW/RELOAD
It says connected but there is no main menu with explore, search etc like in the previous.
If I'm confused and don't know how to get back to where I was before, believe me there's a slim chance of getting a basic computer user to get this up and running. That might sound arrogant or offensive but it is not intended to be... it is said with the best of intentions.
There is great work being done here, but if the UX is not friendly and basically "plug and play" its a problem.
I am putting this out there because I do want this to work, I am invested in it (probably more emotionally than financially at this point) and I cannot help wondering if all the people working on this fulltime, and part time, at this stage cannot see the woods for the trees?
Maybe a good starting point would be for everyone involved to ask a friend/family member who is not to go through the UX and give some feedback?
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Yep. Very nicely stated. The experience is not user friendly yet, though the technology is excellent. I am one of the least technically-proficient people involved in BitShares; I figured out the installation, but I've also spent hours on this forum and gotten some good help from people on here. The nice thing is that once I got in and figured out the basics, I found that it does function very, very well.
Smoothing out the user experience should be what they work on from now on. By the way, I think you've done a great service for our community in listing everything that is less than adequate. Your post is a great "To Do" list.
As for your question of 'when do we market', I guess it depends on whether your primary audience is nerds (and I mean that in a good way) who can navigate this stuff. If so, start marketing. If not, wait until you feel comfortable with the product that you are selling. I share your hope that we get this whole thing smoother in the coming days and weeks.
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It would be good if someone can tell me how to get my wallet back up and running.
Since I updated I have nothing to see and no idea how to get it back :-\
*** Update***
OK Its back online... no idea how I did this as all I did was change the API link option back and forth a few times between the Openledger and a local IP which seems to be in the dropdown.
Happy to see it :) but have no clearer understanding of what happened, or how it works etc
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some more questions...
I am assuming the Bitshares Light is what I have installed previously, but this time it loads without the full menu it had before, like the Open Ledger version, why is that?
I tried installing the first option - BitShares-2.15.306-x64-cli-tools.exe
Why does it say "Publisher Unknown" when I go to install on Windows 10? This flags a warning
Why does the installer have the old BitsharesX logo on it?
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https://bitshares.org/download/
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https://bitshares.org/download/
Good! + 1
Just maybe put the web wallet before the downloads? Just a thought.
edit
The links produce 404, though.
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I agree, the average user should never be sent to a github page . Its intimidating, confusing, and unnecessary. Someone who's interested in the github page will be more than capable of finding it by some other means.
https://bitshares.org/download/
This is a better page, but the the most prominent "Download Now" link points to github. only 1 in 1000 vistors would even bother to find the above download page. I'd suggest having the "Download Now" link to the above https://bitshares.org/download/
OK Its back online... no idea how I did this as all I did was change the API link option back and forth a few times between the Openledger and a local IP which seems to be in the dropdown.
Happy to see it :) but have no clearer understanding of what happened, or how it works etc
I think this screen is not very intuitive. I found it confusing at first also. First it wasn't clear that there was even a drop down, and the button saying "Retry" seems to imply that something did not, or does not work. adding a new API address to connect to, didn't change anything (was still unaware of the drop down) It evidently will try and connect automatically if you select a connection and just let it sit, so "retry" is not really accurate. If it connects, the button should simply say "OK" or "Proceed" or "Continue" .
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I agree, the average user should never be sent to a github page . Its intimidating, confusing, and unnecessary. Someone who's interested in the github page will be more than capable of finding it by some other means.
https://bitshares.org/download/
This is a better page, but the the most prominent "Download Now" link points to github. only 1 in 1000 vistors would even bother to find the above download page. I'd suggest having the "Download Now" link to the above https://bitshares.org/download/
yep agreed will update frontpage tonight .. Frontpage changes were made during my stay in shanghai ..
( was happy that someone else was helping out during this time)
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I think this screen is not very intuitive. I found it confusing at first also. First it wasn't clear that there was even a drop down, and the button saying "Retry" seems to imply that something did not, or does not work. adding a new API address to connect to, didn't change anything (was still unaware of the drop down) It evidently will try and connect automatically if you select a connection and just let it sit, so "retry" is not really accurate. If it connects, the button should simply say "OK" or "Proceed" or "Continue" .
I agree. I think the "retry" button needs to change to start or similar as it is clear to me now that I have to click it to view my dashboard... this is not clear from initial view.
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I agree, the average user should never be sent to a github page . Its intimidating, confusing, and unnecessary. Someone who's interested in the github page will be more than capable of finding it by some other means.
https://bitshares.org/download/
This is a better page, but the the most prominent "Download Now" link points to github. only 1 in 1000 vistors would even bother to find the above download page. I'd suggest having the "Download Now" link to the above https://bitshares.org/download/
yep agreed will update frontpage tonight .. Frontpage changes were made during my stay in shanghai ..
( was happy that someone else was helping out during this time)
This link has not been changed?
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I agree, the average user should never be sent to a github page . Its intimidating, confusing, and unnecessary. Someone who's interested in the github page will be more than capable of finding it by some other means.
https://bitshares.org/download/
This is a better page, but the the most prominent "Download Now" link points to github. only 1 in 1000 vistors would even bother to find the above download page. I'd suggest having the "Download Now" link to the above https://bitshares.org/download/
yep agreed will update frontpage tonight .. Frontpage changes were made during my stay in shanghai ..
( was happy that someone else was helping out during this time)
This link has not been changed?
thx for the reminder ....(done)
i begin to think maybe it would make sense to link the online wallet on bitshares.org to bitshares.org/wallet instead of openledger...thoughts?
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I for one agree with that (bitshares.org/wallet)... as good as open ledger is we are about promoting the Bitshares name/brand so as much as it can be kept "in house" the better.
Another big UX concern for me is the aforementioned "retry" button on the splash page of the software. It is really not intuitive and needs to be clicked to get the dashboard up.
I am hoping this initial splash page is just a holding page for now? The initial presentation could be more spectacular, and functional.
Without clicking the "retry" button on launch mine reads Application initialization issues.
Do we have a design team? I think the logo is great so some thought has gone in to this.
One more thing (design background here) is horizontal scroll bars... really want to eliminate these if possible, for example on the recent activity field - horizontal scroll bars are not good for presentation and associated with "amateur" or "error" and we are not either.
It would be better, in my opinion, to have a tab/handle to resize the window, or stack the accounts on the left under each other to make room for it.
I love the recent activity window, the black background, the whole look... just not the horizontal scroll bars.