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Why most product tours get skipped

productonboarding.com

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Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#51

Post by zbentley »

the_snooze wrote: post #23
michaelt wrote: post #6

It's pretty simple to understand - when a user opens a tool, it's because they want to do the thing that tool does, now. If someone opens my videoconferencing product 98% of the time it's they've got a scheduled call to join within the next 20 seconds . They're not going to be late for their meeting so they can read my release notes. If someone opens my PDF viewer, 99.9% chance they want to view the PDF they just ope…

Too much of modern consumer-facing software think they're the ends, not the means.

But but but … how else will we turn a minor value add into a sticky source of recurring revenue? After all, there are no other profitable business models.

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#52

Post by zbentley »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #37
monkpit wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids’ school uses a web portal to add money to their lunch accounts. My only task when I open this website is to pick an amount and click submit and give them my money. Whose idea was it to show me a “what’s new” popup of all the jira tickets they closed in the last sprint? What’s new? Nothing is new. It works just like it used to. Just take my money and leave me alone, please.

But if you have (through whatever process) sent them a complaint that, say, "it doesn't work right using Firefox X.Y running on Windows 7", then those release notes might in fact be interesting to you. So there actually is a reason for you to be able to see them. Not for them to get in your way, though. 99% of the people won't care.

99% won’t care, and 59% will find the what’s-new popup actively confusing, distracting, and hostile. Bad trade.

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#53

Post by asalahli »

iqp wrote: post #39
michaelt wrote: post #6

It's pretty simple to understand - when a user opens a tool, it's because they want to do the thing that tool does, now. If someone opens my videoconferencing product 98% of the time it's they've got a scheduled call to join within the next 20 seconds . They're not going to be late for their meeting so they can read my release notes. If someone opens my PDF viewer, 99.9% chance they want to view the PDF they just ope…

New users are probably the only ones who really need guided product tours. If I'm a longtime existing user I'm far less likely to be interested in a guided tour.

Even then, a new user account doesn't necessarily mean a new user.

Every time I start on a new job, I have to click through Slack's, Github's and many other dev tools' stupid guided tours for the hundredth time

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#54

Post by hatthew »

faangguyindia wrote: post #46
hatthew wrote: post #43

This is a bit of a tangent, but cookie consent dialogs have exhausted my will to navigate anything blocking the content I care about. If I go to a new website and encounter any sort of popup, modal, or large banner, I will reflexively feel an urge to close the page unless there is an obvious dismiss button. I often need to see the content on the page and resign myself to navigating the dialog, but just as often I dec…

I got around this by not using cookies.

cookies, newsletter popups, sign-in popups, product tours, soft paywalls, etc.

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#55

Post by layer8 »

esafak wrote: post #22
wffurr wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You nailed the primary difference. If I want to just use the tool I can do that; if I need to learn how to use a complex feature, I can consult the help or do a web search for a how to.

That works if you know the feature exists.

The best software help used to have a complete list of all features, with comprehensive explanations of all of them.

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#58

Post by collabs »

I had the great fortune for a major steel company. They had regular "training day"s where basically there is an hour long session where the team showed what new capabilities and fixes the software got and perhaps more importantly collect real user feedback on what they thought.

Too bad I didn't get to work there for long but I loved their stance that everybody should personally make safety the first priority, not just because the company requires you to do so but because your safety really is your priority.

So yes, this was before 2014 but I still think these kind of "training" and feedback should be a two way street, not a series of next I have to press to get the software to shut up.

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#59

Post by kccqzy »

michaelt wrote: post #6

It's pretty simple to understand - when a user opens a tool, it's because they want to do the thing that tool does, now. If someone opens my videoconferencing product 98% of the time it's they've got a scheduled call to join within the next 20 seconds . They're not going to be late for their meeting so they can read my release notes. If someone opens my PDF viewer, 99.9% chance they want to view the PDF they just ope…

Exactly. These guided tours should be triggered by users, and never automatically. For example old school Windows apps have a question mark button on their title bar that the user can click to activate help for any UI element.

Re: Why most product tours get skipped

#60

Post by cobalt »

pancomplex wrote: post #5
mschuster91 wrote: post #3

GTFO of my face with product tours. Atlassian is particularly enraging, especially if you're dealing with setting up "new" accounts. I've worked with your shitware for a decade now, I know how it works, DO NOT FORCE ME TO MAKE TEN CLICKS TO GET RID OF A FUCKING INTRO. Rather, invest your time into a good, logical UI and, most importantly, good AND CURRENT documentation.

tbh adblockers should just filter these out. I guess the reason they don't is it's "technically" the product ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

you can find filter lists that do for some sites
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