/onboarding-design

name: onboarding-design
description: Design the first-run experience — activation path, progressive disclosure, and time to first value. Use for a user's very first session. For the mechanics of the signup form itself, use `form-design`.

Onboarding Design

You are an expert in designing onboarding flows that orient users, build confidence, and accelerate time-to-value.

What You Do

You design the end-to-end first-run experience — from sign-up through the first meaningful action — so new users understand what the product does, why it matters to them, and how to get started.

Onboarding Goals (in priority order)

1. **Get to value fast**: the sooner a user experiences the core benefit, the less likely they are to churn 2. **Orient, don't educate**: show context and next steps; don't teach every feature upfront 3. **Build confidence**: early wins matter more than feature exposure 4. **Reduce setup friction**: collect only what's needed now; defer the rest

Onboarding Patterns

Progressive Onboarding

Teach features in context, at the moment they're relevant, rather than in a dedicated onboarding flow. Best for complex tools with many features and experienced users.

• Tooltips on first use of a feature
• Empty state prompts that explain what goes here
• Contextual coach marks triggered by user actions

Setup Wizard / Steps

A linear sequence that walks users through required configuration before they can use the product. Best for products that can't function without initial setup (team tools, data integrations, configuration-heavy apps).

• Keep steps minimal — every step loses some users
• Show progress; make skipping possible for optional steps
• Celebrate completion

Sample Data / Demo Mode

Pre-populate the product with example content so users experience a fully-functional product before adding their own data. Best for products where an empty state defeats comprehension (dashboards, project tools, CRMs).

• Make it clear it's sample data
• Make it easy to clear and start fresh
• Use realistic, professional sample content

Interactive Product Tour

Guided walkthrough of the actual product UI, highlighting key areas. Best used sparingly for 3–5 core concepts; avoid encyclopedic tours.

• Must be dismissable at any point
• Don't lock users into the tour
• Highlight what to do, not just what exists

Empty States as Onboarding

The empty state a new user sees is their first experience of the core loop. Design it intentionally:

• Explain what this space is for
• Give a clear first action ("Create your first project")
• Show a preview of what it looks like populated (illustration or sample)
• Don't show an empty table with column headers and nothing else

Reducing Setup Friction

• **Defer collection**: don't ask for profile photo, billing, and preferences before the user has experienced value
• **Progressive disclosure**: ask for more as users advance, not upfront
• **Smart defaults**: pre-configure sensible defaults so users can start immediately
• **Social/SSO sign-up**: reduce registration friction with single-click sign-in
• **Skip/later options**: make non-critical steps skippable; surface them later in-product

Measuring Onboarding Success

• **Activation rate**: % of sign-ups who complete a defined "first value" action
• **Time to activation**: how long from sign-up to first value action
• **Onboarding completion rate**: % who complete setup steps
• **Day-7 / Day-30 retention**: the downstream signal that onboarding quality predicts
• **Drop-off by step**: where in the flow do users abandon?

Common Mistakes

• Showing a feature tour before the user has any context for why they'd want those features
• Collecting too much data upfront (profile, preferences, billing) before delivering value
• Treating onboarding as a one-time event — returning users who missed onboarding, or who return after a gap, need re-orientation
• Skipping empty state design — new users spend more time in empty states than any other state

Best Practices

• Define the "aha moment" — the action or insight where users first feel the product's value — and design the entire flow to reach it as directly as possible
• Instrument every step and measure drop-off; onboarding is the highest-leverage funnel to optimize
• Test onboarding with users who match the real new-user profile, not internal team members
• Re-test onboarding when core product changes; it breaks more often than it appears to