We have always heard that a good first impression can work wonders, and that’s true as well. And, in the case of mobile apps, it’s ‘Onboarding.’ Yes, Onboarding is the brand identity of your mobile application, and you can also call it the first impression that determines whether you will find somebody who declines to use it or will get a loyal user.
It’s logically right that whenever we start using something, we want it to seem simple, not complicated, and so do your customers. Whenever a user initially downloads your app, he/she expects to get a pleasant, user-friendly experience. However, not all apps need an onboarding screen; still, it’s a great tool for quick communication with the user that the application is important and how he/she can use it.
And this is the reason that mobile app onboarding started to gain momentum. It started giving optimal conversion rates to the app owners as it assisted users in navigating through the app with ease and explore its features and functions. Well, due to this, almost all industry-giants are paying attention to the best app onboarding practices for upcoming years.
So, learn here top mobile app onboarding practices for businesses. But before that, let’s have a brief knowledge that what mobile app onboarding is.
What is Mobile App Onboarding?
A process used by companies to allow users to understand the app functions effectively is the Mobile App Onboarding. In simple words, it is an introduction to your app and its features in brief to the users.
Moreover, it is a tutorial or a walkthrough process that is meant to help users interact with the app and easily figure out what that particular app does, and more importantly, what they can achieve by continuing to use it.
It could be just one screen or a series of screens that guide users through the app’s interface. Typically, the onboarding screens have three purposes for which they are being used rigorously now:
a. To inform the users about the benefits as well as the utilitarian functions of the app.
b. To allow the users to register on the app via different login options.
c. It is intended to collect relevant profile data of the users, which is later used to offer personalized notifications and content.
Importance of App Onboarding
Well, let’s have a brief discussion on why an efficient app onboarding procedure is so crucial, before getting into the best practices of effective onboarding.
It is the App onboarding process that helps businesses to optimize the first interaction of a user with the application. Because having an effective, positive, and engaging first-time user experience is the major aspect of an app’s success, and only it maintains consistent user engagement.
Sometimes when the app makes users puzzled, and they find it hard to navigate, they lose interest in it. According to statistics, near about 77% of users do not use an app after three days of the installation. And the basic reason behind such an act is they don’t recognize how that particular product could be helpful for them.
Hence, using app onboarding can reduce such issues as it helps make the first-time user experience as smooth as possible, overcoming possible pain points. Besides that, the best mobile app onboarding practice can help the app from getting uninstalled from a device and transform the casual user to a permanent one.
In all, the basic reason for having great onboarding is to make an interactive way of letting the user know about a mobile app to engage and help them easily and quickly utilize it in practice.
Top Mobile App Onboarding Practices for Your Business to Grow User Base
1. Make the Page Visually Appealing
To be over-the-top, you don’t need the onboarding flow to be very complex, but still, all you need is to make it visually attractive. As we all know, ‘First Impression is the Last Impression;’ hence people always decide whether they want something or not based on their first impressions.
Though, you might be wondering the onboarding page’s look must not matter to the users; still, it does. So, try to attain the absolute balance between simplicity and visual attractiveness. Either too much or too little, any option can be bad for your mobile app’s retention rate.
So, keep experimenting with different designs for the look of the onboarding page to make it look best for your app’s higher retention rate.
2. Opt for Animation
As we already mentioned in previous practice that you can’t make it lengthy to read or complex since you have just 5 to 10 seconds. So, for drawing the attention of your users in this little amount of time, use animation tactics in the introduction part. Yes, it will be ideal for making a great impression and will surely encourage further interaction with your app.
Also, to offer a short description of the features of your product or showing it definitively in operation, it’s an amazing option, as it is visually more attractive & quite interesting. No matter what, step-by-step animated illustrations can capture attention quickly rather than normal images. Plus, you can also integrate animation with short textual descriptions.
3. Keep it Focused and Streamlined
Even though you need to provide instructions to your new users, but keep checking that you might make them encounter a data overload. Yes, that’s the case many times. And, according to the survey reports, this is the reason many times people drop the app as it is. So, try to keep your mobile app’s onboarding screen as focused and streamlined as possible. Make sure to include the value proposition there.
Try to add only one or two sentences on the onboarding page that tells new users what they can acquire from using your app. Do not overlook to keep it short and sweet. Not every user prefers to read paragraphs, especially when they want to explore a new app.
In all, keep in mind that people become impatient when it comes to technology, and also they don’t think twice to uninstall any app just because the onboarding flow is complex.
4. Prioritize the Personalization
We all know there are already so many apps out there. Hence, the only thing that can make you different in today’s app marketplace is Personalization. And, there is no specific time to go for it, so why not amaze your users by giving a tailor-made experience directly in the onboarding procedure.
