{"id":11357,"date":"2025-03-05T04:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T04:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/interactive-user-guides\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:00:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:00:41","slug":"interactive-user-guides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userpilot.com\/blog\/interactive-user-guides\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Interactive User Guides for Your SaaS Product"},"content":{"rendered":"

You want your SaaS users to understand your product, not just log in. And you’ve likely considered interactive user guides. But are they just pop-ups or a real driver of adoption?<\/p>\n

Here’s the truth: generic product tours and help docs with detailed instructions don’t cut it. Users need action-driven guidance. They need to do to learn.<\/p>\n

In this guide, I’ll show you how to build interactive walkthroughs to enhance user engagement<\/a>. We’ll cover the types of guides that work, why no-code tools are essential, and the practical steps to building effective, personalized experiences.<\/p>\n

Build interactive user guides in-house (not recommended)<\/h2>\n

For most software companies, creating interactive manuals from scratch is the wrong approach.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Rather than reinventing the wheel, your developers should prioritize their efforts around enhancing your software \u2013 making it faster or more visually appealing \u2013 and regularly shipping updates<\/a> that delight your customers.<\/p>\n

Building and maintaining a tool has a big impact on the development efforts<\/a>. Even minor changes or tweaks lead to more developer time clogged up \u2013 and that means you are not completely free to customize your approach.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to do rapid-fire A\/B testing<\/a>, and you lose the opportunity to gather valuable user data.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s a lack of flexibility.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll likely only be able to build something that all your users interact with in the same way, rather than being able to target distinct segments with contextually relevant information.<\/p>\n

Given that product personalization is one of the main reasons users engage with interactive guides, that\u2019s a big problem.<\/p>\n

Create interactive user manuals with no-code tools<\/h2>\n

Using a pre-built platform is a much better option.<\/p>\n

With the low technical barrier to entry, anyone from operations to customer success managers can quickly create an interactive tour, which means you can reduce reliance on software developers.<\/p>\n

Rather than a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 approach, you can trigger user guides contextually \u2013 so based on the specific actions the customer has taken, targeted support is triggered to help them navigate and use the product more effectively.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a far more flexible choice.<\/p>\n

There are dozens of variables you might want to adjust, from small changes to copy to tweaking the design. In a custom-built tool, this represents a significant amount of work \u2013 in a no-code tool, it\u2019s incredibly simple.<\/p>\n

That gives you the freedom to experiment and improve your software. As our customers put it:<\/p>\n

\"userpilot<\/picture><\/figure>\n

In addition, customer adoption tools<\/a> make it easy to see which version of an interactive user guide performs more effectively with A\/B testing (and adapt your approach accordingly).<\/p>\n

A\/B testing<\/a> helps you to test different versions of your user guides rapidly against a control group.<\/p>\n

\"A\/B<\/picture>
A\/B testing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, using a no-code tool is a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

But how do you actually go about putting a guide together? How do you create something that engages and helps your users<\/a>?<\/p>\n

This section of the article explains the key steps in the process.<\/p>\n

A note \u2013 we\u2019re using Userpilot<\/a> as an example here, so these steps might be slightly different in a different tool. However, the underlying principles will be the same.<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Set up a goal<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s very tricky to build an effective guide if you haven\u2019t thought carefully about what you\u2019re trying to demonstrate.<\/p>\n

Rather than a lengthy tour of every feature in your product, flip it around and think from the user\u2019s perspective. Think about the features they use and why they use them \u2013 what are your customers trying to achieve?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve picked a feature to tackle, you can set a range of product goals<\/a> of what you might need your users to do to experience value.<\/p>\n

Remember that what gets measured, gets managed \u2013 this data will help you to understand whether your interactive manual has been a success or not.<\/p>\n

2. Create an in-app flow<\/h3>\n

Once you\u2019ve decided on your goal, the next step is to put together a new in-app flow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first step to building an interactive guide is creating a new flow. You can either navigate to the Flow dashboard\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"build<\/picture>
Decide which page to build your interactive user guides on or navigate that page and launch the Chrome extension builder directly by clicking on the extension widget in your browser.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Set the page you want your guides to trigger, and you\u2019re ready to start building.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll have a range of UX patterns to choose from, but the majority of interactive guides use a combination of driven actions and tooltips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Userpilot\u2018s<\/picture>
UI patterns to choose from.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Driven actions<\/a> are a bit of functionality unique to Userpilot<\/a>, and they are all about tailoring a product tour to the user\u2019s needs. This allows you to focus on choosing the right features to explain (rather than wasting time building permissions).<\/p>\n

\"userpilot<\/picture><\/figure>\n

You should always consider the context when considering which action you want your user to take.<\/p>\n

In the example above, you can see the range of options you have to choose from. It\u2019s important to think carefully about which action makes the most sense in the context of the flow.<\/p>\n

Making your customers physically hover over something, click, drag, or engage in any way with your product is the best way to help them understand complex features. It\u2019s one of the most powerful self-service tools<\/a> you can deploy.<\/p>\n

So when should tooltips feature in your interactive guide?<\/p>\n

Tooltips explain what your customer has to do and how to do it. The example below demonstrates how you might insert them into a flow.<\/p>\n

You should use them at specific points in the journey to provide contextual instructions. That helps users better understand how your product works and build up their knowledge base<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/picture>
Tooltips settings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tooltips can form a valuable part of any interactive guide.<\/p>\n

You can then easily link a combination of driven actions and tooltips together to create guides that generate interest and support new users<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. Set your guide to trigger for different custom user segments for a personalized experience<\/h3>\n

Should you treat your customers as one uniform group?<\/p>\n

Absolutely not \u2013 every user has different goals, ambitions, and needs.<\/p>\n

Instead of adopting a blanket approach, you should think in terms of user segments<\/a>: groups of customers who interact and engage with your product in a similar way (or share something in common).<\/p>\n

\"Segmentation<\/picture>
Segmentation conditions setting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To get the most out of interactive guides, they should be targeted to address the needs of different user cohorts.<\/p>\n

You can break this down in several ways:<\/p>\n