Ready to get into it? Let’s get started!<\/p>\n
Summary onboarding UX best practices<\/h2>\n\n- Onboarding UX<\/a> can be defined as the user experience you create – both within and outside your app – to welcome, familiarize, and get users up to speed with your product or service.<\/li>\n
- When looking at onboarding<\/a> new users to your product or service, it’s best to follow best practices<\/a>. By providing a better first-time user experience<\/a>, you’ll boost activation (where users start to experience value). The faster you help customers reach that activation point, the better your chances of retention<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- Start to encourage users by telling an effective story with your signup page<\/a>: get it right, and you can have a big impact on user acquisition.<\/li>\n
- Another good rule of thumb for effective user onboarding experiences: when it comes to building a signup form<\/a>… keep it simple and seamless. Focus on gathering the absolute minimum amount of information required.<\/li>\n
- For longer signup processes, use gamification<\/a> to improve the UX and create fully engaged customers. Checklists with interesting visual prompts are a great way to encourage users to take the next actionable step.<\/li>\n
- First impressions count. It’s so important to get the user onboarding flow off<\/a> to a positive start. Your welcome screen<\/a> can do just that: use it to gather valuable information that’ll help you target users with a more personalized experience later in the process.<\/li>\n
- Another huge opportunity many people miss when designing an onboarding experience is not populating the ‘blank slate’<\/a>. How many users enjoy being greeted by a blank screen? You’d imagine very few.<\/li>\n
- User onboarding<\/a> is complex and multi-faceted. You should create branched experiences – whether that’s dynamic (i.e. actions drive what the journey looks like), adapted to different user segments<\/a> based on data, or driven by choice. It’s the best way to ensure onboarding is targeted and effective.<\/li>\n
- Another important element of onboarding is ensuring users know how to use, interact with, and get value from your product. Most people’s minds leap straight to product tours<\/a>, but interactive walkthroughs<\/a> are a far more practical tool.<\/li>\n
- What you might<\/em> not realize is that you can deploy checklists<\/a> multiple times – for different purposes – throughout the onboarding experience. For example, one checklist might focus primarily on activation – another could be more geared toward the discovery of secondary features.<\/li>\n
- It’s all well and good building an effective onboarding flow. But you need to put an equal focus on understanding areas of frustration, friction, and inefficiency. User interviews are a great way to build that insight.<\/li>\n
- Remember to stick to a design framework: it’ll help improve the overall aesthetic, look, and feel of your onboarding. That extends to error messaging – the more info you can give your users, the better.<\/li>\n
- The interesting thing about onboarding? It never<\/a> stops! It’s a continuous and evolving process: you should constantly focus on how to adapt, iterate and improve your flows to create loyal users.<\/li>\n
- Need an onboarding tool to help drive growth? Book a Userpilot demo <\/a>and see how it can help you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What is onboarding UX?<\/h2>\n
Onboarding UX <\/a>is a broad term, but it can be defined as the user<\/strong> experience you create – both within and outside your app <\/strong>– to welcome, familiarize, and get users up to speed with your product or service.<\/strong><\/p>\nWithin a user onboarding flow<\/a>, you’ll need to think about structure, patterns<\/a>, content, objectives, user needs, tactics, and tooling.<\/p>\nIt’s certainly a complex area!<\/p>\n
Why should you follow onboarding UX best practices?<\/h2>\n
Given all that complexity, why is it important to follow user onboarding best practices<\/a>? Simply put, it gives you the best chance of getting it right – and unlocking all the benefits that bring.<\/p>\nTypically, that route to value has two steps.<\/p>\n
\n- Better first-time user experience<\/a>. <\/strong>An effective user onboarding process<\/a> helps new users land smoothly and seamlessly into your application. That initial experience is vital if you want to avoid users ‘bouncing’ straight back out!<\/li>\n
- Faster activation<\/strong>. Building on that strong welcome experience, a positive onboarding process is proven<\/em> to boost activation (the point that users start to experience value). The faster you help customers reach that activation point, the better your chances of retention<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
You can see the impact of activation on a range of pivotal product metrics below.<\/p>\n![\"Visual](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/User-Activation-Impact-on-SaaS-Revenue__85e01970739fa2502a6dee0f73242bb4_800.png\")
