As you strive to create an unforgettable app user experience, one question always seems to surface: what sets apart exceptional onboarding experiences from mediocre ones? After delving into numerous onboarding examples and crafting the book on product-led onboarding, I've discovered that every product's user onboarding journey is unique. But what makes some stand out from the rest?

What Makes an Exceptional Onboarding Experience?

Before diving into 11 remarkable app user experience examples, let's define what great onboarding looks like. A successful onboarding process acquaints new users with a product, shortens their time to value, guides them to their "aha" moment, and gets them activated faster. In the Product-Led Growth Flywheel framework, onboarding is a primary lever for turning strangers into explorers, beginners, regulars, and finally champions.

The 11 Exceptional App User Experience Examples

Slack's empty states and friendly bot greet new users with a welcoming tone, while Duolingo leads with an engaging product experience. Grammarly takes a "learn by doing" approach, Mural designs for collaboration with a playful onboarding, Tumblr charms with personality and personalization, and IBM's Cognos Analytics delivers consumer-grade UX in an enterprise product. Avast provides value before asking for buy-in, Toggle lets users learn at their own speed, Avo makes signup easy and worry-free, TikTok teaches users how to get even more value from the product, and Reclaim introduces users to your way of thinking.

What Makes Each Onboarding Experience Unique?

These exceptional app user experience examples share common characteristics that make them stand out. For instance:

  • Education: Slack's empty states and friendly bot educate new users on the product's capabilities.
  • Product-led approach: Duolingo leads with an engaging product experience, while Grammarly takes a "learn by doing" approach.
  • Collaboration: Mural designs for collaboration with a playful onboarding, emphasizing the importance of teamwork.
  • Personalization: Tumblr charms with personality and personalization, making users feel valued.
  • Consumer-grade UX: IBM's Cognos Analytics delivers consumer-grade UX in an enterprise product, ensuring a seamless user experience.

The 4 Steps to Successful User Onboarding

Each exceptional app user experience example follows the same progression to onboarding:

  1. Drive users toward key actions: Understand what actions drive activation in your product and build your onboarding around those key moments.
  2. Focus your product around onboarding first: Prioritize showing users everything they need to know before getting to your key action.
  3. Add new UI where it's needed most: Use UI patterns to clarify confusing or difficult areas, such as modals, tooltips, and hotspots.
  4. Analyze, adjust, and repeat: Conduct user research, run A/B tests, and continuously experiment on and update your onboarding experience.

Conclusion

As you strive to create an unforgettable app user experience, remember that every product's onboarding journey is unique. By understanding what drives exceptional onboarding experiences, you can design a process that convinces users to commit to your solution – showing them how to get the value they were promised.