What is the
user
onboarding

Onboarding is a way to tell the user what your site is and how its basic functions work.

What is the user onboarding

Onboarding can be compared with an interactive instruction: you spend the user with a “guided tour” at the first visit, and if it is not required, you are always near, ready to help and tell him about everything. The value of the tool is that it helps to feel the benefits of your product, as well as build a sense of trust and security.

Properly configured onboarding is the whole system that will help keep the user on the site, and will also become the basis for additional sales. It includes:

- Tips
- Introductory video instructions
- Technical support and chats with site representatives
- Articles in the blog
- Call center
- Email newsletters

Pic: Example of onboarding on the Yandex.Maps service

Purpose of use

Onboarding is suitable for functional projects, complex services, sites with a lot of information, difficult navigation, etc. If the site does not require study or deep immersion in the topic (landing page, simple online store, business card site), such a tool can push away. This is the case when it is better to do without onboarding.

As a rule, onboarding has one or more of the following objectives:
1) Training
2) Adaptation
3) Involvement

Depending on which goal is chosen, you can use different methods of communication with the user. For example, if we are talking about a complex online parser, familiarity with all its functions will come first. We are interested in the user trying as much as possible, because this will help his work, which means that the value of the service will also grow.

Another example: a large information resource that a user has visited for a definite article. However, the site has a lot of other information that would be interesting to him: news, review or entertaining quiz. And if you do not push him to this information, he will simply leave.

Examples of using

Pic: The help in finding answers on questions from Wix.com

Pic: Again wix.com. Tips for further actions on the site

Figure: The Instruction for Impressions creation from Airbnb

Pic: An entire knowledge base from Google

Pic: Tips options from Facebook

Figure: Tips for specific action from Tripadvisor