Skip to content
UX Atlas
PatternCraft conventionIntermediate

Onboarding

Getting someone to their first real outcome, which is a very different goal from explaining the interface.

Definition

Onboarding is the path from first arrival to first genuine value. The measure of success is whether the user achieved something meaningful, not whether they completed a tour.

Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Designing it around a single outcome
  3. In practice
  4. Continue from here

Designing it around a single outcome

  1. 1

    Name the activation moment

    The specific thing a user does that predicts retention. Find it in data by comparing retained and churned cohorts.

  2. 2

    Remove everything between arrival and that moment

    Every field, permission request and explanation before it is a leak. Defer what can be deferred.

  3. 3

    Deliver value before asking for commitment

    Let the user see the product work before demanding an account, payment details or a team invitation, where the product allows it.

  4. 4

    Teach at the point of need

    Introduce each capability when it first becomes relevant, not in a front-loaded sequence.

  5. 5

    Make the first result real

    Something the user made, that persists, and that they would miss.

In practice

Value before signup

Tools and utilities

Products that let people use the core function before creating an account convert better, because the account request arrives after the value has been demonstrated rather than before.

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Applies when you are designing

A Mobile AppAn Onboarding Flow

Principles behind this

The reasoning this solution is an application of.

Often used with

These usually appear in the same screen or the same decision.

  • Empty StatesPattern

    The first screen after signup is usually an empty state, and it is the strongest teaching moment you get.

Practical example

A worked decision where this was the deciding factor.

Check your work

Review passes that test whether this was done properly.

Short definition

The one-paragraph version, for when that is all you need.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.