<\/picture>Activation has a massive impact on a range of key metrics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nNext, we’ll explore some of those best practices – with examples<\/a> – to help inspire your onboarding process.<\/p>\nUse product storytelling for the WOW moment<\/h2>\n\u201cStories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Any effective product manager should be well-versed in the power of storytelling. Use your product to craft a powerful narrative<\/a> that helps enthrall your customers.<\/p>\nThat can begin from the moment a user enters your app: utilize your landing page.<\/a><\/p>\nThat might involve working on your copy<\/a> to attract customers and create a positive emotional connection. It could mean including a positive review to help build trust with some social proof.<\/p>\nSimply put, telling a story <\/a>with your signup page matters: get it right, and you can have a big impact on user acquisition.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Userpilot-sign-up-page-design-onboarding-UX-best-practices_fe6e12b15a781da954c1e000bc5c6be4_800.png\")
<\/picture>Ensure the \u2018front door\u2019 to your product is welcoming.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSimplify the signup form for better engagement<\/h2>\n
A key part of the user onboarding journey is to ensure users are successfully able to sign up for an account. Without that, they’re not going to be able to use your product. Here’s a useful rule of thumb when it comes to building a signup form<\/a>: the simpler, the better.<\/p>\nFocus on gathering the absolute minimum amount of information required <\/strong>for account creation. It’s the best way to avoid unnecessary friction. Nobody wants to waste their time trudging through a million irrelevant fields!<\/p>\nMiro’s signup flow<\/a> is a great example of a frictionless SSO experience.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/miro-signup-saas-onboarding-process_8787b74ea5d1747c5a2d0459e1aa3c81_800.png\")
<\/picture>Aim for a seamless signup process.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOnce a customer has successfully reached the milestone of account creation during user onboarding, then<\/em> they start to gather supplementary information (which they can successfully use to craft a more personalized user onboarding experience).<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/miro-onboarding-ux-best-practices-signup_b507a046fd8bdad378225cb4d753bfec_800.png\")
<\/picture>Gather more information where you can.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nGamify longer signup onboarding experiences<\/h2>\n
There’s an enormous trend around the concept of gamification<\/a> <\/strong>in the SaaS world – and for very good reason. It’s a proven strategy for driving engagement and interest and can pay dividends regardless of the industry you operate in.<\/p>\nOne of the simplest ways to implement gamification<\/a> is using a neat little UX pattern<\/a>: a visual progress bar.<\/p>\nUse them to motivate and inspire users to drive forward with a particular flow or journey. It’s amazing how much joy a little dopamine hit can bring!<\/p>\n
Explore different options (like animations) to further enhance the experience.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/progress-bar-onboarding-UX-best-practices_5f63fe522650492aed783d84641174e6_800.png\")
<\/picture>Motivate your users to keep going.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nStart the user onboarding experience with a welcome message<\/h2>\n
First impressions count.<\/a> It’s so important for you to set the tone, get the user onboarding flow off to a positive start, and lay the foundations for engagement, activation, and retention.<\/p>\nYour product welcome message<\/a> should always<\/em> do at least a couple of things well:<\/p>\n\n- Welcome users<\/a> to your product and reassure them they are in the right place.<\/li>\n
- Prompt the next actionable step they need to take to move their user onboarding forward.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The user persona JTBD welcome screen for collecting user data<\/h3>\n
Savvy product managers can also leverage some extra value from the welcome screen: understanding why<\/em> a user wants to use the product<\/a> in the first place.<\/p>\nA short, simple welcome survey<\/a> can help add to a good first impression.<\/p>\nAfter all, people love sharing information about themselves.<\/p>\n
But more importantly, you can use the information you gather about your customers<\/a> and their goals to craft a more personalized experience.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/postify-welcome-survey-how-to-increase-onboarding-ux-best-practices_c44793d0aee7fdec26b2f6a27f6bfa85_800.png\")
<\/picture>Understanding your users’ primary jobs to be done is key to any product manager\u2019s success.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe onboarding video product tour that prompts action<\/h3>\n
