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I'm designing a community page where once a new user logs in, there will be a banner on top that says something along the lines of: "Welcome, click here to learn more about the community" with a CTA that says "Learn More." It behaves the same way as the stackexchange banner for new users. This banner links to a community post about how to use the community/quick tips.

We're debating on whether to put an 'X' on the side to allow users to opt out of it. We don't currently have any other intro/tutorial for community besides the post. If we remove the 'X', the banner remains there until the user clicks into it. The next time they return to the landing page, the banner is gone.

Reasons for using 'X': - Forces users to actively opt out of reading the intro post

Reasons for not using 'X': - Putting an 'x' might encourage users to just close out of it?

Our goals: We want as many people to read the welcome post as possible.

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  • Show the "X" on mouseover.
    – user5482
    Aug 5, 2015 at 17:34
  • @user5482 why is that?
    – JLC
    Aug 5, 2015 at 17:49
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    Put the X and make sure the user can access the intro page from somewhere else. The only reason for not putting a close icon is if you want to force users to read your tutorial.
    – adelphus
    Aug 5, 2015 at 18:03
  • Yea. It should be accessible from some place people who dont know much about the page can find it
    – BlueWizard
    Aug 6, 2015 at 7:37

1 Answer 1

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I would urge you to always give users the option to opt out. If a user doesn't want to read something they're not going to, forcing them to click on it will only become an annoyance.

Think of it like a terms of service agreement. You're forced to read them even though most people don't care whats in it. Even though the developer put in code to make you scroll to the bottom of the agreement or wait 5 seconds or check a checkbox before continuing it still doesn't get read. People just get annoyed by the delay.

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  • but isnt a service agreement a different use case? i thought its required by law to disclose and no one wants to read a 10 paragraph document...versus a introduction blog, where the information is actually relevant and potentially useful?
    – JLC
    Aug 5, 2015 at 18:14
  • Certainly, the service agreement is required by law or policy to "force" the user to read it. This analogy was simply to show that no matter what you do you can't force the user to want to read anything. If you leave the banner there until the user reads it and they don't want to they will find a way out of it, in the TOS example they will quickly scroll to the the bottom and continue, in your example they will click in and click out accomplishing nothing but an annoyed user.
    – DasBeasto
    Aug 5, 2015 at 18:19
  • @JLC *"...where the information is actually relevant and potentially useful?" *- that is only your opinion. It sounds like you want to force information upon users, but DasBeasto is right - the user should make the decision themselves.
    – adelphus
    Aug 5, 2015 at 18:20
  • ahhh, i get your reasoning now. Thank you, this answer makes sense!
    – JLC
    Aug 5, 2015 at 18:22
  • No problem! As an alternative I would just suggest making it easily accessible to users that do want to read it later that originally opt out.
    – DasBeasto
    Aug 5, 2015 at 18:23

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