Application guide: what to choose
Note: The author of the text is Maxim Matveyko, General Director of the Academy of Farminers projects.
Hello!
Today I want to return to the topic of the first contact between the user and the application. Interfaces of modern applications, even developed by excellent usability specialists and designers, are not always intuitive. And if the application also has a large set of functionality, then very often the user is lost in the abundance of interface elements.
One common approach to increasing the chances of user retention are application tutorials, which are usually demonstrated to the user when the application or update is first run. I recently came across quite a few good and not-so-many examples of such guides, and I want to share with you a compilation of my observations and several articles on the topic, read in preparing today's topic.
Let's look at the different types of guides on applications and discuss their advantages and disadvantages?
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Demos
An animated or video sequence of screens that shows the main functions of the application. The user should always be given the opportunity to finish the demonstration, it should be short - to fit into 30 seconds. The demo video allows you to convey information in a concise manner and does not require additional actions from the user. In my opinion, demo videos lag behind other guides in efficiency.
Examples: Convertbot, Google Goggles.
Application Tour
They look like demos, however they require additional actions from the user - flipping or scrolling. Experts urge to limit the number of screens to five. The main advantage of this approach is that the user studies the application at his own pace. You can also include more information in the tour than in the demo.
Examples: Dropbox, Karma, Stamped, The Eatery, Hipster, GroupMe.
Tips
Tips can occupy a large screen area (Evernote) or be presented in the form of small windows with useful information. Prompts are usually shown one at a time, the user is often given the opportunity to call the next prompt after displaying the current one. In most cases, hints are used to draw attention to the unobvious capabilities of the application.
Examples: Evernote, Path, Posterious
Overlays
Brief reviews of the functions of certain application screens superimposed on the actual screen. Overlays are good for explaining interfaces in context, drawing attention to important details and functions. When designing overlays, it is very important to immediately let the user know how to get out of this hint. This type of guides on the application is not very frequent in use and confuses some users.
Examples: Pulse News, Foodspotting
Interactive Application Guides
The most time-consuming, complex in design, but also the most, in my opinion, effective approach to teaching the user the capabilities of the application. Such guides are built into the application very deeply and very interactive. As a successful example of such a guide, I can give the application Localmind and the game Mysterious House. The guide takes the user by the hand and guides him through the application, revealing all its details.
Examples: Shopkick, Localmind, Mystery Manor
The list above may be updated. Some applications combine several types of learning guides. Look at examples of design guides on the excellent resources of mobile-patterns.com/edu and pttrns.com/walkthroughs .
What guides did you remember, made you devote more time to the application and start using it?
Hello!
Today I want to return to the topic of the first contact between the user and the application. Interfaces of modern applications, even developed by excellent usability specialists and designers, are not always intuitive. And if the application also has a large set of functionality, then very often the user is lost in the abundance of interface elements.
One common approach to increasing the chances of user retention are application tutorials, which are usually demonstrated to the user when the application or update is first run. I recently came across quite a few good and not-so-many examples of such guides, and I want to share with you a compilation of my observations and several articles on the topic, read in preparing today's topic.
Let's look at the different types of guides on applications and discuss their advantages and disadvantages?
')
Demos
An animated or video sequence of screens that shows the main functions of the application. The user should always be given the opportunity to finish the demonstration, it should be short - to fit into 30 seconds. The demo video allows you to convey information in a concise manner and does not require additional actions from the user. In my opinion, demo videos lag behind other guides in efficiency.
Examples: Convertbot, Google Goggles.
Application Tour
They look like demos, however they require additional actions from the user - flipping or scrolling. Experts urge to limit the number of screens to five. The main advantage of this approach is that the user studies the application at his own pace. You can also include more information in the tour than in the demo.
Examples: Dropbox, Karma, Stamped, The Eatery, Hipster, GroupMe.
Tips
Tips can occupy a large screen area (Evernote) or be presented in the form of small windows with useful information. Prompts are usually shown one at a time, the user is often given the opportunity to call the next prompt after displaying the current one. In most cases, hints are used to draw attention to the unobvious capabilities of the application.
Examples: Evernote, Path, Posterious
Overlays
Brief reviews of the functions of certain application screens superimposed on the actual screen. Overlays are good for explaining interfaces in context, drawing attention to important details and functions. When designing overlays, it is very important to immediately let the user know how to get out of this hint. This type of guides on the application is not very frequent in use and confuses some users.
Examples: Pulse News, Foodspotting
Interactive Application Guides
The most time-consuming, complex in design, but also the most, in my opinion, effective approach to teaching the user the capabilities of the application. Such guides are built into the application very deeply and very interactive. As a successful example of such a guide, I can give the application Localmind and the game Mysterious House. The guide takes the user by the hand and guides him through the application, revealing all its details.
Examples: Shopkick, Localmind, Mystery Manor
The list above may be updated. Some applications combine several types of learning guides. Look at examples of design guides on the excellent resources of mobile-patterns.com/edu and pttrns.com/walkthroughs .
What guides did you remember, made you devote more time to the application and start using it?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/139091/
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