What does a new user need in a homepage experience on Stack Overflow?

Question

In June, we asked you for your thoughts on what you thought would make a good homepage. After reviewing the feedback, we wanted to share the takeaways and a starting point for where we think we can begin.

Based on the feedback, it's unsurprisingly clear that what makes a good homepage experience for a new user doesn’t necessarily make an exceptional homepage for more established curators. Ultimately, to achieve a valuable homepage for both groups, we must consider those with different requirements. In particular, we found that many established curators use other parts of the site to suit their needs. We see an opportunity for these needs to be pieces of the larger puzzle of a homepage that could act as a central starting point.

To start, the new homepage will initially focus on helping new users get comfortable participating on Stack Overflow. We like the idea of a customizable interface where users can build the page that makes sense for them, but to begin, we need to determine what the default experience should be, before we start determining where to branch out to meet the needs of different kinds of users.

For version one of the new homepage, we want to focus on what we want new or passive users to do. We see this as an acceptable starting point as it will cater to the largest group of users first. Based on the feedback that was given, we see some of those things as:

Highlight resources that can help new or inexperienced users to get started or learn more about how to use Stack Overflow
Improving content discovery for passive users.
Creating a more focused starting point for users to jump off from as they navigate Stack Overflow

Preliminary mockup

Below is a wireframe mockup we can start with. This is an initial starting point, so please keep that in mind as you share any suggestions and/or critiques.

Looking ahead

We see this as a multiphase project. This first phase will focus on getting a default homepage state out there that can be used by everyone. But we want to acknowledge that it might not be the best solution for experienced power users. For this first phase, our measurement of success will be new users using the homepage. This means easier ways to interact with relevant content and personalized discovery suggestions to engage with. We talk about this briefly in the user activation section on this recent blog post.

From there we see phase two as expanding the homepage from learning and discovering content to allowing users to customize a homepage to match their needs. This includes prompts to engage with questions they might know the answer to, or maybe a customizable feed that pulls questions in from different sites on the network. As we revisit the homepage, there are a few areas that we're considering making some updates to. Two areas that come to mind are making updates to the tour page and the post summary. These areas have needed some improvements, but we'll need to consider how we prioritize these efforts among the phases.

Feedback Requested

This is where we are starting for a new user homepage experience. Is there anything in particular we should add that is the right action for new users to take? Alternatively, is there something we should take away that you find is not helpful? Also, if you had to pick between redesigning the post summary or work done on the tour page, which would you prefer?

We will be monitoring this post for feedback till September 4th, 2024.