For example, you can check Spotify’s onboarding procedure. Whenever you create an account their, you are urged to choose the musical artists you prefer. Hence with an onboarding procedure only, Spotify enables us to make customized playlists for us directly. And, once you choose nearly five artists, the data allows Spotify to get a better insight into your musical choices, even before you start working with the app.
Well, we are not saying that the way of customization will be as precise for other applications as it’s for Spotify, but you can stay careful about the scopes as they come along. At last, it builds amazing customization that will offer your brand a competitive benefit further.
5. Research Login Options
Behind low retention rates with mobile applications, the friction users experience while creating an account and login is one major reason. Maximum users ponder making an account a big hassle; in cases when they need to enter lots of details and activated the account from their email. Hence, for making an easy and enjoyable experience for your users, you must test with different login options.
Yes, you can ponder social media login. Yes, as it is one of the features that can make your app win customers. Also, you can go for no login at all apart from the email login. And, if you think a login step is not so important for your mobile app, then you can also avoid it. However, in such cases, you can find out some other ways of gathering your users’ details.
6. Ask Just the Most Important Things
There are times when people install the app with a wish to use it as fast as possible, but most apps ask users to provide their detailed personal information or request access to extra data. And, this filling of details makes them exhausted and somehow, they drop the idea of using it.
So, in case you also require much of the information, request the necessary things first and then ask them to fill the rest of the information with time. So in this way, you won’t have to waste your users’ time unnecessarily, and you will also get the information.
In simple words, do not puzzle users with requests for accessing personal data or device activities, especially when your app is first launched because you can always do it later, like when they launch it next time.
7. Give Scope to Skip
We know there are different types of people or users, and many of them are quite impatient. Yes, and such users like to sort out everything on their own, so they are not so interested in reading instruction written over onboarding screens. Hence for such users, you are recommended to offer them a scope to skip the app onboarding.
According to reports, such action can raise the number of users who work continuously with the app by 5 to 10% because the ratio of people who like to explore the product by themselves is higher, instead of reading the guidelines.
8. Highlight the Value Proposition of Your Mobile App
We know that only best attracts us. Similarly, if you will highlight the best of your app on the onboarding screen, it will attract more users for sure. Yes, you need to understand that when it comes to making the first impression, highlighting the best you have is most important.
That means, to entice the users to download, install, and use the app, the onboarding process must prioritize the value proposition of the app. Hence initiate by describing what your app offers and what most users will gain from it. Moreover, showcase the functionalities and features that they can take the advantage to accomplish the tasks they want to.
9. Compact the Mobile App Onboarding Screens
When you offer an extended onboarding process to users, they will surely get overwhelmed. And this may become the reason for users to abandon your app or not even sign up in the first place.
Whether you avail Android or iOS app development services, then suggest your developers avoid text-heavy explanations and multiple screens as a part of the onboarding process. You can also try to stick to illustrations and app screenshots to send across the message. Moreover, adding gamification and tutorials on the screens could be a good idea.
10. Request Permissions Explicitly
Well, undoubtedly, there is genuine hype about user privacy, and the onboarding process needs to pay extra heed to it. Plus, asking the user’s permission for using their personal information and data is a part of business ethics nowadays.
Besides that, if your app needs to access the microphone or device camera, ask for permission at the time of onboarding only. Because, if you ask for permission first, it sends across a positive message and wins the user’s trust as well.
11. Use Cross-Channel Messaging
Another very important aspect if you want to improve your app onboarding process is to make sure that it delivers cross channel messaging. You can use an ideal way, i.e., Push notifications to notify the users to complete the onboarding procedure if they have left it halfway.
Other than that, you can use in-app messages and emails where you need to be available to provide gentle reminders to the users.
12. Test Before Implementation
At last, make sure you test the onboarding process before implementing it. Yes, not only test the app because the onboarding experiences are as important as the app’s user experience itself.
Moreover, now it becomes crucial to assess and test the onboarding flow on different screens for ensuring that the transition to each screen size is seamless and smooth.
Thoughts to Remember
Whenever you opt for app development trends for creating apps for any of the popular platforms by hiring an Android or iOS app developer, make sure that you want a great onboarding process. For that, start by understanding your audience and their expectations so you can keep the user experience at the center.
Yes, replicate your understanding of the elements of your onboarding screens to ensure that the users like it enough to install your app. However, what kind of onboarding you do depends on the expertise of the team you choose to develop your mobile app.
So, if you are also looking for a leading mobile app development company that you can trust for the expertise, we are the right partner for you. Our team at Covetus excels at both Android and iOS platforms and creates apps that match the expectations of the clients and their customers’ needs. We also ensure that the onboarding experience of your app is equally good instead of just creating quality app experiences.
