The first few pages that a user sees when signing up for DEV are some of the most significant: they make a first impression and tell the user what the platform is like, and what its values are.

Veteran DEV users might remember what it was like to first sign up for an account on the platform (I signed up for an account over three years ago, and DEV looked quite different back then!). We’ve always been trying to steadily improve the experience for our new users. Over the past few weeks, we’ve shipped significant changes to the new user flow, and we’re excited to finally share them with you!

Revamped Onboarding

When a new user joins DEV, they are first introduced to the platform through our onboarding flow. Our previous onboarding experience was in desperate need of some design love and standardization. To that end, we have completely revamped our Onboarding feature with user empowerment and accessibility in mind! You’ll notice that, in our new implementation, we’ve given the user more choice in what they need to do to complete the onboarding process.

Once a new user completes the onboarding flow, they’re introduced to the feed, and provided some potential next steps to help them engage with the community.

Welcome Notifications

When a new user joins a platform, it can often be overwhelming to try to navigate through it. To help mitigate this, we’ve introduced the Welcome Notifications feature, which informs users of what they can do on the platform and empowers them to connect with others.

After a user completes the onboarding process, they are greeted with a new notification from Sloan, our community mascot.

In the first week after joining DEV, Sloan will introduce new users to DEV and all of the features on the platform. She will periodically drop helpful tips and tricks to new users to point them to features and settings that they can use to tailor their DEV experience.

By engaging with our users early on, we hope that they will be encouraged to explore the platform, customize their feed and experience, and engage in discussions. Both the new onboarding flow and welcome notification feature are just one more step forward in our ultimate goal of empowering users to make the most of their community.

A special thank you to everyone on my team who brought these features to life: @lisasy, @maestromac, and @juliannatetreault. If you have feedback on these features, we’d love to hear from you!