Designing effective onboarding for apps
The what, why and how of onboarding for apps.
What?
Do you still remember your first day of college, when, during induction, you were introduced to your faculties, your classroom layout, where the cafeteria is, etc.?
Onboarding is that very process of introducing someone to an unfamiliar environment for the first time.
In more technical words, Onboarding is introducing a product, service or feature to its first-time users to increase familiarity and understanding without confusing them.
Why?
Now you’d ask, why is onboarding important in apps?
In today’s day and age, where users have access to millions of apps on their devices, onboarding makes a lot of difference in their activation as engaged users.
Value Proposition
A well-designed onboarding explains the value proposition of the app to the users.
Handholding
In some cases, it can also let the users know how to achieve a specific task in the app.
Simplify
In some cases, it can also be used to simplify the user journey, leading the user to the app's core functionality.
So, depending on the use case, onboarding can be very helpful in engaging the users in the long term.
How?
Now, let’s talk about the “how” of onboarding.
Depending on the stage you want to implement the onboarding in the user journey, there are three types of onboarding models: keeping the core app flow as a yardstick, i.e. Pre, Post, and During.
Depending on the use case, their effectiveness might vary.
Pre
This type of onboarding activates right after the user opens the app before reaching the core app flow.
This model works very well for showcasing the app's value proposition or a specific in-app feature.
Most commonly, users see a couple of screens explaining, which is presented as a carousel that can be swiped through.
The ease of implementation makes it the most commonly used onboarding model, which you would have seen in many apps. But the same can’t be said for their effectiveness as they are mostly perishable, and once the user navigates away from these screens, they are on their own.
Post
This type of onboarding activates after the user has reached the core app flow.
This model works very well for highlighting specific options in the app with a given context, i.e. activating such overlays on particular user actions, guiding them through what to do next.
This model is also relatively easy to implement. However, due consideration is needed to map out their activation contextually, and highlighting only one option at a time would be a better implementation method.
During
This type of onboarding uses progressive disclosure to introduce the app's most required features and handhold the user through the core app flow. Here, the user learns by doing.
This model works very well with a sophisticated core app flow, which needs a lot of user input.
This model is quite challenging to implement as it needs a separate user journey and acts like a mini-app within the app. But when designed and appropriately executed, it’s the most rewarding.
Special thanks to Nitin Bhatnagar for helping with brainstorming and visuals.
