Why this Onboarding will make Tinder Founders Proud
As the first “anti-social” mobile app that launched last week, Ponder is trying to make its way as a platform that discovers viral posts based on the content and not the person who actually shared it. Inside its network nothing becomes popular based on the number of followers or fans — only if it’s cool or not.
Backed by Greylock Partners, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and two Tinder co-founders, the “Instagram meets Reddit” app raises high expectations. Trying to combat the ubiquitous influencer marketing culture, it’s going to be interesting to see how viral the app itself will become.
I was intrigued to see how it’s supposed to work and installed it after its recent launch. Until now, I didn’t have much time to use it, but I have to admit that there’s something Ponder’s team already did very well: User Onboarding.
As 80–90% of apps are deleted after being used once, explaining the app to a user who sees it for the first time is extremely essential. The first impression matters a lot, therefore it is a big challenge for mobile app publishers to get it right at the first time.
Following the installation of Ponder, I’d like to highlight what they did well on their app’s user onboarding process and what other apps can learn from it.
1. Registration
Starting off with a beautiful welcome screen that really makes you want to use the app is a great way to say “Hi”. The first thing that way too many apps do, is asking their users to register (i.e. their personal data) before even welcoming them.
The second screen is simple and clean, designed to make the user sign up via Facebook, hence giving Ponder more valuable data. “Fastest & Most Popular” is a tiny info that most probably makes a few more users connect via Facebook instead of email.
Screen number 3 could have been merged with the second one, but Ponder wants to offer a clear experience, making sure they rather providemore rather than less information. This continues inside the process of…
2. Verification
Again, Ponder provides information on why they need to verify users and also lets them know that this will be the last step to sign up. A progress bar or indicator reduces the chances of users stopping the registration process.
After finishing the boring part, Ponder provides a “moment of happiness”, welcoming the user to actually start using the product, BUT emphasizing that there will be a quick (15 second) intro. A recent study revealed that 92% of all people online use emojis nowadays, as they “prevent miscommunication by adding an emotional tenor to cold copy” (and a great way to pimp up an onboarding).
3. Intro
15 second intro, progress indicator — Ponder lets their new users know that this is going to be a quick one. Important thing here: Make your user interact with the app during the intro, so they can already get a feel for it.
4. CTAs & Push Notifications
While already using the app, Ponder makes sure everyone gets the concept: Call-to-actions inside their feed explain one more time what it means to swipe up/ down, and introduces more ways to interact with it.
Before asking for permission to send Push Notifications, Ponder let’s you know why it’s a good decision to do so. Again, the more information and transparency you share with your first-time user, the better he will feel about sharing information or allowing pushes.
Undoubtedly, each mobile app onboarding depends on the type of app, and should be constantly optimized. However, there are practices that work better than others, and Ponder managed to include many of those inside their onboarding.
Sure, not everything is perfect about it. For example, I installed Ponder a couple of times and realized that there’s no verification of the email address. So why do they actually need it? Besides, if you typed it in wrong, there’s no way to navigate back.
Still, I’m curious to see what Ponder will become eventually and if it will be able to challenge the likes of Instagram or Pinterest.
Originally published on Liquid’s blog.