"Recently viewed posts" - but why? What value does this add that browser histories don't already handle? — Zoe - Save the data dump, Commented Aug 21 at 18:31
i'd rather see recently viewed posts than (checks notes...) "Recent Tags" and "Recent Badges" that are neither my recent tags or my recent badges.. which is what we currently get in that right column if we disable HNQ. — Kevin B, Commented Aug 21 at 18:35
@Zoe I'd argue it could add visibility; especially if I've got multiple tabs open, or if I open a question from that page, navigate backwards, then open another, etc. Having a consolidated short-term history on-site seems like a reasonable potential value add. — zcoop98, Commented Aug 21 at 18:48
"we see some of those things as" -- Could you elaborate a bit, please? I mean all those 3 bullet points sound all wonderful, but the information content is almost nonexistent. — Dan Mašek, Commented Aug 21 at 18:58
A helpful reminder might be in order for new users: "Remember Stack Overflow is a Question and answer site. It is NOT a discussion forum, so keep your posts concise and to the point. Each page consists of exactly ONE question and zero or more Answers. The better posed the Question <previous sentence text links to the asking question section of the Help Center>, the greater the odds of it receiving a useful answer." — user4581301, Commented Aug 21 at 19:07
Instead of having reputation and badges (they hold very little value comparing to what we have in the top bar), I would randomly show some short tips on how the site should be used. This would hold more value for users that are just starting than anything else. — Dalija Prasnikar, Commented Aug 21 at 20:04
Also considering how many new users are not acquainted with the AI policy and what it consists of, having some notice on that page would also be welcome addition. — Dalija Prasnikar, Commented Aug 21 at 20:25
The first half of the post makes sense ("help new or inexperienced users to get started or learn more" - yes please). But how does the mockup achieve that?! All you did is add a huge reputation counter and a badge list. How does that help onboarding? (There's also the "recently visited questions", which can potentially be useful, but again doesn't help with onboarding.) — HolyBlackCat, Commented Aug 23 at 6:03
@DalijaPrasnikar I don't think there's enough space in the top bar to fit the text of those tips. This would be great to have, anyhow, at some other place in the site. JetBrains has it as a popup when you load up the IDE that you can "Don't show this to me again", if you want. Some websites also have it as a secondary bar below the top bar, but the way I see it is that it's reserved for announcements(?) here on SO. So we might need to think of some other way to get the tips shown to the user properly. — Syed M. Sannan, Commented Aug 23 at 10:35
Wait, I am so so sorry, I thought you were talking about the header / top-bar here when you referred to reputation/badges since I thought the heading is also part of the change. But obviously, you are talking about the reputation/badges shown in the dashboard itself, which I agree, are of no use and should be removed. — Syed M. Sannan, Commented Aug 23 at 10:46
I don't like idea of building home page for myself. This is what tags are already doing perfectly. If I need something else or could think of, then I will not hesitate to inform you on meta, thank you for care about me. Now how about go back and do some work or maybe some more work? — Sinatr, Commented Aug 23 at 13:24
You're trying to make the homepage do too many things at once. Rather than trying to balance new user vs returning user flows, how about split it down the middle. "Home" gives all users a big ol' search prompt. Logged in users see a customised feed, and anonymous users a straight list of recent questions. "Recent Activity" (new option on the Left Nav) gives what is currently the homepage: all recent activity. Allow users to customise the SO logo link in their profile to choose which page to go to. Everyone happy. — Robotnik, Commented Aug 27 at 0:51
I doubt that a "new user" ever goes to the start page. I would imagine most users' first few dozen visits are a link to a question from an external search engine. Seems to me like the start page is only useful for people looking for questions to answer. — Nils Kaspersson, Commented Aug 28 at 12:59
I keep reading this title as "Why does a new used need a homepage experience on Stack Overflow?" which strikes me as a pertinent question. — khelwood, Commented Sep 11 at 15:27
@NilsKaspersson … after a while a person looking for questions to answer will write their custom filters, so the focus on the home page seems to me totally unwarranted. — gboffi, Commented 2 days ago

Lundin · Accepted Answer · 2024-09-11 14:27:46Z

"What does a new user need" was not what you previously asked.

it's unsurprisingly clear that what makes a good homepage experience for a new user doesn’t necessarily make an exceptional homepage for more established curators

Why ignore the new users though? You explicitly asked "What makes a homepage useful for logged-in users". The elephant in the room is what SO actually looks like to a new first-time user which is not yet logged in, simply because they are indeed a new user:

The spontaneous reaction most people get when opening a site and it fills your screen with pop-ups is "Eeew go away!" Overall this screams unprofessionalism as well as "paywall".

Historically, sites that spammed pop-ups in the user's face were sites where you would also be likely to get viruses or malware. More recently, they are also likely sites that track you with some 20+ different forms of spyware and tracing cookies. Which isn't just prejudices it turns out, because my privacy add-ons report 6 trackers - and notably that happens before I've yet clicked accept/decline cookies.

"Paywall" because it insists at no less than 7 places that I log in, sign up, "try for free" or go for "full business solutions". This is clearly a site quite desperately trying to sell me something - it does not at all look like a site I can use for free. Scrolling down further reveals that the site also wants to sell me advertising and "API solutions for business", whatever that is.

Furthermore it says "AI" all over the place which suggests it might be some manner of click bait site and not related to programming, which was what the new user was most likely interested in and how they ended up here.

Other SE sites are far less off-putting than SO, because on those sites you will at least be taken directly to Q&A (though still hidden behind the pop-ups). Taking a look at some other random site in the network, it looks far more appealing:

The down side in going directly to Q&A is an immediate increase in trackers. I get up to 11 of them on the other site. On SO I have to enter Q&A to get the same number, so the SO front page is admittedly at least better at hiding some of its malicious intentions. The number of trackers might be one metric that people in general and programmers in particular use when determine if they should use a site or GTFO.

