Haley Stracher shared her expertise on user onboarding, emphasizing the criticality of the initial user experience. Her practical, three-step method for effective onboarding—introduction, cognitive load management, and retention through rewards—highlights the significance of a user's first interaction with a product. She also tackled common onboarding mistakes, the importance of accessibility, and shared a success story to illustrate her points.

Effective Onboarding Steps:

• Introduction:
  • Emphasize the product's benefits.
  • Utilize tutorials, carousels, and videos for user engagement.
• Cognitive Load:
  • Limit tasks to three to avoid overwhelming users.
  • Too many tasks without rewards can deter users.
• Retention:
  • Reward users after completing tasks for serotonin boost and retention.
  • Simple gestures of recognition can significantly impact user satisfaction.

Common Onboarding Mistakes:

• Asking Too Many Questions:
  • Unnecessary questions lead to false data and user drop-off.
  • Explaining the purpose of data collection can enhance trust and compliance.
• Neglecting Analytics and User Feedback:
  • Analytics reveal drop-off points indicating issues.
  • User interviews provide insights to improve the onboarding process.

Creating Memorable First User Experiences:

• Branding and Visuals:
  • Align visuals with company's mission and identity.
  • Brand identity impacts user's first impression significantly.
• Copywriting:
  • Clear, error-free, and personable copy is as crucial as visuals.

Accessibility in Onboarding:

• Standard Practice:
  • Accessibility is no longer optional but a standard expectation.
  • Contrast checkers, font sizes, and inclusivity in gender options are critical.
• Inclusive Design:
  • Consider target audience characteristics, like age, in design decisions.

Success Story in Improved Onboarding:

• Problem Identification:
  • Diverse user personas require different onboarding paths.
  • Understanding user context is key to providing value.
• Solution Implementation:
  • A bifurcated onboarding approach tailored to user location (home/store).
  • Algorithmic guesses of warranty expiry provided a "small win" for at-home users.

Notable Quotes from Haley Stracher:

• "If you do too much and don't reward users, they're going to feel like it never ends."
• "Explain why at every juncture—it can be really helpful and useful."
• "Design is always an iterative process. It's never done."
• "Accessibility has become more of a standard than a nice to have."
• "Understanding your users a little bit better can solve onboarding problems by making a fork in the road."

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!