Test out onboarding flows and identify issues

[gnprice]

The most helpful thing here would be to post with feedback about these areas; it'd be great to get specific, detailed comments with things you've tested, even if you didn't find any issues during testing. Multiple people should feel free to take a look at these areas at once.

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It's been a while since we spent some time trying out the different flows for a user new to Zulip or to the mobile app. This is an area where we're at high risk of not noticing an issue ourselves or hearing reports from users, because developers and enthusiastic users don't go through these flows in our own normal usage.

Or put another way: this is an area where issues can have an effect way out of proportion to the number of times a given user would run into them, because for a new user it's a big part of their experience with Zulip so far.

Situations we should try out, and questions to answer, include

• different servers (zulipchat.com + elsewhere)
• iOS + Android
• different forms of authentication (password, Google, GitHub, ...)
  • each one on each OS (except password auth which doesn't change)
• thinking through what a user new to Zulip would know at each step, and what they might understand or not understand when they see the UI
• watching for permissions prompts, with an eye to what a new user will think at that step
  • on both OSes

When you test a given area, mention it here. When it turns up some issues, file them and mention this issue.

[timabbott]

This sounds great.

[Anshul-9923]

@gnprice I would like to work on this issue. Can you please assign this to me?

[eburda]

I have posted some feedback on the actual beta app, but I also wanted to share on the github – I recently started testing the beta app on my iPhone, and at first the app was a bit daunting with all of the streams and the topics listed beneath them. The general appearance and colors are aesthetic in light and dark mode, though. The icons on the bottom and top make sense (still getting used to the hashtag one showing the list of streams), and I suppose if you are a new user to Zulip you would have something specific to search to narrow the topics and streams. As I mentioned on the beta app, the “back arrow” that points up on the upper right part of the screen within a topic in a stream confuses me which new users may also struggle with. Another slightly frustrating aspect I encountered was that I wish I could see more explicitly what topics I have already read and more easily return to them, especially if I have just left them. This may just be difficult because there are so many topics within streams, and I am still getting acquainted with the app. Another idea for a “back button” option could be swiping on the screen to go back. I was also wondering what the black checkmarks next to topics in the search bar within a stream mean? (If you would like more detail on what screens I am on if my description is not enough, please let me know)

I do appreciate being able to select specific streams to subscribe to.

This is on iOS so I cannot speak for those using Android. The actual logging on to the beta app was also extremely difficult as I did not know the correct zulip server url, but after searching relentlessly on the github for more information I did find that.

I hope that this feedback is helpful! Please let me know if you need any clarifications or future testing!

[Sparshtomar]

@gnprice @chrisbobbe i would like to work on this issue by testing the application. Can you please assign this to me.