Another useful tactic is to deploy video<\/strong><\/a> to delight and attract users. The data shows there’s a huge boost in engagement when interacting with video content<\/a>.<\/p>\nJust look at the massive success of YouTube and TikTok as forms of entertainment.<\/p>\n
So utilize that to your advantage: embed a video<\/a> into your welcome screen, perhaps with a short tour of your product’s primary functionality, and kickstart your user’s first in-app action.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/embed-onboarding-video-userpilot-onboarding-UX-best-practices_e8c3bf3e7035333fdfd898eefbc68a69_800.png\")
<\/picture>Embed video with Userpilot<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDon’t leave the blank slate blank<\/em><\/h2>\nAnother huge opportunity many people miss when designing an onboarding experience is being satisfied with a ‘blank slate’<\/a>. <\/strong>In essence, that’s the empty space <\/a>users see once they’ve signed up for your product.<\/p>\nHow do you make the most of it? Let’s explore.<\/a><\/p>\nPersonalized data<\/h3>\n
The number one tip here is to personalize<\/a> the onboarding experience using data you’ve collected when users sign up. <\/strong><\/p>\nRather than a soulless blank experience, they’ll see their details already populated in the product interface – and that’ll get them off to a fast start.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/asana-signup-blank-slate-ui-design-onboarding-ux-best-practices_173c183c14efc2c9d9c9b432704cefc3_800.png\")
<\/picture>Gather valuable information as you go.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nTo-do list that showcases the product<\/h3>\n
We’ll explore a clever example from Notion: they use the key functionality of the product itself to demonstrate to customers how it works, provide a clear set of valuable onboarding steps, and showcase the product working in action.<\/p>\n
Of course, there’s also the interactive element to consider. We’ve already discussed how checklists can help engage and drive your customers forward.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/notion-blank-slate-ui-design-onboarding-ux-best-practices_b76c27beaf8eb9745046a51fd2e01679_800.png\")
<\/picture>Give users a helping hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUse onboarding UX patterns to guide<\/h3>\n
There are a wealth of onboarding UX patterns <\/a>to explore. Which you pick will depend enormously on the context, of course: you should pick a pattern based on the specific use case. To cover a few examples:<\/p>\n\n- Tooltips <\/strong>are excellent for providing contextual info without overwhelming the UI<\/li>\n
- Modals <\/strong>are an eye-catching way of grabbing users’ attention<\/li>\n
- Checklists<\/a> <\/strong>serve as valuable interactive prompts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-checklist-onboarding-UX-best-practices_09c666a467e06ba442455e2f132e486c_800.png\")
<\/picture>Choose the right UX pattern for the job.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCreate branched onboarding flows to reduce time to value<\/h2>\n
User onboarding<\/a> is complex<\/strong> and multi-faceted. In this section of the article, we’re going to cover how branched onboarding flows <\/a>can boost the effectiveness of your whole experience.<\/p>\nUse choose your own journey interactive videos<\/h3>\n
Self-determination is a powerful force. You can effectively let users choose<\/a><\/em> what they want to learn about next – and that can be far more effective than trying to force them down a particular route.<\/p>\nTo make it more engaging, use interactive videos <\/a>like Tolstoy.<\/p>\n![\"interactive-onboarding-videos-tolstoy-UX-onboarding-best-practices\"](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/interactive-onboarding-videos-tolstoy-UX-onboarding-best-practices_9b78963e2accc0d24e2c8d2871840f8b.gif\")
<\/picture><\/figure>\nTry a personalized onboarding process based on data<\/h3>\n
Another tactic you can take is making your onboarding dynamic<\/a><\/strong> (i.e. it changes depending on the answers or selections a user makes).<\/p>\nThe example from ConvertKit below demonstrates how this can help create a more targeted flow.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Cconvertkit-onboarding-ux-best-practices_496c2b20708910d205ccd496d68f02c4_800.png\")
<\/picture>Personalize the experience with insight gathered from customers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nYou can create a similar effect with effective user segmentation:<\/a> target different experiences toward different jobs to be done<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/user-segmentation-jtbd-onboarding-ux-best-practices_fa1d7ef0d7c38d4ec3d9ab83220e62b4_800.png\")
<\/picture>Target distinct user segments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nReplace long product tours with different UI patterns that guide<\/h2>\n
