Excessive onboarding is a major gripe I have with a lot of apps, especially those that are local-first.
Either they highlight the same features as the screenshots in the app store, or the hold your hand through obvious and tedious flows, intimidating permission grants, forced paywalls and then finally hit you with a login. I think if you're an established brand and reputation you can survive this friction, but for most startups, surely this has to be seen as an anti-pattern?
I'm not guilt free in this, either; my first side project Instillr is a photo app that guided you through features, permissions and the setup process of a photo album. But users dropped like flies by the third slide; only 1/4 users actually stuck around long enough to take a photo in my photo app. I was devastated. So I tightened it up, made it much more visually appealing and give interactive examples of the outcomes you can expect from the app, without wasting the user's time. The number of users who took their first photo shot up to 3/4. So a lot better, but still not perfect.
For my latest app, a screen time control suite called Screentide, I've not included a single onboarding slide. I made this decision after spending minutes being scolded in competitor apps for how much of my life I was wasting on my phone. I personally don't respond well to being guilted like that; users already know they need the app, or they wouldn't have downloaded it. Opal, a very popular screen time app, was one of the worst offenders and takes about 5 minutes to complete the onboarding due to slowly revealed text telling you how bad you are at life. This is an app designed to reduce screen time!
That's not to say my app is unguided. Rather, it launches sheet flow whenever a user creates an entity, like a screen time rule. My bet is that this creates trust through autonomy by not forcing a use case on them, and bombarding them with questions when they're really just trying to answer "does this app do x?"
But in testing, what was interesting was seeing where users went the moment they first opened the app. Do they immediately create a rule? View the calendar? Check the pricing? I expected most people to immediately create a rule, but only 60% of people did that. The rest explored. What was interesting was many people went to the calendar and spent some time there, because it was a feature not many other apps in this space offer. My hope is these early signals will give great insight into what is attracting users to my app once I get a few more in the door.
On the flip side, I've already had some testers ask why there wasn't any onboarding, perhaps out habit. There is every chance I add a few slides in the near future, too, and run an A/B test, just because they are somewhat comforting and give a professional vibe.
Time will tell if this was a good idea, as my app just launched today!
So over to you....
When does app onboarding become an anti-pattern?
Have you found the sweet spot for how many slides and/or what kind of slides retain users best, or turn them away the most?
Most keen to hear from anyone who has done extensive A/B tests, or any evidence collation, around this question.
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