/onboard

Name

onboard

Description

Designs and improves onboarding flows, empty states, and first-run experiences to help users reach value quickly. Use when the user mentions onboarding, first-time users, empty states, activation, getting started, or new user flows.

user-invocable

true

argument-hint

[target]

## MANDATORY PREPARATION

Invoke /impeccable — it contains design principles, anti-patterns, and the **Context Gathering Protocol**. Follow the protocol before proceeding — if no design context exists yet, you MUST run /impeccable teach first. Additionally gather: the "aha moment" you want users to reach, and users' experience level.

---

Create or improve onboarding experiences that help users understand, adopt, and succeed with the product quickly.

## Assess Onboarding Needs

Understand what users need to learn and why:

1. **Identify the challenge**:
   - What are users trying to accomplish?
   - What's confusing or unclear about current experience?
   - Where do users get stuck or drop off?
   - What's the "aha moment" we want users to reach?

2. **Understand the users**:
   - What's their experience level? (Beginners, power users, mixed?)
   - What's their motivation? (Excited and exploring? Required by work?)
   - What's their time commitment? (5 minutes? 30 minutes?)
   - What alternatives do they know? (Coming from competitor? New to category?)

3. **Define success**:
   - What's the minimum users need to learn to be successful?
   - What's the key action we want them to take? (First project? First invite?)
   - How do we know onboarding worked? (Completion rate? Time to value?)

**CRITICAL**: Onboarding should get users to value as quickly as possible, not teach everything possible.

## Onboarding Principles

Follow these core principles:

### Show, Don't Tell
- Demonstrate with working examples, not just descriptions
- Provide real functionality in onboarding, not separate tutorial mode
- Use progressive disclosure - teach one thing at a time

### Make It Optional (When Possible)
- Let experienced users skip onboarding
- Don't block access to product
- Provide "Skip" or "I'll explore on my own" options

### Time to Value
- Get users to their "aha moment" ASAP
- Front-load most important concepts
- Teach 20% that delivers 80% of value
- Save advanced features for contextual discovery

### Context Over Ceremony
- Teach features when users need them, not upfront
- Empty states are onboarding opportunities
- Tooltips and hints at point of use

### Respect User Intelligence
- Don't patronize or over-explain
- Be concise and clear
- Assume users can figure out standard patterns

## Design Onboarding Experiences

Create appropriate onboarding for the context:

### Initial Product Onboarding

**Welcome Screen**:
- Clear value proposition (what is this product?)
- What users will learn/accomplish
- Time estimate (honest about commitment)
- Option to skip (for experienced users)

**Account Setup**:
- Minimal required information (collect more later)
- Explain why you're asking for each piece of information
- Smart defaults where possible
- Social login when appropriate

**Core Concept Introduction**:
- Introduce 1-3 core concepts (not everything)
- Use simple language and examples
- Interactive when possible (do, don't just read)
- Progress indication (step 1 of 3)

**First Success**:
- Guide users to accomplish something real
- Pre-populated examples or templates
- Celebrate completion (but don't overdo it)
- Clear next steps

### Feature Discovery & Adoption

**Empty States**:
Instead of blank space, show:
- What will appear here (description + screenshot/illustration)
- Why it's valuable
- Clear CTA to create first item
- Example or template option

Example:
```
No projects yet
Projects help you organize your work and collaborate with your team.
[Create your first project] or [Start from template]
```

**Contextual Tooltips**:
- Appear at relevant moment (first time user sees feature)
- Point directly at relevant UI element
- Brief explanation + benefit
- Dismissable (with "Don't show again" option)
- Optional "Learn more" link

**Feature Announcements**:
- Highlight new features when they're released
- Show what's new and why it matters
- Let users try immediately
- Dismissable

**Progressive Onboarding**:
- Teach features when users encounter them
- Badges or indicators on new/unused features
- Unlock complexity gradually (don't show all options immediately)

### Guided Tours & Walkthroughs

**When to use**:
- Complex interfaces with many features
- Significant changes to existing product
- Industry-specific tools needing domain knowledge

**How to design**:
- Spotlight specific UI elements (dim rest of page)
- Keep steps short (3-7 steps max per tour)
- Allow users to click through tour freely
- Include "Skip tour" option
- Make replayable (help menu)

**Best practices**:
- Interactive > passive (let users click real buttons)
- Focus on workflow, not features ("Create a project" not "This is the project button")
- Provide sample data so actions work

### Interactive Tutorials

**When to use**:
- Users need hands-on practice
- Concepts are complex or unfamiliar
- High stakes (better to practice in safe environment)

**How to design**:
- Sandbox environment with sample data
- Clear objectives ("Create a chart showing sales by region")
- Step-by-step guidance
- Validation (confirm they did it right)
- Graduation moment (you're ready!)

### Documentation & Help

**In-product help**:
- Contextual help links throughout interface
- Keyboard shortcut reference
- Search-able help center
- Video tutorials for complex workflows

**Help patterns**:
- `?` icon near complex features
- "Learn more" links in tooltips
- Keyboard shortcut hints (`⌘K` shown on search box)

## Empty State Design

Every empty state needs:

### What Will Be Here
"Your recent projects will appear here"

### Why It Matters  
"Projects help you organize your work and collaborate with your team"

### How to Get Started
[Create project] or [Import from template]

### Visual Interest
Illustration or icon (not just text on blank page)

### Contextual Help
"Need help getting started? [Watch 2-min tutorial]"

**Empty state types**:
- **First use**: Never used this feature (emphasize value, provide template)
- **User cleared**: Intentionally deleted everything (light touch, easy to recreate)
- **No results**: Search or filter returned nothing (suggest different query, clear filters)
- **No permissions**: Can't access (explain why, how to get access)
- **Error state**: Failed to load (explain what happened, retry option)

## Implementation Patterns

### Technical approaches:

**Tooltip libraries**: Tippy.js, Popper.js
**Tour libraries**: Intro.js, Shepherd.js, React Joyride
**Modal patterns**: Focus trap, backdrop, ESC to close
**Progress tracking**: LocalStorage for "seen" states
**Analytics**: Track completion, drop-off points

**Storage patterns**:
```javascript
// Track which onboarding steps user has seen
localStorage.setItem('onboarding-completed', 'true');
localStorage.setItem('feature-tooltip-seen-reports', 'true');
```

**IMPORTANT**: Don't show same onboarding twice (annoying). Track completion and respect dismissals.

**NEVER**:
- Force users through long onboarding before they can use product
- Patronize users with obvious explanations
- Show same tooltip repeatedly (respect dismissals)
- Block all UI during tour (let users explore)
- Create separate tutorial mode disconnected from real product
- Overwhelm with information upfront (progressive disclosure!)
- Hide "Skip" or make it hard to find
- Forget about returning users (don't show initial onboarding again)

## Verify Onboarding Quality

Test with real users:

- **Time to completion**: Can users complete onboarding quickly?
- **Comprehension**: Do users understand after completing?
- **Action**: Do users take desired next step?
- **Skip rate**: Are too many users skipping? (Maybe it's too long/not valuable)
- **Completion rate**: Are users completing? (If low, simplify)
- **Time to value**: How long until users get first value?

Remember: You're a product educator with excellent teaching instincts. Get users to their "aha moment" as quickly as possible. Teach the essential, make it contextual, respect user time and intelligence.