Naively, I would think that a site without any malicious intentions would be more attractive to users new or old.

Summary: the SO front page displayed to new users is designed for mistrust and to drive new users away. If I personally would land at a site like that from a search engine, I'll immediately close it down and move on.

It may be interesting to investigate if there's a relation between the user decline on SO compared to when the new front page was launched. And if other SE sites are facing the same user decline too or if they are doing better than SO at keeping new users.

You're right. The current front page is aggressively unwelcoming. — TRiG, Commented Sep 9 at 18:48

Anerdw · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-21 21:38:27Z

I don't think Reputation and Badges are the best use of the space at the top. It gives the impression that those are the focus of the site, which is...probably bad? Especially since the reputation system is not particularly good at incentivizing responsible posting.

When I was brand-new to this site, I'd have liked some of the Help Center articles to be a little more visible. The Tour page is great about showing you the site's features, but it's not great at teaching you how to use them. Links to "How to Ask," "How to Answer," "Minimal, Reproducible Example," "On-Topic," and other important articles would've helped me get on my feet.

In the same vein, a link to the Meta FAQ might be nice to have somewhere. It's not exactly easy to find, but there are all sorts of useful articles in there ("Why should I not post images of code/data/errors" comes to mind) that would've been nice to know about.

Given the recent meta posts and experiments with tags, I guess the company really sees that differently. — Gimby, Commented Aug 22 at 7:57
Maybe could show the articles that are pinned in the Help Center at the top in some capacity? That way it'd be customizable per-site too. — zcoop98, Commented Aug 22 at 15:43

Karl Knechtel · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-22 05:34:46Z

49

Things that should absolutely not have top billing on a page for new users:

the "Ask Question" button (this falsely gives the impression of entitlement to ask arbitrary questions, increasing resentment when running into the restrictions and standards)
the user's reputation (it's depressing, and anyway the incentive system is completely broken)
blog links (get over yourselves - these days, the blog primarily isn't actually about the site; it's about technologies, ideas and people that the staff want to promote)

Things that should have top billing on a page for new users:

the help center - in fact, there are several "greatest hits" from the help center that could do with being directly linked
the faq and faq-proposed tags on Meta
possibly, promotional material for the Staging Ground
if Discussions get kept around, a clear explanation of what they're for (this requires that we first agree on what they're for!)

I like the idea of an "Interesting Q&A for you" (not "posts" for you: keep communicating clearly about the Q&A format!), but only if it's heavily weighted towards, and seeded with, the most-used-as-duplicate-target questions in the user's selected tags.

answered Aug 22 at 5:34

Karl Knechtel

61k3 gold badges144 silver badges245 bronze badges

2

So, you want to make the ask question button less prominent (making it harder for them to contribute questions), and you want to show them a list of popular duplicate targets as a large part of the Q&A list, which already have very high quality answers (so they're not really going to be able to contribute a good answer to any question on that list). So, what are you expecting a new user on a Q&A site to do if it's not writing a question or an answer? Most people that sign up are not doing so to read questions, they typically do that through links from Google.
– toastrackengima
Commented Aug 22 at 8:35
14

@toastrackengima "what are you expecting a new user on a Q&A site to do" -- It's in the answer: Take the tour. Read through the help center. Get at least a basic understanding how the site is intended to work, and what the expectations are on new content. Because when people don't do that they inevitably run face first into a wall.
– Dan Mašek
Commented Aug 22 at 13:02
4

@toastrackengima Not to interact at all. A key premise of this sort of answer is that consumptive only use (with viewing ads), is a higher benefit to the site than users who ask the same duplicate and help-desk questions over and over again.
– user1937198
Commented Aug 22 at 17:16
13

"So, what are you expecting a new user on a Q&A site to do if it's not writing a question or an answer?" The same thing that I expect a new user on any site to do: understand what the site is and how it works, before attempting to engage in regular use patterns.
– Karl Knechtel
Commented Aug 22 at 18:42
3

Not only are the blog posts not about the site, they're not even for the site. Usually written as some kind of marketing post for investors or to inflate an ego.
– Sayse
Commented Aug 24 at 13:51
1

@toastrackengima: Reading good existing questions and answers will be a huge help to a user preparing to ask a question (whether it's their first or twenty-first... if their own experience ever completely outweighs excellent examples, it's not until high double-digits)
– Ben Voigt
Commented Sep 9 at 18:37

Add a comment |

Marsroverr · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-21 18:34:08Z

32

New users need to not have the "ask question" button displayed so prominently.

