Show HN: Onboarded – User Onboarding as a Service

https://www.getonboarded.com/?utm_source=hn

by ObserverEffect • 11 years ago

54 37 11 years ago

Animats• 11 years ago

From the article: "After new users sign up to a website or app, they are often dropped directly into a home screen. ... This is a big missed opportunity. This moment is a chance to ... ask important questions, and personalize their experience. ... They will then be more likely to tell their friends about you. When combined with analytics, the onboarding process presents an opportunity to learn vital details about your users ... and increase retention and conversions."

So this isn't for the user's benefit.

kareemm• 11 years ago

So this isn't for the user's benefit.

I think it is. You're understanding what problems they need solved so you can do that for them (and thus increase retention and conversions).

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

Exactly. Plus you can improve the user's experience by helping them find and understand the things they are looking for in your app :)

skizm• 11 years ago

Just because something benefits one party, doesn't mean it can't benefit both parties.

rgbrenner• 11 years ago

personalize their experience ... They will then be more likely to tell their friends about you. ... increase retention and conversions.

So this isn't for the user's benefit.

non-sequitur

If something is increasing retention; and creating more satisfied customers (so much so they are telling other people about you)... then it is benefiting the user. Actions clearly indicate it's benefiting the user.

jonalexr• 11 years ago

Hm, looks like the example pages are missing validation for user input.

killerpopiller• 11 years ago

reminds me of http://zurb.com/playground/jquery-joyride-feature-tour-plugi... zurbs joyride for foundation

Vekz• 11 years ago

Or LinkedIn's Hopscotch http://linkedin.github.io/hopscotch/

newobj• 11 years ago

Does Onboarded use Onboarded?

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

Yes

EGreg• 11 years ago

The correct place to dump users after they create an account is the Account screen, where they can fill out various sections, but don't have to. Each action on the site/app which requires certain info from the user (eg their location or interests) would have a link to an inline / popup allowing them to fill out that section before proceeding.

vandingmils• 11 years ago

I could not disagree more.

I am never interested in building a social profile or entering preferences to some app I'm unfamiliar with. Like others comment, I'd like to get to using the product ASAP.

Signing up is already a hassle that should have been kept to a minimum.

ci5er2• 11 years ago

I may be an atypical and less social (more asocial?) than others. Or maybe I'm old and impatient. Or all the above.

Making me fill out, really anything, before I can drive the app around at all is a sure way to make me "nope" right out of there. Now, I understand that you said "don't have to", but a big screen of form(s) is an intimidating clue that you will want more from me than I suspect I am willing to give. I don't even know who you are yet.

Incrementally adding information during the use of the application to make operation/data/context more relevant or useful is fine. Not filling out a list of interests, for gods sake. And not 20 things, mind.

YMMV.

mkilling• 11 years ago

I'd love to get an idea of the pricing before I sign up for a trial. I don't want to spend time trying out a product that will end up costing more than I'm willing to pay for it.

onassar• 11 years ago

Correction: Ahh I see what you're saying and agree. I wouldn't think about using a service that carried with it so much inherent uncertainty.

Pricing is linked to in the footer: https://www.getonboarded.com/pricing

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

The thing is, we're just focused on the free tier right now. When you've onboarded lots of people and decide you like the product, pricing is an open conversation.

supercoder2• 11 years ago

I never really like this style of on boarding. Mostly because I can 'see' the app behind the dialogs and I just want to start using it.

Much prefer is on boarding is baked into the design of the app. So literally hide / alter the page based on where they are in the setup / learning process.

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

One of the goals we had when we designed Onboarded was for it to be unobtrusive yet flexible. It can be used to accomplish just what you are saying. The styling as overlay/modal is just a default to get you going. It can be made into a fullscreen flow or inline, or however you want. Onboarded makes it easier to do all those things stylistically, as well as bind event handlers, post data, etc.

supercoder2• 11 years ago

Ok sounds interesting.

Because I'm dumb and short of time, I could only take it at face value.

I sort of want to come away lusting to have the feature on my site.

Be great to see some of the possibilities demo'd on the page in the future !

bobbles• 11 years ago

Maybe in the intro path in addition to saying 'let me out' you could have an option like 'i like the concept, but show me a different style' and then take a few example paths to show off possibilities

sfeng• 11 years ago

This seems similar to Appcues (http://appcues.com/). Appcues is oriented at PMs though. I'm not sure what the market is for a product which requires messing with the HTML of the site.

aquark• 11 years ago

There is something a bit ironic about a web site which claims to be 'the most effective way to communicate with new users' showing me a YouTube video to explain what they do ...

axiom• 11 years ago

We use http://www.walkme.com at Top Hat, how does this compare?

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

The key point about Onboarded is that it's made for developers. It makes it simpler and faster to completely customize the user experience that you want, integrated as you see fit with your app's existing functionality and look/feel.

carrotleads• 11 years ago

How different would your service be to using something like impromptu.js https://github.com/trentrichardson/jQuery-Impromptu

adambratt• 11 years ago

What's really the advantage of this over writing 50 lines of javascript to automatically do the same thing and using segment.com to track events?

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

We don't think developers should have to reinvent the wheel, or cobble things together to build a customized experience. You're usually not writing 50 lines of javascript one time only and calling it a day - you are changing your flow all the time, as soon as you see evidence for how to make it better. Onboarded is a tool that will make that process of learning and iteration much more efficient (and thus faster and cheaper). And there's no reason you couldn't integrate with Segment too.

rajacombinator2• 11 years ago

I'm your target customer. I need to rework my onboarding flow but haven't done it yet because it seems like a huge pain. Would like to see better examples of the non-modal options, because I'm trying to move away from the modal approach.

ObserverEffect8• 11 years ago

Got it. Would you send me an email at hello@getonboarded.com? I'd love to show you how you could implement a non-modal flow with Onboarded in ~5 minutes. Would love your feedback.

Show HN: Onboarded – User Onboarding as a Service

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