Designing better onboarding to promote user loyalty

Introduction

Welcome to another instalment of Digital Design Insights. In this edition, we shift our focus to a crucial element that plays a decisive role in the success of digital products: onboarding. Far more than a mere introduction, onboarding is the linchpin for user loyalty and enhanced experience. Join us as we uncover the essentials of designing an optimal onboarding process, a key determinant of a product’s success.

Guides and paths

Guide your users as they enter your product. Users must understand what they need to do and where they stand. The initial moments in the application are pivotal for shaping their future product use. There are various ways to steer them through this experience.

Indicate steps

From their inscription, it’s essential to inform users about their progress in the journey. For example, when signing up for a digital service, the user may go through three or more stages. They might consider abandoning the process if they reach the final stage without realizing it’s the last one. However, providing clear indications makes it easier for them to understand the journey. One effective solution is to incorporate a progress bar, ensuring users have a visual representation of their advancement.

Tutorial and tooltips

Enhance user understanding through tutorials and tooltips. These resources play a crucial role in providing step-by-step guidance helping users navigate and comprehend the features of your product. Clear and concise tutorials and contextual tooltips contribute to a smoother onboarding process and empower users to maximise your product’s functionalities.

Personalised paths

Recognize the diversity of user journeys. Tailoring paths based on individual user needs is a powerful strategy. By personalising the onboarding experience with questions, for example, you can better cater to specific user requirements, making the initial interaction more engaging and relevant. This approach fosters a sense of connection and ensures users find value in your product.

While assisting ARIS Robotics with the design of their MVP, we operated with limited resources. Our focus was on establishing a solid foundation, enabling them to scale predominantly independently.

Engagement

Engaging your users is essential to ensuring successful onboarding. Encourage them to visit your application and entice them to return. There are various ways to achieve this, and here are some examples.

Emailing strategy

Crafting an effective emailing strategy is a cornerstone of user engagement. Emails are a powerful tool to inform, inspire, and remind users of your product's existence. Whether it's a welcome email, periodic updates, or personalised content, a well-thought-out emailing strategy keeps users connected and informed.

Notifications

Timely and thoughtful notifications are integral to maintaining user attention. Strategic use of notifications helps users stay informed about important updates, prompts them to revisit the platform, and ensures they don't miss key features or offerings. Balancing frequency and relevance is key to delivering a positive notification experience.

Gamification

Integrating gamification elements adds fun and engagement to the user experience. Game-like features such as rewards, challenges, and achievements can make interactions more enjoyable and motivate users to explore and interact with your product. Gamification creates a dynamic and captivating environment, encouraging users to stay engaged and invested in your platform.

Ensuring a streamlined experience enables companies to move further and faster. This was the core philosophy behind our work for Jublo and their SaaS platform.

Find the "Aha"-moment

What is the "Aha"-moment?

The user’s "Aha"-moment is the exciting instant when they grasp the profound value of your product. Think of the recent moment when a lightbulb flickered on, and you thought, “Ah, that’s how this works!“ In software, this key moment is a specific juncture when a new user understands the significance of your product to their needs. It’s not just fleeting; it’s a spark of insight, a discovery with the potential to shape how users perceive and engage with the unique benefits your offering provides.

User journey

To unlock this “Aha"-moment, it’s imperative to understand user journeys comprehensively and discern the pivotal moments that carry the most value for them. Begin by delving into a nuanced understanding of your users, allowing you to pinpoint where this crucial moment resides. By doing so, you’ll be well-equipped to optimize the creation of your onboarding experience, ensuring it aligns seamlessly with users’ needs and expectations.

Avoid friction points

Identify elements within the user journey that could frustrate and set them back in onboarding. Thoroughly resolving these issues is essential to guarantee a seamless and positive experience. By eliminating friction points, you pave the way for users to navigate effortlessly, enhancing their journey towards the enlightening moment and ensuring a more satisfying overall interaction with your product.

In our work for Allyy, we concentrated on simplifying complex workflows while ensuring we met user expectations.

Conclusion

In exploring optimal onboarding, we’ve highlighted crucial strategies for shaping user loyalty and enhancing the overall experience. From guiding users through personalised paths to engaging them with effective strategies, onboarding plays a crucial role in a product's success. Crafting a seamless journey and ensuring a transformative "Aha"-moment contribute to lasting user satisfaction.

As you create an optimal onboarding experience, remember that it’s not just an introduction but a strategic foundation for sustained success.