DuVal's dashboard

Hello Thomas and all,

The following is alpha user experience feedback from DuVal, Rock Hollow Studios

User experience note 1: I was so pleased to find Seesmic. I reviewed the norms conversation
which I found inspiring not so much for the content but because of the
newness of the conversation format. It was easy to poke around and
listen/watch the comments. I poked around until I found the alpha and
signed up.

User experience note 2: I told a young entrepreneur that I met about Seesmic and promised to send her a link so she can check it out herself. When I went
searching, it wasn't that easy to find the "on ramp" by searching on Seesmic. Do you recommend that newcomers to Seesmic go to a certain URL to learn about and play with it because there are a lot of links to wade through before the uninitiated can figure out what the heck Seesmic is. It's like a hidden jewel.

User experience note 3: In my role as self-appointed evangelist for
Seesmic, I'm at a bit of a loss. I don't mind being an early adopter,
in fact I love it but, I often see potential in early releases that
some of my friends and colleagues aren't going to get or won't have
time to pursue if the concept is difficult to access. And since my
job in life is to help facilitate adoption of emerging Internet
applications (by outsiders not just those who are already in the
social networking club) I am here to tell you that a little more hand
holding on your www.seesmic.com site would be nice.

User experience note 4: When I got to www.seesmic.com and
tried to log in, typed in what I thought I should, log in failed, I
went back to try again, the user name and password I had typed in
could not be removed to retry, I signed up for the alpha again. I bet you hate this.

I love what you are doing, its fresh and exciting. But there is still a lot that I don't understand.

Is this the start of a FAQ?
What is Seesmic? (a video conversation experience? Something more?)
How can I see what Seesmic can do? (help people by giving them a link
to examples off of the seesmic.com page)
How can I try it out for myself with my own question? (Try it!)
How do I get my group of friends, colleagues involved? (Invite people
to your conversation?)
Can I browse to find the first message that starts a series of
comments in Seesmic?
Can I see all Seesmic conversations that are going on?
Is there a "private conversation" feature?
How do I start my own conversation?
Are there any instructions anywhere?

With this information in place in one place, you put yourself in a better position for viral
adoption to take place among a diverse audience of experimenters. I
consider this a good strategy for something like Seesmic that could
work as a stand alone communication tool for people who are not as versed in social networking as the master's of it but are friends, family and colleagues of the masters.

Best regards and I will be looking forward to new developments and to
your continued success!

DuVal

Digital arts site: http://web.mac.com/cynthia_duval/Digi...
User Experience research site: www.rockhollowstudios.com