Onboarding the Interaction Loop
User onboarding is the anticipatory planning on how a user gets introduced to the mechanics and features of an interactive digital world. The process needs to equip them with the necessary information, present it within a meaningful context, and ensure progression through the intended experience.
Why It Matters
Magnificently designed products can be wholly undone by relegating onboarding tasks to an afterthought infodump tutorial. A barrage of instructions on what to do overwhelms people’s cognitive and memory limitations, breaks immersion, and can add undue friction to a new user’s first impressions.
A comprehensive onboarding plan will identify the knowledge and skills someone would need to successfully have the intended experience, and determine the most impactful way to communicate that to each end user. Done well it should not only guide users through a smooth adoption process, highlighting the ways to engage with the system, but also prime them on how to handle future encounters with less explicit instruction (giving them a greater sense of agency).
Interaction Loop
Interactive experience is a continuous loop. A person on one end, a system on the other, and an interface between them to facilitate interaction.
The interaction between the user and the system feeds a loop where:
(1) The user observes the system’s current state and forms intent – a desired action.
(2) The interface is used to input commands, relaying information to the system while the user awaits feedback.
(3) System feedback indicates a state change to convey that something has happened.
(4) The user updates their mental model of how the system behaves and forms a new intent.
Without onboarding to guide this process, users are left to intuit the requirements of the system through trial and error, guessing at what is possible. Interactive media relies heavily on onboarding due to the active participation required by the viewer, progress cannot be made without their action and if they don’t know what to do or how to do it then the interaction stops.
Onboarding the Loop:
Intent
Signal possible actions, drawing attention to affordances that guide through the interaction loop.
Input
Introduce controls and instruct the user on the functionality at their disposal.
State Change
Ensure feedback reflects state change so users may update their mental model accuracy.
Bottom Line:
This loop drives engagement and develops motivation to continue interacting. If the loop breaks down, where the user’s intent is continually unsuccessful or the feedback unclear, the overall experience will suffer.
Elements of Good User Onboarding
Well constructed onboarding should always be purpose built for each project, but there are general best practices to consider. Keep these in mind when making decisions on what and when to introduce the user to new information.
Priority
Tasks organized by criticality and grouped by related systems, instruction follows hierarchy.
Context
Learning occurs in a meaningful situation when the new information is directly relevant to action.
Focus
Attention is directed appropriately, perception and cognition not overwhelmed.
Progress
Learning distributed and disclosed progressively towards a repertoire of skills.
Retention
Tactics to ease strain on cognitive load, how features are reinforced to aid recall.
Engage
Prompt users to learn by doing, invite action over instruction.
Feedback
Signs and feedback rendered in more than one way to allow widest access possible.
Immersive
Incorporate learning within the world, avoiding immersion breaks.
In Conclusion...
-Onboarding’s purpose is to anticipate what a user is trying to accomplish, and provide assistance in familiarizing them with the actions available.
-Strong onboarding early teaches the participant how to interact and gives them an expectation on how it will behave as they continue.
-Onboarding extends beyond the initial tutorial, helping reinforce concepts, add contextual reminders, and develop deeper understanding of how the system works.