Why is connect.unity.com so confusing to use?

To the connect.unity.com team, please tell your managers that you need to do real testing with real people that are not in any way associated with Unity so that you can make sure connect makes sense. People posting tasks and jobs especially for the first time, will find the process confusing... meaning you don't have as many jobs posted as you could.​

Yesterday I was googling for "Unity Forums" to figure out how to find people to work on a small Unity project. First, I managed to find this particular forum, but that doesn't clarify what "connect" is...

The process wasn't very smooth, but I managed to find connect.unity.com, create an account, and eventually post a task. Cool.

Today I started getting email notifications on that task... Cool... That's great. Now each response asks me to "Connect"... OK, sure...

So then I look at the left nav to find these new connections that I just made... and they are not there?


So that's just wrong. My life does not revolve around Unity. I don't really care about it. I just want to get a little project done, and you think that I should keep track of TWO different types of "connections" inside of your connect.unity.com (there it is again...). I haven't used it enough... you probably even have more overuse of connect in there... If Unity was the sun at the center of my heliocentric universe, then maybe...

So how do I find these people... Not "hottest" not "feed"... Does anybody even click those?

Maybe they are now under Discover -> Talent? Nope

Maybe if I go to Jobs and click Matches? Nope

OK... So I have to click on "Recruit", then I can actually see my little project...

Of course it dumbly defaults to "Search Candidates" so I can read though a list of 38,846 people that don't care about my little project... Yeah, that's intuitive.

So they're under Recruit -> Search... NO Recruit -> Invited (what does that even mean?) No...
Recruit -> Applications? No...

Wow... Found them... Hidden under Recruit -> Matches... Oh yes... Why didn't I think that people that I clicked "Connect" with would show up under Recruit -> My Project -> Matches... rather than having people that I clicked "Connect" on actually show up under "Connect" on the main page...

At least the site seems to operate (reliably accept input and output) well.

I hope you're able to convince management that you're throwing away lots of opportunities for your community due to confusing interaction and unclear naming/labeling.

Of course it will work fine for anybody familiar with it... But how many people of value gave up before they ever got familiar with it?

 

We have been pointing out the issues with Connect and pleading for the old forums to be brought back since Connect was implemented. We have gotten little-to-no response from Unity concerning any of this. If anything you are likely to hear from someone on the Unity team that they are "working on it." The things I mentioned were being "worked on" 7 months ago and are still issues, so patience is definitely key with regards to anything having to do with finding work or hiring someone via Unity's website.

I personally use reddit to find work and I see a lot of people looking to hire as well. It is the closest thing I have found to the old Unity forums, and while the userbase is now scattered among a dozen or so other services, it seems a fair portion of them are using reddit.

 

I tried Connect once and as the thread author described, found it to be a confusing and frustrating experience. I too have started using reddit now. I wish they would just bring back the old forums and be done with that mess of a site. It's like they tried to make a solution for a problem that didn't exist.

 

Try using gamejobforum.com - its a growing new community, but it has all the old features of the Jobs Board and more.

 

I just took a look and it looks like a great resource. I already found a few people who look like a fit for what we need. Thanks for posting that!

 

I'm having a tough time even figuring out where to post my job listings. I just feel dumb. It's a well paid job and everything, but I find this whole site confusing now and nothing is clear about where is the right place to find a developer. *sigh*. Is there anything like this anymore around here?

Why is the connect forum here and not at the connect URL? Why do the "Projects" in the Unity Connect seem to be more of a showcase instead of, well, projects that need help?

Apologies, I'm not trying to be a pain but I just don't get what Unity Connect even is. The Jobs tab is obviously for people looking for work. Great. Who has time to wade through that? I'd rather post my project listing instead and let them contact me. But this seems impossible as the Projects page is just basically a wall of showcasing. Or am I in the wrong spot? /cry I just don't get it... how can we possibly post a project amidst all that noise? Is the projects tab even about hiring folks for projects? If not... what is it even for and why is it on a page called "Unity Connect"?

Here's what I thought would happen:
Go to Unity Connect -> Projects -> Post a project where you need to connect with someone.

Here's what it is:
Go to Unity Connect -> Projects -> Look at people's work with no mention of actual paid projects. Who is this good for?

Hopefully this gets resolved at some point, because I'm just trying to find developers, not wade through two different sites trying to find something that was easy to find before. Sorry if I came across like a jerk, I'm sort of freaking out because something that was simple before is now impossible and for the life if me I can't figure out what the purpose of the change is except to piss people off.

Which reddit forum are people using?

 

1. www.gamejobforum.com

2. reddit.com/r/gamedevclassifeds

use 1. for the features and ability to have an ad posted long-term

use 2. for a short-term hit of views

Basically post a thread on 1 and cross-post it (with a link to its URL) on 2.

I do the above for jobs I post as a hirer and it works well.

 

i landed a majority of my unity jobs via the commercial forum. this unity connect is total crap.

 

I've used it, but I didn't particularly like it. It's buggy and unnatural to work through.

 

I would never use it to hire people in it's present form, and I have no use for it except for hiring people.