Onboarding is a business card of a mobile app, the first impression that the users get about it. And the first impressions matter the most, so it is very significant to make this experience pleasing. To achieve this, we have to clarify the main functions plus the value proposition of our app (what solution does it offer) and most prominently, set a goal. The better the user understands the function of our app plus the simpler is its use, the sooner we would meet our goal: for instance, getting a user signup or any other particular action.
According to Andrewchen.co, on standard, apps lose 77% of their active users in the first 3 days afterward installation, resulting in a big loss of cash (invested in paid purchase channels) and wasted work at all levels. So, onboarding is essential to convey the message about the value that the user would expect to receive from an app plus to generate the requirement to reuse it.
At this point everything appears pretty simple, however, nowadays users do not download an app to learn how to use it. They want to benefit from its use almost instantaneously. Most users want to finish all their jobs in the shortest time possible as well as explore the app on their own till learning how to use it.
Highlight the value
People download your app from the App Store/Google Play since they have definite expectations of it. They expect it to resolve their problem, give them several benefits, or just be fun. Show them from the very start with the help of onboarding that they are not wrong.
It’s important not to just list the attractive functions however to tell them how these functions would make their life easier. This does not merely encourage them to take the next phase but moreover contributes to the wish to leave the app on the device, somewhat than delete it.
Showcase Core Features of the App
Now, when I say that you require highlighting the value, it does not mean that the features would remain brushed underneath the carpet. The users must moreover understand the key functionality or the main features that you have to build your app around. While you showcase the main features of your app that will aid them to complete the job they plan to achieve by using callouts plus highlighting the main features in your app.
Though, in doing so, remember not to go overboard plus dump the whole bucket! It is significant that you pick and decide only a few of the most significant features that make up your app.
While it comes to those features that you want to flaunt (coz they are cool but not that essential), you could think about introducing them on succeeding launches, a couple at a time. This could easily be done later on throughout the use of in-app messages.
Only ask for vital information
When you are creating the signup procedure, you should merely ask for information that’s pertinent to the app. For example, if your app is for learning languages, asking users for their yearly salary might feel like needless information. This could act as a point of friction that ultimately leads to users to abandon your app.
Make It fast To Avoid Overwhelming Your Users
App onboarding is vital, but that does not mean that you dump a dozen screens on the users which they have to slide throughout to get to the real deal. This can ruin the whole user experience. Text-heavy explanations tend to overwhelm the users plus it is better to go for app screenshots as well as illustrations to communicate the message.
While you might be thrilled about all those radiant features you added to your app, make certain that the users are introduced merely to one feature per screen. Using coach marks can aid new users to understand how the app works plus how to navigate inside the app? Like screenshots, you would make certain that there must only be one coach mark at a time to avoid the pointless mess on screen.
Sometimes it is significant that you include a tutorial in your app, however, this can get tricky as well as have an impact on the entire user experience. One efficient way to do this is by gaming the entire experience. Add rewards to the experience each time you comprise a walkthrough that you just cannot avoid adding to your app.
Keep Your Sign-Up procedure Short and Simple
If getting the users to sign up for your app is serious to you plus the intent of your app, then the method you design your sign-up procedure can be fairly a challenge. Preferably the sign-up procedure you include in your app must be fast and easy.
Giving the users an option to sign in to your app through existing social media accounts counting Facebook, Twitter Google +, or even Instagram decreases a lot of friction in the onboarding procedure introduced through the sign-up authorization. Doing this lets the users sign up in just a single otherwise a maximum of two clicks, and more significantly there is a definite sense of trust-related to it. Here, you can experiment fairly extensively with the login option that you are providing, who distinguishes you might end up being motivated sufficiently to eliminate the sign-up feature.
If yours is a comparatively unknown app otherwise a brand new one, it is better to present the user’s access to the entire contents of the app, before signing up. Relax! If they like your app, they are going to sign up anyway. While your users have access to all your content, they certainly have a better user experience plus you get an upper engagement number!
According to a report, approximately three-fourth (72%) of the entire app users want the onboarding procedure to take the utmost of one minute. It merely follows that each second you add to the procedure would be your recognizable nail in the coffin.
Do not ask for needless information. (You do not need a user’s email if you have a flashlight mobile application).
