Provide simple site use instructions for members
We have just joined and created a great website that includes profile management, news blogs, event registration and forums. One of the reason we chose WA was members could interact with all of these features without admin intervention. The WA help seems to be oriented to Admins, not users. I now have to develop user friendly instructions on how to use these features. I could not find user instructions on WA and recommend drafts for end user use of the gadgets.
TomS
shared this idea
The new member guide is now available at http://gethelp.wildapricot.com/en/articles/119 . The video continues to be available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiklL8lqroc
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Randall (Randy) Rensch
commented
Also important to note is what we all mean by "member." Our volunteer organization's website and forms, etc. are used by all of the following. Each type of user has their own need as to Help. The Help access should be immediately apparent and immediately available (without losing their place), and the help should not be cluttered with information irrelevant to that user and/or our organization and the task at hand.
USER: A person who sets up the WA account and functions (that is, setting up templates, details about the organization (e.g., member types and ALL that stuff), admin screens, the website, etc.)
END-USER: The admin who uses the WA interface day-to-day. Basically, they just enter data and text in existing forms. But they also need to set up a new event, event description, process financial data, send emails, etc.
MEMBER: Non-admins who are members of the club, and therefore may entail various responsibilities. They need access to guidance and whatever forms and data entry may be involved.
NON-MEMBER: Same as a Member, but basically, they just visit the website, register for events, subscribe to the mailing list, etc. In some cases, such as registration, they, too, need Help instruction (e.g., Remember to click the Submit button, found below. ... Yes, registrations fail because people didn't notice the final button way off to the right on the confirmation screen.)
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Walt Bilofsky
commented
All well and good, but that new member guide contains features that our site doesn't provide. And the illustrations of the features we have aren't exactly what our members will see.
A new member guide should get the member started with only the essential functions in the simplest, easiest to follow way. The last thing you want to do is confuse them or put them off.
I think writing a site-specific new member guide has to be part of getting a new site up and running. Maybe the best use of the WA guide is for admins to grab the pieces that apply to their site, and paste, edit and modify them into their own new member guide page.
You're welcome to do the same with my website's guide. Maybe others can offer their own guides.
Keep it simple. Tell them what the benefit is to them.
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We have published a new member guide at http://help.wildapricot.com/display/DOC/New+member+guide and an accompanying video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiklL8lqroc&hd=1 that you might be what you are looking.