Another important element of onboarding<\/a> is ensuring users know how to use, interact with, and get value from <\/strong>your product. Most people’s minds leap straight to product tours<\/a> – but you have other options to draw from.<\/p>\nRemember, above all else, you want to avoid unnecessary user anxiety: a good onboarding<\/a> flow is gradual, personal, smooth, and focused.<\/p>\nKeep users engaged and improve user adoption with walkthroughs<\/h3>\n
Your best bet is interactive walkthroughs<\/a>. They are a key element of good user onboarding: they help to avoid too much friction when a user engages with a feature for the first time.<\/p>\nSo what is a product walkthrough? In essence, they are interactive guides <\/a>often comprised of a series of tooltips triggered contextually (i.e. not until the user completes the previous step). That helps guide users to take the next relevant action and drive them forward.<\/p>\n![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/interactive-walkthrough-onboarding-ux-best-practices_0de164461779a56c5621d00f325c29e6.gif\")
<\/picture>Encourage users to take the next step.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHelp users gradually discover relevant features with tooltips<\/h3>\n
Another fantastic alternative to an overwhelming product tour is targeted tooltips<\/a>. They’ll help you effectively personalize the customer experience by showcasing the exact<\/em> features of your interface you want.<\/p>\nTooltips<\/a> are proven to drive engagement – they’re even more effective if you can map them directly onto the ‘jobs to be done’<\/a> you’ve captured earlier in the onboarding process.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/onboarding-tooltip-onboarding-ux-best-practices_c0960724a0c4b4fffe04d8ea86dd78b1_800.png\")
<\/picture>Draw attention to the relevant section of your interface with tooltips.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUse multiple checklists for different stages in the user journey<\/h2>\n
We’ve covered how effective checklists<\/a> can be as an onboarding tool. What you might<\/em> not realize is that you can deploy them multiple times – for different purposes – throughout the onboarding experience.<\/p>\nFor example, one checklist<\/a> might focus primarily on activation<\/strong> – another could be more geared toward the discovery<\/strong> of secondary features. They’re flexible: use them to tackle any milestone you need, and remember to keep them short to boost user engagement.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Databoxonboardingchecklist-onboarding-ux-best-practices_ee801cfaf890c567da9b5aa9825bfa25_800.png\")
<\/picture>Design checklists carefully to help you get the job done.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nCelebrate success for better onboarding UX experiences<\/h2>\n
Throughout your onboarding flow, make sure you celebrate success<\/strong>. It’s a great way of ‘sneaking’ some elements of gamification<\/a> into onboarding<\/a>: even small wins (like completing an onboarding milestone) will feel motivating<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/asana-gamification-example-onboarding-ux-best-practices_bda323487c18c49d157da49820285eed.gif\")
<\/picture>A fun animation goes a long way.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nUnderstand friction with user interviews<\/h2>\n
It’s all well and good building an effective onboarding flow – but you need to put an equal focus on understanding areas of frustration, friction, and inefficiency.<\/p>\n
Gather that insight<\/a> directly from your users (interviews are a great way of doing that), review session recordings, and analyze feature usage<\/a> to understand drop-offs… and the reason behind them.<\/p>\n![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/tag-feature-Userpilot-onboarding-ux-best-practices_6df56c98e05e0a899f32bb8245e8764f.gif\")
<\/picture>Use data to help inform your decisions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nImportantly, you’ll want to see exactly where<\/em> users drop off the happy path – and use onboarding patterns to guide them back towards it.<\/p>\nDeclutter the UI without compromising product education<\/h2>\n
An important element to remember throughout onboarding: don’t<\/em> clutter your UI<\/a> with an overload of messages. Keep it simple, stick to proven UX practices<\/a>, and you’ll give your users the best chance to succeed.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/storychief-ui-clutter-progressive-onboarding_9e1623f70a4ff8e8722cab2dade7f3b2_800.png\")
<\/picture>Don\u2019t clutter the UI with too many elements.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nInstead, combine all your guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, and more in a Resource Center<\/a> – and rely on contextual help with tooltips in the rest of your product.<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Userpilot-resource-center-onboarding-ux-best-practices_6afff6f5e9ada593d46843e84a9eab69_800.png\")
<\/picture>Help users solve their own problems.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDrive user retention with a continuous user onboarding process for existing users<\/h2>\n
