Onboarding: Try it! vs Get it!

[judell]

I think there are two main paths: Try it! vs Get It!

Try It!: Put in an URL, try a new experience

Get It! You want to keep having that experience? Best ways to get it:

Chrome:

1. Extension
2. Bookmarklet
3. Embed

Others:

1. Bookmarklet
2. Embed

If you factor things this way, which I argue we should, because nobody should be expected to repeatedly visit the home page to use the product, then it becomes clear that for anybody without Chrome, the bookmarklet is the /best/ way to use the product on a regular basis. (Note also that we currently assume Chrome users will install the extension, some or many may not wish to.)

Sketch

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Try it! [paste a link] [Annotate]

Get it!

Chrome: [Install extension] [Install bookmarklet] [Embed]

Others: [Install bookmarklet] [Embed]

Note that the bookmarklet link as it stands can thwart a user familiar with bookmarklets. My expectation as such a user is: drag a link labeled /bookmarklet/ it to the bookmark bar. In our case that fails because the link isn't the bookmarklet, it's only a way to expose the draggable bookmarklet.

So my recommendation is to make everything in the Get it! section a clickable button. The instructions that currently pop up for both [bookmark] and [embed] are quite nice. The [bookmark] pop up can (probably should) be enhanced with 15-second animated gifs that you can click to see (if needed) how (for your browser) to a) reveal the bookmark bar, b) drag the bookmark to it.

[judell]

I've been rethinking hypothesis/vision: #184. (Try It vs Get It) I now understand the crucial problem with bookmarklets. It /isn't/ that users don't know (or can't be easily taught, with helpful mini-screencasts) how to use them. It is, rather, the CSP (content security policy) trainwreck. (https://medium.com/making-instapaper/bookmarklets-are-dead-d470d4bbb626)

So I am reformulating issues/184 as follows. If you are on a platform with no extension, via is your best way to experience H. But you should not have to visit the home page and paste in an URL to use it! You should be able to launch H with a click. And so I now argue the bookmarklet returns in a different role. See the via bookmarklet at http://jonudell.net/h/utility-bookmarklets.h. Try using it on FF, Safari, etc. . Proposal: the via bookmarklet /is/ our bookmarklet. A simple redirector like that will not run afoul of CSP, and will be the recommended option on extensionless browsers.

So: The Try It! path on the home pages will still be made separate from the Get It! path. On extension-supported browsers, Get It! means get the extension. Otherwise it means get the via bookmarklet.

(Unless, sigh, the user needs to annotate a protected site that via can't see. In that case the non-via bookmarklet is a fallback. And if the protected site also enforces CSP, we got nuthin.)

[jgmac1106]

This is way above my pay grade in terms of technical knowledge. I see the point to the try-it, get-it dichotomy. You want to quickly onboard new users and then have them then install the extension.

So if I click on the via bookmarklet I am basically doing a re-direct?

[judell]

If new users use Chrome and are willing to install the extension then that's the first and best choice. For other browsers some kind of bookmarklet is the next best thing. The currently promoted bookmarklet injects H into the page, but that fails in several ways. The proposed bookmarklet is, yes, a simple redirect to via.hypothes.is, our relay. It will also fail in the case where the site is protected and via can't see it, but I'm thinking on the whole it's going to be the better trade-off.

Key point, as you say: Let's not continue to create the expectation that visiting the H homepage and pasting an URL is how regular non-Chrome H users (vs tirekickers) experience H.