There's an art to getting people started with your product or service. Here are the Nuggets that any new product should definitely use.
Making a small commitment now makes us more likely to agree to a greater one later
When people start using your product, provide them a simple task to get started with. Payment app Wise present you with four distinct options, asking you "What would you like to do now?"
Where in your onboarding can you give people a small task to get started with?
We have an emotional need to amass sets of related items
For content-heavy platforms, allow new members to select from a range of pre-chosen categories, making their experience immediately personal and subject to less analysis paralysis. e.g Automation tool IFTTT provides you a set of pre-defined automation 'Recipes' to collect instead of making your own from scratch.
How might you allow people to tailor or fast-track their experiences by choosing only what matters to them?
Create a positive surprise towards the end of your onboarding process, celebrating task completion and providing clarity that they're good to go. For instance, messaging app Intercom provide a colourful blast of confetti once you've finished a learning sequence.
How can you leave people feeling great upon key milestones of your onboarding?
We remember things better when repeated over time and across environments
We learn better when information is spaced out over time and across context, so take the pressure off shoe-horning everything in within the first experience.
How instead can you space out what is to be learnt over time? Over what period? Consider repeating important learnings.
Our capacity to process information and make decisions reduces with each made
Too much info, tasks and expectations will simply overwhelm, turning first impressions into worst impressions.
What is the shortest possible onboarding you can provide that gets people started? Cut all non-essential steps and information.
When faced with a new environment, we look for support as to the right choices. Help people get set up with well-designed default choices.
Where in your onboarding can you offer meaningful defaults to encourage 'good' behaviour or to simplify the onboarding process?
We’re more persuaded by and better recall those who tell stories
Wrapping up a series of tasks into a compelling narrative can help us navigate any complexity or disinterest with the onboarding process itself.
Where can you help guide newcomers with simple stories from existing users to provide clarity, relatability and inspiration?
When we’re reminded of our aims, we're more motivated to reach them
Providing a clear reminder as to the whole point of onboarding can motivate us to complete it. Duolingo do a great job here, teaching you a little of your chosen language *before* you finish signing up.
What are the high level goals of your onboarding experience? How can you surface these aspirational outcomes to help onboarders better imagine their futures and do the work now to get there?
We’re more likely to decide when the options are sensibly restricted
Providing the the right level of choice at the right time is delicate balance. Be careful of how many sets of choices you offer to people to curate their experiences.
Could some choices be constrained or left out of the initial onboarding? Going further, do they need to be any part of it at all?
We look for information that provides clarity on our actions
We're desperate to be told we're on the right track, and respond well to feedback telling us so.
Where in your onboarding can you provide clear feedback that "I've got this", particularly early on or for more complicated tasks?
We reach our goals faster when we have help getting started
Task completion lies at the core of onboarding, so showing that onboarders are already on their way will compel them to complete the entire process.
Where's the earliest point you can make people they've already started onboarding, visually showing this progress on-screen?
We're driven to seek missing info that closes our knowledge gap
We're often motivated by closing down information gaps, and this could be put to good use during onboarding processes.
How can you trigger a sense of curiosity within your onboarding process to motivate completion and trigger that satisfying "aha!" moment?
Once we’ve made a public statement, we make consistent decisions to support it
Allowing people to select their own aims is a great way of providing long-lasting accountability and a more tailored onboarding experience. Duolingo do a great job here by asking you to set a daily goal.
Where can you allow people to set their own commitments within your onboarding experience?
Onboarding processes ask us to complete a series of tasks, of numerous sizes and complexities, so it's natural that we'll not complete every part of the onboarding process.
If this is the case, how can you highlight "just how close" users are to finishing within your interface of follow-up comms? Emphasise the minimal effort and the maximal gain of completing the next task.
Our sense of self bleeds into what we own. Foster a sense of personal ownership within the onboarding process from early on to create a strong desire to motivate completion and fully own the experience.
Where can you turn a generic process into a personal one? Even subtleties like framing progress through the user's name will help.
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