Over the last weeks our team has been involved in a major campaign of debugging and generally improving user experience on Edgeryders’ platform. You might have seen us tweaking around, testing messaging and reporting on weird threads. Don’t be surprised if this goes on in the following days, as changes are still being implemented. In the meantime, here are the main improvements so far, in addition to post-beta testing progress :
- A tightened up design that is meant to clean up the visual experience and be consistent also in terms of shapes and colors; we try to make it nice for the Edgeryder's eye, so for example our home page now hosts a 3 minute presentation of what we do. It's there as a common resource, so feel free to share it. Also visible are the latest tweets about \#edgeryders, a dynamic that keeps us connected to the outside world. From the Missions page you can now access all missions completed so far by the community, and to make it even simpler for you we've begun redesigning mission briefs into more engaging formats. They try to briefly and better explain the reasoning behind each mission and why it's important both for you and the community to put time into it.
- Activity stream is now located in Hangout (our public square) and can also be seen by users in their profile page under the name Message center. As of now Edgeryders are able to post videos here, in addition to the usual text and images. This can be done simply by copy pasting embed codes and is an encouragement to use visuals whenever this feels easier to communicate (you can upload videos in your mission reports as well) As part of a fluid streaming we are now able to ping other users and engage them directly in conversations. You do this in the usual tweeting style "@Username" and next they are notified on their walls. Which takes me to the following point:
- Functional notifications are in place to facilitate interaction; they ensure that a user is made aware every time another Edgeryder writes a message, comments on his mission reports or conversations in which he is involved. Notifications are sent by private email and they enable conversation to converge in different parts of the platform. Our common assumption here is that whenever you receive such a message, the nice thing to do is go on the platform and engage with the people involved in a conversation with you. The greatest gift to the community is paying attention and engaging with its members. Once you sign up, you should pass through the Welcome Group and let people know you, see what others are doing, find your way through their transition experiences.. you'll definitely feel the need to share yours. And don't forget to have fun cause that's what we Edgeryders do!