All too often, new users will ask a question that is either low quality, off-topic, or a duplicate before reading the how to ask guide or searching for existing answers. Adding some friction to the question asking process for users who have never asked a question before may improve the quality of incoming questions. It'll also improve user experience across the site for more experienced users by making us not have to constantly raise the same flags on both new site questions and in staging ground.

answered Aug 21 at 18:34

Marsroverr

7334 silver badges8 bronze badges

18

It seems most of their metrics are quantity based, so they're more likely to make it even more prominent. Big numbers are something the CEO can bamboozle people with. On the other hand, he never has to wade through the cesspool of junk the curators do.
– Dan Mašek
Commented Aug 21 at 18:55
6

Yeah that is "our" opinion, but it is kind of a catch 22. Lets face it, people are attracted to the site such that they land on the homepage and not directly on an answer through a web search engine because they want to ask or dump a question here. Hiding the button from such people prevents a boatload of incompatible questions, but from a business perspective it makes little sense. The staging ground is the middle ground solution.
– Gimby
Commented Aug 22 at 7:54
5

"It'll also improve user experience across the site for more experienced users" ... I'd argue it would make it better for all users> We don't have to deal with garbage and new users won't get upset because their question was removed/closed/etc.
– M--
Commented Aug 22 at 15:15
2

Well... having an "ask my question" button prominently placed for a new user who is wanting to ask a question saves them time and frustration looking for it... but that button should not actually lead to posting a new question, it should lead to search. A hybrid "enter keywords"/"read existing q&a"/"enter more information"/"more search results"/"finally open the form for writing a new question, having preserved all information previously entered during the search process" would be really beneficial. The most important thing is to not throw away the user's effort in between the search and ask
– Ben Voigt
Commented Sep 9 at 18:41

Add a comment |

Sinatr · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-23 13:20:00Z

32

What new user needs? This:

Put it in the middle of page, remove the fluff (learn from expert)..

answered Aug 23 at 13:20

Sinatr

21.8k2 gold badges29 silver badges54 bronze badges

30

(this would help if the SE search engine wouldn't be as bad as it is)
– samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
Commented Aug 23 at 13:22
3

What if it was an LLM prompt
– Kevin B
Commented Aug 23 at 18:29
5

Yeah, bad search and hallucinations.
– tripleee
Commented Aug 26 at 7:21
Interestingly the company did try out semantic search but only for the purpose of using it with their OverflowAI stuff. They supposedly are selling OverflowAI on Teams (Where it probably uses the semantic search on the public platform from what I read), I wonder whether taking just the semantic search implementation from that and bringing to the public platform would have been difficult for them.
– Abdul Aziz Barkat
Commented Aug 26 at 7:27
2

The correct and only answer
– Fattie
Commented Aug 27 at 14:51
While a better search and (far) more prominent search is a good idea, you shouldn't underestimate what good other features might bring to the homepage.
– A-Tech
Commented Aug 29 at 15:27
2

@samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Maybe it could be a Google search box, with site:stackoverflow.com added. And whatever other bit it needs for real search instead of AI search that goes off on a wandering trail of other things that might be related because of some sort of sequence of letters in the query that are nothing to do with what the querant was looking for.
– Andrew Morton
Commented Sep 12 at 18:56

Add a comment |

HolyBlackCat · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-23 06:00:59Z

Please don't waste valuable vertical space.

At least for people who mostly answer questions.

This vertical space could be used to display more questions, and that's what it's currently used for.

I couldn't care less about reputation & badges, and we already have counters for them in the top-right.

The only useful block out of the 3 is Tags, and it can be placed in the sidebar to leave more vertical space for questions... Which is already where it is right now! (The existing design isn't so bad, eh?)

Use vertical space for onboarding.

