Best Mobile App Onboarding practices to follow in 2022

Best Mobile App Onboarding Practices 

Prioritize value proposition 

It is a common perception that you can convert all of your users by showing all of your features. However, it is always beneficial to showcase the best features to your users, encouraging them to use your app. It is also important to highlight the value proposition of your app. You can start by explaining what the user will gain with this app rather than only flaunting the features. This will push them to use the app and assure them that it is useful. After this, you can continue by showing them the features and functionalities of the app that can assist them in completing the tasks. 

Request only mandatory information 

It does not make sense to get irrelevant information from your users while using the app. You always need to ask for only relevant and crucial information. According to the research, around 60% of the users do not install the app or uninstall it if they feel that the app is asking for too much personal information. Besides this, it is also important not to bombard them with excessive questions and keep them as precise as possible. With this, you can always boost the app user engagement. 

Compact Onboard Screens 

An extensive and tedious user onboarding process can overwhelm your users so that they may not use your app. Therefore you neither should use the text-heavy explanations nor the foray of screens. You can employ the progressive onboarding approach and use the screenshots to convey the right message. You need to introduce only one feature on each screen. You can also use coach marks to help your users understand how the app works. You can enhance this experience by placing the tutorial and gamifying the overall user experience. 

Concise and simple sign up process

No one likes to spend the whole time in the onboarding process; therefore, it is important to concise the login process. You can provide multiple login options, such as Google or Facebook, which can save time. This will also decrease the significant friction in the overall user onboarding process introduced in the signup mandate. 

Request for permissions 

Asking permission is one of the important aspects of business ethics, especially when you are getting the user’s data. If your app requires a camera or a microphone facility, it is important to ask permission to access it. If the user trusts your app, then he will agree. Users tend to respond positively to the permissions if they know what they will gain after doing so. 

Promote App Content Preview

Promoting the app content preview is one of the best mobile app onboarding practices you can consider. The signup option can act as a barrier between your app and the user, and therefore it is always beneficial to give the user access to the features before asking them to sign up. If you have an online shopping app, you can let users go through the products offered on your website, and you can ask them to log in later to make the purchase. 

Make use of Empty States 

Empty states are the screens that show when the users have not performed any activity. You can use these empty states by adding useful content. Here you can get the opportunity to guide and encourage the users to take action. 

Use Visual Hints for guidance 

Instead of hand holding the customers to explore the app, you can give them progressive visual hints. You can place these hints strategically in your app where your users may get stuck while exploring the app. This way, you can avoid tedious instructions and save time for the users. 

Preach Personalization 

You can use the opportunity of Onboarding to show personalized service to your customers. Most of the popular apps personalize the content based on individual preference. Many examples like Spotify, Amazon, etc., give personalized notifications or suggestions based on user behavior and data. 

Take advantage of successful states

Like Empty states, success states can also be a great advantage in keeping your users engaged with the app. This can create a positive impression of your app in the user’s mind. Success states refer to the popups or screens that show after a task is performed. This can include popups showing animations or emoticons congratulating the user on achieving something in the app for the first time. 

Try Gamification 

If your application focuses on early users, you can attempt to gamify the application to enhance it. You can also include a spoiler for the user to understand how he can use the application and gamification. There are chances that some of the functionalities displayed during the onboarding process may be essential for the user; it can be the first step towards monetization. 

Describe Actions 

Explaining the well-known actions your user can take in the application is always beneficial. Suppose you see the example of Google and YouTube. In that case, you will find the valuable data they give along with actionable tips that encourage the user to perform certain actions. 

Test before Final Implementation 

Users will consider your app remarkable when it is overall perfect. The app tends to get appealing based on how different elements seem together once integrated. Therefore, it is crucial to test and measure the user onboarding flow of your app on different screens. This will make sure the transition to each screen is smooth. 

Include a balanced mix of multiple channels

Using different channels to enhance the effectiveness of the onboarding procedure is the best way to encourage users to return to your app. This can be highly effective in the case of retail apps. You can use different channels like push notifications, emails, and in-app messages to remind your users to complete any incomplete action, such as an unattended cart. 

Monitor and Track 

Keeping track of analytics and app usage is the best way to understand where your users face issues during the onboarding process. Tracking these issues will help you with the insights which you can improve to provide a smoother onboarding experience. One should not ignore this as it is one of the prominent decision factors whether the users prefer your app or not. 

Provide CTA 

Once done with the onboarding process, you can incorporate the CTA at the end. This will be a natural step for your users to take further action. A well-designed and contextual call to action will ensure the involvement of the users in the app. 

Offer the choice to Skip 

Offering alternate and different choices is what your users appreciate the most. Some of your users may want to skip the whole app onboarding process, so giving them this option will improve your app’s reputation. They may even continue to use your app in the future.