There are a handful of changes that went live last weekend on SlideSix. The changes consisted of several bug fixes, but more importantly some usability enhancements that will hopefully lead to a better user experience. Here's a look at what's new.

Management Console Gets Help

I'd been meaning to add a proper help system to the management console for a long time and I finally took the initiative to put such a system in place. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The help system consists of several parts - tutorials, video help and FAQ's. The tutorials are authored in a simple manner that should (hopefully) walk a user through performing certain activities and each tutorial is associated with video help that demonstrates the particular action. Here's what the tutorials look like:

The system has been configured to be 'semi-annoying contextual' manner - which is to say that it will automatically appear at certain times depending on certain variables. For example, a new user will be greeted with a tutorial that prompts them to get started uploading presentations that looks like this:

If the user chooses 'Get Started' they will be shown the uploading tutorial:

The new system is available at any time by clicking the new 'Help' button in the top menu bar within the management console. Here's what the Help dialog looks like:

Beyond the tutorials and video help I've added a simple FAQ system that displays a handful of commonly asked questions. The system can be searched by keyword (IE: delete presentation) and filtered by category (IE: groups, profile, etc). Here's what the FAQ system looks like:

In addition to the help system and FAQs some changes were made to the front end that should lead to less confusion for new users. There's a new landing page for newly registered users that consolidates some helpful links that should make it clear how to quickly get started with SlideSix. Here's the new landing page:

The new landing page is also reused (although slightly modified for context) for users who are verifying their email address:

The trial uploader now has some clarifying language above it to let users know what is going on and give them a few additional options:

In addition to the changes above I corrected another annoying bit. Previously an unverfied email address could request a new password via the 'Forgot Password' link on the login page. Once they tried to login with the new password they would be prompted to verify their email address since they hadn't already done so. Now the password reset email includes language requesting the user to verify their email address prior to logging in and includes a link to do so. It's a small thing, but often times it is the minor annoyances that turn users off.

So that's about it on the recent changes. Next up is the private beta for the yet unnamed desktop presenter application. If you're interested in participating in the beta please let me know.