Newbies don't particularly care about seeing more questions, and more onboarding is better. If you want to put something at the top of the homepage, use it to teach newbies how to use the site efficiently (what the etiquette is).

"Recently visited questions" can be useful, but change it to "posts I commented on".

If I viewed a question and immediately closed it, I don't want to see it again. It's either not in my area of expertise, or so bad it can't be salvaged. There's no point in showing those to me in the "recently viewed" list.

Instead, show me my recent comments (and the titles of the questions they belong to). I often go to the list of the comments I made in my profile, and review the posts again (downvote if the changes I requested weren't made; check for replies where people forgot to @ping me; etc). It would be nice to have this directly on the home page.

I like your suggestions, but it is partly running ahead of schedule. We are not the target audience yet of these homepage suggestions. — Gimby, Commented Aug 23 at 15:04
@Gimby Meh. Their propsed changes don't help the new users as well. And besides, it doesn't matter who is the "target audience" is if this is going to be enabled for everyone, and I'm not seeing them say otherwise. — HolyBlackCat, Commented Aug 23 at 15:50
It's also a page they've already identified as almost never being viewed by new users — Kevin B, Commented Aug 23 at 15:51
upvoted for your "posts I commented on" proposal - although should include answered; and maybe also posts you've voted on? i.e. anything you've interacted with in some way — simonalexander2005, Commented Sep 2 at 11:20

Kevin B · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-21 19:00:44Z

I mean... What do "new users" need to see? Who is a new user? Why are they here? Why are they on the home page? Why would what they want to see differ heavily from what experienced users want to see?

I don't have answers to any of these questions... As an experienced user I can suggest that new users aren't properly informed what the site is and what role they are expected to play on it, but would explaining that on the home page make sense? Maybe if they haven't ticked a box yet? Maybe instead what would be most important is a list of their own questions and answers, whether they're in SG or live. Maybe it should show newly approved posts from SG so that they're only presented posts that have been reviewed as being of at least decent quality so they don't get the wrong impressions of what the site is.

But ultimately... I don't know. I'm not a new user, ;) None of these would be a good experience for me.

Is there anything in particular we should add that is the right action for new users to take?

Prominently displaying the "What is on topic?" copy from the help center somewhere would probably be a good idea, assuming it isn't still the default like it is on some super tiny sites.

Alternatively, is there something we should take away that you find is not helpful?

I don't think reputation, badges, or tags are relevant here. As gamification elements they should definitely exist to some extent, but maybe at the very top of the homepage isn't that. I'd prefer the gamification aspect come online once they've created useful content, rather than it being what drives them to begin.

Also, if you had to pick between redesigning the post summary or work done on the tour page, which would you prefer?

The post summary is likely to have the most impact given it's the one everyone who is asking their first question is guaranteed to reach.

Michael come lately · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-28 15:49:42Z

They should have a basic overview of what the site is and how it works. I.e. The tour.

They need to know the topicality of the site. I.e. help/on-topic and help/dont-ask.

They should know what fundamental mechanisms support the goals of the platform, and their significance. I.e. help/why-vote and help/editing (at a minimum).

They should know where they can look for more info. I.e. The Help Center, the MSO FAQ, and the MSE FAQ.

For people who want to contribute, they should know what Conduct is expected of them.

As for post listings, they should be shown how to customize watched and ignored tags. And see one of my suggestions on heuristics for what content may be useful to show.

simonalexander2005 · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-22 08:09:22Z

When I was new to SO, I was initially only interested in getting my question answered. So something prominent about how to ask an informed, well formed question would be good.

After that, I actually think that Hot Network Questions is quite important for showing users that they are a part of a wider community. It was this that first drew my attention to other stacks.

Others have already commented on the unnecessary prominence of rep and badges, so I'll not say more on that.

A-Tech · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-23 06:57:15Z

I think the most important thing to consider is that new users (at first at least) don't go to SO to contribute to a repository of knowledge, but to get their problem solved. New users see and use SO very differently from, well, the people that will answer on this question. Any design should keep that in mind!

Anyway, here are some thoughts on what I think would be good for new users:

Help icons & pop-ups

While there is a vast collection of help articles, they are somewhat hidden in the help centre, which you have to actively search out. The same goes for the FAQ.