The interesting thing about onboarding? It never<\/a> stops!<\/p>\nIt’s a continuous and evolving process: you’ll need to guide and engage users from signup all the way through to cancellation, always helping them to discover new relevant features<\/a> and get value from your product.<\/p>\nAnd to extend this experience seamlessly to mobile, mobile SDK<\/a> enables you to create targeted onboarding flows using slideouts, carousels, and push notifications..<\/span><\/p>\nIt also means all in-app announcements should be targeted and focused: don’t just slap a random banner at the top of your page when you launch a new feature and hope for the best.<\/p>\n\n
What is onboarding UX?<\/h2>\n
Onboarding UX <\/a>is a broad term, but it can be defined as the user<\/strong> experience you create – both within and outside your app <\/strong>– to welcome, familiarize, and get users up to speed with your product or service.<\/strong><\/p>\n Within a user onboarding flow<\/a>, you’ll need to think about structure, patterns<\/a>, content, objectives, user needs, tactics, and tooling.<\/p>\n It’s certainly a complex area!<\/p>\n Given all that complexity, why is it important to follow user onboarding best practices<\/a>? Simply put, it gives you the best chance of getting it right – and unlocking all the benefits that bring.<\/p>\n Typically, that route to value has two steps.<\/p>\n You can see the impact of activation on a range of pivotal product metrics below.<\/p>\n Next, we’ll explore some of those best practices – with examples<\/a> – to help inspire your onboarding process.<\/p>\n \u201cStories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Any effective product manager should be well-versed in the power of storytelling. Use your product to craft a powerful narrative<\/a> that helps enthrall your customers.<\/p>\n That can begin from the moment a user enters your app: utilize your landing page.<\/a><\/p>\n That might involve working on your copy<\/a> to attract customers and create a positive emotional connection. It could mean including a positive review to help build trust with some social proof.<\/p>\n Simply put, telling a story <\/a>with your signup page matters: get it right, and you can have a big impact on user acquisition.<\/p>\n A key part of the user onboarding journey is to ensure users are successfully able to sign up for an account. Without that, they’re not going to be able to use your product. Here’s a useful rule of thumb when it comes to building a signup form<\/a>: the simpler, the better.<\/p>\n Focus on gathering the absolute minimum amount of information required <\/strong>for account creation. It’s the best way to avoid unnecessary friction. Nobody wants to waste their time trudging through a million irrelevant fields!<\/p>\n Miro’s signup flow<\/a> is a great example of a frictionless SSO experience.<\/p>\n Once a customer has successfully reached the milestone of account creation during user onboarding, then<\/em> they start to gather supplementary information (which they can successfully use to craft a more personalized user onboarding experience).<\/p>\n There’s an enormous trend around the concept of gamification<\/a> <\/strong>in the SaaS world – and for very good reason. It’s a proven strategy for driving engagement and interest and can pay dividends regardless of the industry you operate in.<\/p>\n One of the simplest ways to implement gamification<\/a> is using a neat little UX pattern<\/a>: a visual progress bar.<\/p>\n Use them to motivate and inspire users to drive forward with a particular flow or journey. It’s amazing how much joy a little dopamine hit can bring!<\/p>\n Explore different options (like animations) to further enhance the experience.<\/p>\n First impressions count.<\/a> It’s so important for you to set the tone, get the user onboarding flow off to a positive start, and lay the foundations for engagement, activation, and retention.<\/p>\n Your product welcome message<\/a> should always<\/em> do at least a couple of things well:<\/p>\n Savvy product managers can also leverage some extra value from the welcome screen: understanding why<\/em> a user wants to use the product<\/a> in the first place.<\/p>\n A short, simple welcome survey<\/a> can help add to a good first impression.<\/p>\n After all, people love sharing information about themselves.<\/p>\n But more importantly, you can use the information you gather about your customers<\/a> and their goals to craft a more personalized experience.<\/p>\n Another useful tactic is to deploy video<\/strong><\/a> to delight and attract users. The data shows there’s a huge boost in engagement when interacting with video content<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just look at the massive success of YouTube and TikTok as forms of entertainment.<\/p>\n So utilize that to your advantage: embed a video<\/a> into your welcome screen, perhaps with a short tour of your product’s primary functionality, and kickstart your user’s first in-app action.<\/p>\n Another huge opportunity many people miss when designing an onboarding experience is being satisfied with a ‘blank slate’<\/a>. <\/strong>In essence, that’s the empty space <\/a>users see once they’ve signed up for your product.