Best practices for mobile onboarding

BY 7HORSE TECHNOLOGIES BEST PRACTICES FOR MOBILE ONBOARDING

7HORSE TECHNOLOGIES | WWW.7HORSETECH.COM 1

Onboarding is the process of getting a new user to a must have experience, and a set of best

practices to get them active. Good onboarding involves a mix of selling, educating and using

your product. Good user onboarding provides a strong first impression for your app and a solid

understanding of how apps can service user needs.

Like with many things regarding design, it’s easier said than done. To help, we at 7Horse

Technologies have assembled a general list of features that we’ve noticed over time which have

proven successful in user onboarding

Best Practices for User Onboarding

Stay Focused

Don’t show all the information at startup.

First-time users might require guidance, but not information overload. Start with your value

proposition (keep it simple!) and move on to basic functionality from there. Help people remain

focused throughout the process and make sure you give them the ability to opt-out of the

onboarding experience at any point along the way.

Show, don’t tell Too much text during onboarding (or anywhere in an app, for that matter) can be a turnoff,

especially since many people don’t learn this way. Try taking a “learn by doing” approach.

Instead of text, focus on immersing users in an interactive app experience right off the bat.

Interactivity allows users to complete the gestures they need to learn and then flow seamlessly

into the app experience, to seek deeper engagement.

free sample can be added to onboarding where new user is not required to log in or sign in to

browse. With the help of this free sample, you can quickly demonstrates to the new user all the

content on Twitch, better increasing the odds that she’ll be inspired to create an account–even a

paid account–to unlock more features

Indicate advancement in the flow

Onboarding should not be an endless journey. It should be manageable by indicating progress

within each step. Try showing users the number of screens or steps remaining, and how far they

have advanced thus far. Providing a “light at the end of the tunnel” will help to encourage them

to continue through and complete the process

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One slide, one content

Recollect those presentations that grabbed your attention, those from which you retained the

most information. The ones that had clear and focused message probably had the greatest impact

and were the most memorable. The same applies to mobile apps too. Brief and crisp content

makes focusing easy and information easier to digest

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Also, make sure you have attractive visuals for your splash and welcome screens. Eye-catching

visuals are an add-on to your Onboarding process, especially when your app is anything food

related.

Tell them benefits, not features

Feature talks are frivolous. Users may find it boring, thereby dropping all thoughts of

downloading your app at once. In this digital age, We’ve all become used to the speed and

convenience of information. We expect things to be explained to us step-by-step yet are often

impatient when it comes to trying new things. Thus, with user onboarding, don’t explaining the

features of your app. Instead, present benefits of the app to the users directly. Benefits could be

in terms of what the app does, how users can integrate it into their lifestyle and most importantly

the value proposition it offers

Simplify login process

The best login flow is undoubtedly no login at all. So first ask yourself that question: Do we

really need users to log in?

We’ve seen time and time again huge drop offs when comparing app downloads to actual logged

in users. Making this process as simple and convincing as possible could do wonders for the

amount of new people using your app. If you work with a copywriter, this is a good point to

bring him/her in.

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If users need to create an account to use your app, social login is a great way to simplify the

process. Just ask them to link their account to Facebook or Twitter and they can connect in

seconds, rather than spending five minutes manually typing their full name, email and other data.

Understand users

User onboarding can take on many different forms, and depends greatly on the genre of your

app. Apps with less intuitive designs – such as difficult navigation or complex gestures –

typically require some form of user onboarding. For gaming apps, an easy first level could serve

as user onboarding. For service, e-commerce or m-commerce apps, a tutorial can be helpful for

users.

Three rules for creating a tutorial:

1. Keep it short. Users should be able to figure out how to handle the app in less than a

minute.

2. Place it in an easy-to-reference location.

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3. The last step should drop users off on the page where they’ll be most engaged. This may

not be the app home screen, but instead a page where they will take action, like updating

a status, taking a photo or creating a character.

Use colors to guide users

Colors play a crucial role in user onboarding. Just stick to the color scheme you chose while

designing the app. However, introduce higher contrast hues and other brighter colors against

empty spaces to help users navigate to the right places. This will keep users visually engaged,

while emphasizing actions they should take. With some simple rearranging and color hierarchy,

you can “recommend” to users which option is best without ever explicitly stating it or taking up

more space on the screen



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Technology

Best practices for mobile onboarding