I think visibility/accessibility can be easily improved by tactically placing some help icons, linking to a relevant article/subsection. These could act similar to the excerpt-pop-ups on tags. On hover/click, a popup opens with an excerpt/first lines of the article, with an option "Learn more" leading to the full article.

In the mock-up below, I added some icons to the sidebar, as most items are unexplained. E.g., while I guessed vaguely what meta would be about, I didn't know how anything about it until I started posting here (and to be honest, I don't fully understand the mentality on meta to this day.).

"Learn more about Stack Overflow"-section

This section I would populate with a list of articles from the help-center. If possible, I would base the recommended articles on user activity. E.g., a user posted a question, and it has no answer after say 2 days. Then articles like What should I do if no one answers my question?.

Reputation and Badges do not need to be on the front page. New users have next to none anyway, and most are primarily here for getting their problems solved. Those that are interested, can see everything on their profile or even just via the inbox. Speaking of the inbox: It must inform about rejected edits, just as it shows downvotes, closures etc. Otherwise, new users will keep doing the same mistakes when editing other people's posts (Source: Did so myself in the past). (While the linked post claims its status-completed that is not true and the current implementation does not work.)

Networks for you

While "Hot network questions" exists, the question and communities shown are most likely not relevant to the user. I propose a small section showing networks, like the current community search does:

If the user interacted with/made posts that have tags related to databases and data science, the according communities would be recommended. This might help new users discover appropriate communities for a specific question.

As of now, I believe many people only really explore other communities when a question is closed as off-topic, forcefully migrated, or someone points out a community in a comment (again: that's what happened to me).

Mockup

A.R.M · Accepted Answer · 2024-09-18 14:13:16Z

My account is relatively new, but I'm a very long time SO reader, and, even though this has already been said by multiple other people, the one thing I really want to put my 2cents on here is:

Reputation should not be prominent for newcomers. In fact, it should be as un-prominent as possible. Avoid putting reputation into focus and thereby teaching people that it's some kind of gamification system. If you give people a score boost for posting a lot, they will do so — and inevitably, quantity takes priority over quality. This problem exists already with other long-time visitors.

Every time I've seen a question get asked and immediately receive a snarky comment that roughly glosses over the problem and misses the important details, that comment came from a user with a couple 100k rep points.

The point of reputation is to give people who contribute regularly access to more powerful editorial tools, thereby giving them more meaningful ways to contribute. It should not be treated like Reddit karma.

tripleee · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-26 07:57:35Z

8

What to recommend really depends on what you want to achieve.

Goal: Increase Engagement

Big ol' "ASK" button. Users will ask questions, but be scared off by the outcome; and/or, you will drive away the valuable high-rep users who are actually capable of answering those questions.

Goal: Increase Annoyance

Can we have more pop-ups and sidebars left and right? Maybe bring back animated ads with strobe effects?

(Content continues after annoying GIF.)

Dancing hampsters

Goal: Sustain Traffic and Reputation as a Useful Site

Show questions and answers, with low distractions. Probably promote the "how to use this site" materials for unregistered or newly registered users.

answered Aug 26 at 7:57

tripleee

187k5 gold badges69 silver badges120 bronze badges

6

Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering: We tell clients interested in splash pages to go to the supermarket and bring a mime. Have the mime stand in front of the supermarket, and as each customer tries to enter, do a little show that lasts two minutes, welcoming them to the supermarket and trying to explain bread is on aisle six and milk is on sale. Count how many people watch the mime, get past him as quickly as possible, or punch him out. That should give you a good idea how well the splash page will be received.
– Michael come lately
Commented Sep 4 at 20:19

Add a comment |

Richard · Accepted Answer · 2024-09-10 17:43:21Z

As boring as it may sound, I think it would help everyone if new users went through a quick tutorial/guided tour regarding how to ask questions, before being able to unlock the Ask A Question feature.

I know that this page exists: https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask, but I notice most new users never go through this post, unless a user referes to the post in a comment, and after -4 down votes.

So something like a guided tour could work:

Step 1

Step 2

And so on, and so on...