<\/p>\n How do you make the most of it? Let’s explore.<\/a><\/p>\n The number one tip here is to personalize<\/a> the onboarding experience using data you’ve collected when users sign up. <\/strong><\/p>\n Rather than a soulless blank experience, they’ll see their details already populated in the product interface – and that’ll get them off to a fast start.<\/p>\n We’ll explore a clever example from Notion: they use the key functionality of the product itself to demonstrate to customers how it works, provide a clear set of valuable onboarding steps, and showcase the product working in action.<\/p>\n Of course, there’s also the interactive element to consider. We’ve already discussed how checklists can help engage and drive your customers forward.<\/p>\n There are a wealth of onboarding UX patterns <\/a>to explore. Which you pick will depend enormously on the context, of course: you should pick a pattern based on the specific use case. To cover a few examples:<\/p>\n User onboarding<\/a> is complex<\/strong> and multi-faceted. In this section of the article, we’re going to cover how branched onboarding flows <\/a>can boost the effectiveness of your whole experience.<\/p>\n Self-determination is a powerful force. You can effectively let users choose<\/a><\/em> what they want to learn about next – and that can be far more effective than trying to force them down a particular route.<\/p>\n To make it more engaging, use interactive videos <\/a>like Tolstoy.<\/p>\n Another tactic you can take is making your onboarding dynamic<\/a><\/strong> (i.e. it changes depending on the answers or selections a user makes).<\/p>\n The example from ConvertKit below demonstrates how this can help create a more targeted flow.<\/p>\n You can create a similar effect with effective user segmentation:<\/a> target different experiences toward different jobs to be done<\/strong>.<\/a><\/p>\n Another important element of onboarding<\/a> is ensuring users know how to use, interact with, and get value from <\/strong>your product. Most people’s minds leap straight to product tours<\/a> – but you have other options to draw from.<\/p>\n Remember, above all else, you want to avoid unnecessary user anxiety: a good onboarding<\/a> flow is gradual, personal, smooth, and focused.<\/p>\n Your best bet is interactive walkthroughs<\/a>. They are a key element of good user onboarding: they help to avoid too much friction when a user engages with a feature for the first time.<\/p>\n So what is a product walkthrough? In essence, they are interactive guides <\/a>often comprised of a series of tooltips triggered contextually (i.e. not until the user completes the previous step). That helps guide users to take the next relevant action and drive them forward.<\/p>\n Another fantastic alternative to an overwhelming product tour is targeted tooltips<\/a>. They’ll help you effectively personalize the customer experience by showcasing the exact<\/em> features of your interface you want.<\/p>\n Tooltips<\/a> are proven to drive engagement – they’re even more effective if you can map them directly onto the ‘jobs to be done’<\/a> you’ve captured earlier in the onboarding process.<\/p>\n We’ve covered how effective checklists<\/a> can be as an onboarding tool. What you might<\/em> not realize is that you can deploy them multiple times – for different purposes – throughout the onboarding experience.<\/p>\n For example, one checklist<\/a> might focus primarily on activation<\/strong> – another could be more geared toward the discovery<\/strong> of secondary features. They’re flexible: use them to tackle any milestone you need, and remember to keep them short to boost user engagement.<\/p>\n Throughout your onboarding flow, make sure you celebrate success<\/strong>. It’s a great way of ‘sneaking’ some elements of gamification<\/a> into onboarding<\/a>: even small wins (like completing an onboarding milestone) will feel motivating<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s all well and good building an effective onboarding flow – but you need to put an equal focus on understanding areas of frustration, friction, and inefficiency.<\/p>\n Gather that insight<\/a> directly from your users (interviews are a great way of doing that), review session recordings, and analyze feature usage<\/a> to understand drop-offs… and the reason behind them.<\/p>\n Importantly, you’ll want to see exactly where<\/em> users drop off the happy path – and use onboarding patterns to guide them back towards it.<\/p>\n An important element to remember throughout onboarding: don’t<\/em> clutter your UI<\/a> with an overload of messages. Keep it simple, stick to proven UX practices<\/a>, and you’ll give your users the best chance to succeed.<\/p>\n Instead, combine all your guides, FAQs, walkthroughs, and more in a Resource Center<\/a> – and rely on contextual help with tooltips in the rest of your product.<\/p>\n The interesting thing about onboarding? It never<\/a> stops!