Onboarding

Every product needs a solid activation experience. Done well, they can mean hugely successful conversion from discovery to sign-up for your app. Here's a breakdown of Duolingo's legendarily strong activation experience. Complete activation experience breakdown in... See more

In the first 15 seconds, your visitors are lazy in the sense that they have no extra time to invest in something they don’t know. They are vain in that they want to look good quickly using your product. And they’re selfish in that, despite the big picture potential and purpose of what your service stands for, they want to know what will immediately... See more

The next area where I think games have a lot to teach product designers is in onboarding . Many games follow the path of slowly revealing the complexity of a system over time, giving the player just enough to do that they're engaged but not overwhelmed. Often this is a continual process that happens across the entire span of the game. Multiple... See more

The most challenging products must EXPLAIN how something should be done (think Adobe Photoshop, where users must be find training on YouTube or elsewhere to engage — even initially—with the product). Having to explain your product is the least effective way to engage new users (and explains why products like Photoshop struggle to attract non-Pros).... See more