It could also be a redirect to the post/page on how to ask a good question, as suggested by others. I think you should consider the following points:

Clarity and Engagement: The idea of a step-by-step guided tour is that it can make the learning process more engaging and less overwhelming for new users. Including visuals, as suggested, to further enhance understanding.

Incentives: Offering a badge as an incentive could motivate users to complete the tutorial but also serves as a visible acknowledgment of their effort to learn the community guidelines.

Visibility: Users have pointed out that the existing help page is often overlooked. A mandatory tutorial for new users could ensure that everyone is aware of the best practices from the start.

Elikill58 · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-22 17:58:11Z

I like that there is new part on the top, that summarize account informations. But for me, they are not focusing on the right things.

About the reputation tab:

I think it's partially nice. If you only put the graph of reputation, this would be useless. It could be useful if you know what recently give you reputation (or retire some), but not a simple graph. Else, the profile is for you.

About the badges and tags tabs :

They can mostly be useless. Know which tag you are making high score is useless as it 's not changing so much. For example, I know I have lot of score in Java and minecraft (and other minecraft-related tags), and it will not change each day.

I think this part should focus on contant that can change regulary. The reputation can, that's why it's a good content. But, for me there is missing: Notification/edit summary. We can imagine having :

Post that have been accepted/deleted/closed/...
Edit on our post
Suggested edits that have been accepted
Informations about reviews (link to failed one for example)
Other content related to our content, as it's the main objective of the website (let users post content on the site).
Some meta informations according to our informations

Summary

I know my proposal isn't so much appreciated. But, I think it can be good to have more frequently updated informations instead of static/low changes one. For example, actually, there is new questions that changes almost every few minutes...

I think it should not be underestimated how much the swag influences people. The fact that the "top X" percentage was changed was not a welcome change for example, even though it is just a random number that doesn't say a whole lot. But it's swag, people like to see it. Reputation points, badges, rankings, it's all pointless and at the same time vitally important. Because swag. — Gimby, Commented Aug 23 at 15:08
@Gimby Reputation yes, badges too but you don't get badge even every week. So yes, but it's "not enough", or AT least, not for this space (but less) — Elikill58, Commented Aug 23 at 19:39

Wicket · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-23 18:38:08Z

If we understand "new user" as someone that visits Stack Overflow for first time, then it's very likely that this user will "land" in Q/A page rather than in a "homepage". The Q/A page should be friendlier for new visitors, i.e., hide up/down voting buttons, hide the add a comment link, etc.

If we understand "new user" as a registered user that somehow opens https://stackoverflow.com and is already registered and logged in, then it might be good idea to have an adaptive design based on the user activity history on the site.

If the user hasn't posted anything, and haven't earned the tour badge, the the tour should be the most prominent content.

If the user has already earned the tour badge but the user hasn't saved posts hans't posted any question and answer, then the most prominent content should be tips / suggestions to explore features that doesn't require reputation:

Search
- Search operators
- Tags and related features like watch and ignore tags
- Filters
Post Questions and Ansers
Suggest edits
Follow Questions and Answers
Save Questions and Answers (formerly named Bookmarks)
Stack Overflow views
- Top Questions
- Questions
- ...
Get informed through Stack Overflow Meta
Stack Exchange Network
- Stack Exchange sites
- Hot Network Questions
- Meta Stack Exchange

For users that have earned some reputation, then the default "homepage" should be the user profile > Activity > Summary. On the preferences the user should be able to select what they want as their homepage.

Another thing to show to registered users is a section of posts interesting for them based on their activity on the site while they are logged in.

In short, make the home page respond to the journeys users have already taken (using their badges as proxies for this information) by showing the users the next journeys they can take. In this model, there are no "new" users vs "old" users. — bishop, Commented 2 days ago

goulashsoup · Accepted Answer · 2024-09-18 15:52:34Z

1

I think most suggestions are very unfriendly to "new users". "Truly" new users are likely 12-24 years old, either interested kids/teenagers/students, and for those, I absolutely dislike the vanity that SO portraits with "Every developer has a tab open to SO", true or not this is very off-putting.

