A short look at the refreshed Second Life web-based join flow

Linden Lab has recently refreshed the Second Life web-based new user sign-up flow at join.secondlfe.com in order to offer incoming new users a smoother, easier experience when using the web sign-up process. Some of this incorporates work carried out with Project Zero – the viewer in a browser – and the new sign-up flow applies to both the viewer and Project Zero.

Key elements of the update include:

• An image backdrop for the account creation page.
• Quality of life updates to make it clear what information needs to be entered and when a mistake is made; use of a clearer font, etc.
• There is no longer an avatar picker for those pointed to the viewer download workflow; instead, after completing the account creation page, new users are directed to download and install the viewer.
• On logging-in through the viewer, a new user will be automatically assigned an initial avatar from the Avatar Welcome Pack, and desktop version of the Avatar Picker deployed to Project Zero (see here for more) is automatically displayed to allow for avatar customisation.
• The web join flow still offers a random chance of a new sign-up being directed towards accessing SL via Project Zero rather than being asked to download the viewer.

Further it should also be noted:

•  These changes do not apply to the sign-up flow for SL Mobile, although that sign-up process has been updated independently of join.secondlife.com.
• The reason for removing the Avatar Picker from the web workflow was because data showed that a lot of new sign-ups were spending a significant amount of time actually in the avatar picker and customising their avatar, and then not actually going on to actually log-in to Second Life, so was seen as a blocker to getting people in-world.
• All incoming new users are given the same avatar (I’m not sure if the selected avatar is periodically rotated), which can be interesting.

The Avatar Picker / Avatar Welcome Pack

As noted, the Avatar Picker – reference to as the Avatar Welcome Pack – is an idea that originated with Project Zero, and is now offered through the official viewer (and those TPVs that have adopted the 7.1.15.15596336374 – 2025.04.01 code base) with some tweaks – such as being presented as a floater within the viewer, and not having the Avatars toolbar button as is the case with Project Zero.

New users installing the release viewer for the first time should find the Avatar Picker open by default after logging-in, with the avatar tab displayed.

• Clicking on one of the six avatar images within the tab will automatically apply that avatar.
• Clicking the Clothing tab with display the available outfits. Clicking on the image of an outfit will apply it to the currently-selected avatar.
  • Note: The update was deployed with a known issue that only the female outfits from the Avatar Welcome Pack are available in the system library. This is being addressed.
• Selecting an avatar or outfit from the Avatar Picker will add the associated folder(s) to the Clothing system folder in Inventory.
• If the floater is closed, it can be accessed again via the Avatar menu → Avatar Welcome Pack…, which replaces the old Choose Avatar option.

Personal Feedback

This is not intended to be an in-depth analysis of the now flow, but I have some general observations.

• Overall the changes make for a smoother on-boarding, even allowing for the viewer having to be downloaded and installed (if the user is pushed through that flow).
• This is very much assisted by taking the avatar customisation process out of the sign-up process, which as noted above, had become a bottleneck.
• The avatar picker is fairly intuitive, but could perhaps benefit from some tool-tip prompts.

There are some areas of concern:

• Each time the Avatar Picker is used, it generates a completely new folder for the selected and / or selected outfit within the Clothing system folder in Inventory. Whilst this is not directly visible to new users who might not be aware of Inventory to start with, it does potentially lead to a lot of duplication and additional inventory bloat.
• There is now two very different and completely incompatible “starter avatar” systems still within the viewer:
  • The creator-supplied Avatar Welcome Pack (which I believe will be expanded upon).
  • The Senra avatar system.
• Fortunately, the Senra system is fairly well buried within the system library; however, the majority of in-world information at places like the Welcome Hub, and resources on-line, such as the Second Life University videos focus on Senra. Hopefully, if both systems are to be run side-by-side, this balance will be redressed.

• The fact that the same avatar from the Avatar Welcome Pack is given to all incoming users means that the various spawn points where new users arrive can end up looking like a beam-in point for a gathering of clones.

This last point is really trivial to a point, but it does make arrival points for new avatars look and feel a little odd. As to the rest, nothing is impossible to correct – and much of it is hopefully already on LL’s radar; with limited resources, updates to all aspects of a process can take time, some of which can be spent engaged in testing and revising basic ideas and approaches.

Overall, the refresh to join.secondlife.com comes over as positive, and helps to bring the viewer and Project Zero a little closer together for those who might use both.