Make the onboarding screens compact
You’ll lose a lot of potential users if your onboarding process is extensive and tedious. People will get overwhelmed if there are pages and pages of instructions and will substitute your app with a competitor.
If your app’s functionality requires a more detailed explanation, the best thing to do is use the progressive onboarding approach. This will break it up into a set-by-step guide, making the process feel quicker and less-demanding.
For example, you can use illustrations and app screenshots to convey important messages. This helps you avoid text-heavy explanations that can seem daunting to new users.
Personalization Matters
Admit it; personalization is the king of the app’s achievement in today’s time.
And to attract and hook users, you could show them the personalization experience correctly at the time of the app onboarding process. Give them a custom-made experience right at the start of the app login.
Gaze at Spotify’s onboarding design. Once you are done creating the account, users are redirected to decide artists as per their preferences- an onboarding procedure that makes users modify their playlist directly.
Also, the way of customization plus personalization differentiates a brand’s relationship. The better the customization experience would be, the greater would be the user experience.
Appeal Visually Too
People retain visual things plus information in the long run as compared to the written ones. Do not offer a transient nature to your application.
Although you are not required to offer a fancy, excessively decorated, dolled up application, however, offering visually smart applications will do no damage to your app. a visually attractive application is the clip that will connect users at their first glance.
Not to forget, the correct balance of visual attractiveness plus simplicity is the essence of the app- assures you are taking them too. Be distinct, be exact.
Go forward With Animation
A user could abandon the app in just a few seconds. For hooking them for the long run, you get one chance- try counting animation as a preface to your app.
While it comes to UX onboarding best practices, nothing could beat the aura of animation. Though, step by step animation illustrations are in trend today plus catch more interest than an app without it. If not for the entire app, try including animation for small descriptions of the features.
Measure, Test and Tweak the Onboarding Flow
Like any other procedure, the impact or achievement of your onboarding procedure needs to be measured also. The metrics you decide are critical in figuring out whether your present user onboarding is flourishing and which aspect needs to be improved.
The first thing to do here is to identify the metrics similar to the activation metric or even metrics to measure user retention. Apart from this, you would moreover need to employ special tools to test your onboarding. There are features similar to heat maps, statistics, scroll maps, and analyses of in-app behavior that could be used to draw insight into the user experience.
One more point to ponder is that although these tools could give you all the numbers or stats that you might need but are stymied while it comes to the qualitative insight you would have to collect full feedback from the users. This might be done by observing your app users otherwise talking to them. You can conduct in detail customer interviews plus then analyze all this reply you receive.
One more alternative is to test launch your app plus judge how a smaller user group reacts to your onboarding flow. While you have these insights in front of you, it will aid you to tweak your app to suit the requirements of the target user group, perfect it steadily.
Include a Balanced Mix of Multiple Channels
This post is all about boarding on your app, but that does not mean everything you do must only be inside the app. actually, you would have to engage new users on several channels concurrently motivating them to come back toward your app plus exploring it.
These channels might include emails, push notification, and in-app messages. The most effective onboarding is the one that uses a balanced mixture of these three and aids the users experience the main values or features of the app as well as encourage them to complete the onboarding process.
Significantly, you do this in a personalized manner plus send out content otherwise messages that are pertinent to the actions that the app user took inside the app. If you send out a template message, there is not much value that the app user would see in it. The messages you send must motivate them to take the next stage whether it is finishing the register, posting content, otherwise consuming content.
Stick to the original goal
The entire process of Mobile App Onboarding should be developed taking into account reaching the initially set goal. This could be a small description of how to work with the app, representing its features otherwise conversion action. Do not be diverted from the original goals; focus efforts on their accomplishment.
Conclusion
First impressions matter. This is true while it comes to any mobile app, particularly an application you do not want to be among the ones that just sit on somebody’s phone like a discarded pair of shoes that looked cooler on the box. If you take a look at some examples of an effective mobile app launch screen, you will notice a mix of simplicity and brand relevance. This is part of what is needed to keep users engaged with an app. What you will also notice is that everybody is reflective of the app’s purpose otherwise the brand’s image. The key to making an effective mobile app onboarding flow is to keep the user engaged outside the launch screen and make their in-app experience a productive as well as an enjoyable one.
Mandeep Singh, the founder of SEO Discovery, the leading digital marketing company is an experienced campaigner in the field of SEO marketing and the arena of digital selling.