My Suggestions:

Explain shortly what SO is, and what purpose it serves.
Add a short example of how search, question and answer work.
Give a short overview of all Stack Exchange sites to let everyone know this is not limited to programming questions.
List most important rules and code of conduct.
Add link to most upvoted question of most used technologies (e.g., Learn most important things about Python)
Wish them luck, fun and a great future as new Devs.

edited yesterday

answered yesterday

goulashsoup

2,9399 silver badges5 bronze badges

New contributor

1

Why do you assume new users are so young? The 2024 survey demographics (most of whom participated no more than once a month or never), had 25–34s being the most popular bracket. Also, anyone under 13 (or 16 in EU) cannot be a new user because of laws; the accounts must be destroyed by staff. Relatedly, there is also some tendency to assume new users are technologically incompetent, which is unfortunate and usually incorrect. It is possible for a competent developer to only participate on SO later in their career.
– Laurel
Commented yesterday

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Jochla · Accepted Answer · 2024-09-18 20:13:44Z

-1

As a new user on Stack Overflow, one of the most frustrating experiences for me is how quickly questions get closed.

The first thought that comes to mind is: How can I prevent people who misunderstand my question from closing it prematurely? For example, once my question about searching in data banks was closed because someone mistakenly thought it had already been asked and answered in a similar form—yet it hadn’t. In the end, the best answer I received was that there was likely still a gap in academic research on the topic.

Yesterday, it happened again, this time with a question about mathematics, for reasons I still do not understand. This raises another concern for me: How can I improve my ability to clearly and concisely express my thoughts in English, a language I’m still mastering?

Before I ask a question, I invest a significant amount of time researching, searching for answers, and reviewing academic material. So it's extremely frustrating when, after all that effort and at the end of a long, exhausting day, my question is closed before I’ve had the chance to refine it properly.

I can’t always predict how someone without experience in the field might interpret my question at first glance, so I really need feedback on how to improve it—feedback that’s often only given after the question is posted. Unfortunately, on Stack Overflow, it feels like there's not much time to revise and improve your question before it’s too late.

edited 21 hours ago

answered 21 hours ago

Jochla

112 bronze badges

New contributor

1

JSYK - You can still refine a question after it's closed! That's kind of the point of closure: put answering on hold until the question reaches a better state. (Which is itself something that is not explained very well to new users, which suggests a need for better onboarding, which brings us back full circle.)
– Anerdw
Commented 21 hours ago
Anyways - what does you suggest for the homepage specifically?
– Anerdw
Commented 21 hours ago
@Anerdw If that's the case, I think that the whole process of reopening and preventing answers - especially comments - does not fit that idea at all.
– Jochla
Commented 21 hours ago
And to me, personally, the wording closed implies that the problem has been solved, what it haven't been at all.
– Jochla
Commented 21 hours ago
All the responses here make it quite obvious that there's an entire system in place designed to discourage trash questions. When your question is closed, it doesn’t feel like people are saying, “I don’t understand the question." or "Can you clarify it for me?” or "Can you improve your expression?" —especially when the reason for closing seems completely off the mark. Instead, it feels like those who don't understand your question are simply trying to dismiss it. To be honest, I think that might actually be the real reason. @Anerdw.
– Jochla
Commented 9 hours ago
I’d suggest introducing an alternative status for questions to be used primarily instead of outright closing them. This status would still allow answers and contributions to help solve the problem, but it could restrict users from earning reputation points. From my experience with Stack Overflow discussions, some users seem overly focused on the concept of their profile's reputation score, and this change could help prevent "reputation farming," while still giving the original poster a chance to improve an active question.
– Jochla
Commented 8 hours ago
If the community later decides the question is a good fit, the lower status could be lifted. This approach would give people with more knowledge in the subject area a chance to answer, even if they don't have a high reputation. It also allows those who answered and understood the original poster's intent to help improve the question itself, giving them the opportunity to earn reputation from both their answer and their contributions to refining the question.
– Jochla
Commented 8 hours ago
I wouldn’t need to worry about preventing individuals without subject experience from unnecessarily interacting with the question. This way, the original poster would receive answers more quickly, or sometimes even at all. Additionally, new users would face fewer obstacles from long-time Stack Overflow users blocking their access to help.
– Jochla
Commented 8 hours ago

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What does a new user need in a homepage experience on Stack Overflow?

Preliminary mockup

Looking ahead

Feedback Requested

17 Answers 17