<\/p>\n It’s a continuous and evolving process: you’ll need to guide and engage users from signup all the way through to cancellation, always helping them to discover new relevant features<\/a> and get value from your product.<\/p>\n And to extend this experience seamlessly to mobile, mobile SDK<\/a> enables you to create targeted onboarding flows using slideouts, carousels, and push notifications..<\/span><\/p>\n It also means all in-app announcements should be targeted and focused: don’t just slap a random banner at the top of your page when you launch a new feature and hope for the best.<\/p>\nWhy should you follow onboarding UX best practices?<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"Visual](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/User-Activation-Impact-on-SaaS-Revenue__85e01970739fa2502a6dee0f73242bb4_800.png)
<\/picture>Use product storytelling for the WOW moment<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Userpilot-sign-up-page-design-onboarding-UX-best-practices_fe6e12b15a781da954c1e000bc5c6be4_800.png)
<\/picture>Simplify the signup form for better engagement<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/miro-signup-saas-onboarding-process_8787b74ea5d1747c5a2d0459e1aa3c81_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/miro-onboarding-ux-best-practices-signup_b507a046fd8bdad378225cb4d753bfec_800.png)
<\/picture>Gamify longer signup onboarding experiences<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/progress-bar-onboarding-UX-best-practices_5f63fe522650492aed783d84641174e6_800.png)
<\/picture>Start the user onboarding experience with a welcome message<\/h2>\n
\n
The user persona JTBD welcome screen for collecting user data<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/postify-welcome-survey-how-to-increase-onboarding-ux-best-practices_c44793d0aee7fdec26b2f6a27f6bfa85_800.png)
<\/picture>The onboarding video product tour that prompts action<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/embed-onboarding-video-userpilot-onboarding-UX-best-practices_e8c3bf3e7035333fdfd898eefbc68a69_800.png)
<\/picture>Don’t leave the blank slate blank<\/em><\/h2>\n
Personalized data<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/asana-signup-blank-slate-ui-design-onboarding-ux-best-practices_173c183c14efc2c9d9c9b432704cefc3_800.png)
<\/picture>To-do list that showcases the product<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/notion-blank-slate-ui-design-onboarding-ux-best-practices_b76c27beaf8eb9745046a51fd2e01679_800.png)
<\/picture>Use onboarding UX patterns to guide<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-checklist-onboarding-UX-best-practices_09c666a467e06ba442455e2f132e486c_800.png)
<\/picture>Create branched onboarding flows to reduce time to value<\/h2>\n
Use choose your own journey interactive videos<\/h3>\n
![\"interactive-onboarding-videos-tolstoy-UX-onboarding-best-practices\"](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/interactive-onboarding-videos-tolstoy-UX-onboarding-best-practices_9b78963e2accc0d24e2c8d2871840f8b.gif)
<\/picture><\/figure>\nTry a personalized onboarding process based on data<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Cconvertkit-onboarding-ux-best-practices_496c2b20708910d205ccd496d68f02c4_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/user-segmentation-jtbd-onboarding-ux-best-practices_fa1d7ef0d7c38d4ec3d9ab83220e62b4_800.png)
<\/picture>Replace long product tours with different UI patterns that guide<\/h2>\n
Keep users engaged and improve user adoption with walkthroughs<\/h3>\n
![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/interactive-walkthrough-onboarding-ux-best-practices_0de164461779a56c5621d00f325c29e6.gif)
<\/picture>Help users gradually discover relevant features with tooltips<\/h3>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/onboarding-tooltip-onboarding-ux-best-practices_c0960724a0c4b4fffe04d8ea86dd78b1_800.png)
<\/picture>Use multiple checklists for different stages in the user journey<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Databoxonboardingchecklist-onboarding-ux-best-practices_ee801cfaf890c567da9b5aa9825bfa25_800.png)
<\/picture>Celebrate success for better onboarding UX experiences<\/h2>\n
![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/asana-gamification-example-onboarding-ux-best-practices_bda323487c18c49d157da49820285eed.gif)
<\/picture>Understand friction with user interviews<\/h2>\n
![\"Animation](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/tag-feature-Userpilot-onboarding-ux-best-practices_6df56c98e05e0a899f32bb8245e8764f.gif)
<\/picture>Declutter the UI without compromising product education<\/h2>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/storychief-ui-clutter-progressive-onboarding_9e1623f70a4ff8e8722cab2dade7f3b2_800.png)
<\/picture>![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/Userpilot-resource-center-onboarding-ux-best-practices_6afff6f5e9ada593d46843e84a9eab69_800.png)
<\/picture>Drive user retention with a continuous user onboarding process for existing users<\/h2>\n