Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

driverjs.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 108 posts

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#61

Post by baron816 »

I built a library https://github.com/Evernote/Aquaman meant to accomplish some of these same tasks for a Redux app (also did the same think for React context, but that was never open sourced).

The things this misses, I think, are that 1) you probably want the state of you app to trigger a guided tour, 2) you probably want a multistep flow at some point, and 3) the state changing logic of that flow probably should be separated from the rendering logic (all the steps of the flow should be together).

That’s what I was able to accomplish with Aquaman.

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#63

Post by catapart »

local_issues wrote: post #16

No no no no no. Design your product to be understandable at first pass. Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone, while Sony forces you to do it on every new device. Let the onboarding be a forcing function for usability. This isn't a crutch, it's something worse and damaging.

If your product is simple enough to not need a tour, you should design it like that; MOST products are definitely simple enough to not need a tour.

But if you're making Photoshop, or a deep-functionality video editor, or an enterprise accounting application, or a diagnostics utility or...

If you're building any of those things (or something complex like that), don't be afraid to keep it complex and use a tool for building user familiarity. That's good design, actually. No 'one-size-fits-all' solutions on UX, I'm afraid.

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#64

Post by Etheryte »

smt88 wrote: post #20
local_issues wrote: post #16

No no no no no. Design your product to be understandable at first pass. Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone, while Sony forces you to do it on every new device. Let the onboarding be a forcing function for usability. This isn't a crutch, it's something worse and damaging.

> Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone You're arguing in favor of a product tour. iOS usability is garbage. There are no affordances. Nothing is discoverable. There are a million inputs (mostly gestures) that no one ever finds out about unless someone tells them or they Google it, and they're not consistent across apps, even first-party apps. Sometimes "swipe the row left" means "remove," sometimes…

People not knowing some of the features is not really a problem, because it doesn't matter. Every single one of my elderly relatives can use an iPhone after a quick intro and they don't need help afterwards. The device is essentially self-serve once you understand one or two core ideas. Them not knowing about some features is not a problem, they can do all the important things without someone helping them out. No other smartphone platform has delivered that.

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#65

Post by c-hendricks »

local_issues wrote: post #16

No no no no no. Design your product to be understandable at first pass. Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone, while Sony forces you to do it on every new device. Let the onboarding be a forcing function for usability. This isn't a crutch, it's something worse and damaging.

Guessing you're not familiar with the question mark icon in first party Apple apps like Garage Band?

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#66

Post by wpietri »

adrianparsons wrote: post #60
local_issues wrote: post #16

No no no no no. Design your product to be understandable at first pass. Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone, while Sony forces you to do it on every new device. Let the onboarding be a forcing function for usability. This isn't a crutch, it's something worse and damaging.

I laugh when I see these because I've witnessed the process that leads to them. It goes something like: 1. Relatively confusing UX is designed and built. 2. User testing or executive review concludes the UX is relatively confusing. 3. Product Manager says "We'll build a slideshow/interactive tutorial!" to solve the problem. The process and end result is completely understandable. It's hard to rehash a design when you…

It's understandable in some sense. But wow, the arrogance of designing and building something and then only doing user testing at the point where it's too late to do anything about it. I could even forgive it the first time, but this just happens over and over.

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#68

Post by wpietri »

djbusby wrote: post #18

I like these, but only a little. Don't force it on new users, but ask if they want a tour. Only use sparingly when new features/buttons/changes are added to the app. Only once per session. Prompt is Dismiss/Tour option. It's better if your app has an "intuitive" UX. But an un-forced tour can be helpful. Its better than the sign-in interstitial to announce features.

And please god offer a help menu somewhere that includes decent docs and an opportunity to re-run tours.

So many designers seem to think I am opening an app with oceans of time while asking myself the question, "What delights do these wonderful people have for me today?" When in reality I'm opening them to get a specific thing done right now. Which is the moment when I am least receptive to somebody forcing me to look at their product baby photos so I can say, "yes, your baby is beautiful, no really".

The points where I'm actually receptive to a tour are after I've completed my task and when I've just realized that I don't know how to do the thing I want to do.

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#69

Post by sgc »

Etheryte wrote: post #64
smt88 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone You're arguing in favor of a product tour. iOS usability is garbage. There are no affordances. Nothing is discoverable. There are a million inputs (mostly gestures) that no one ever finds out about unless someone tells them or they Google it, and they're not consistent across apps, even first-party apps. Sometimes "swipe the row left" means "remove," sometimes…

People not knowing some of the features is not really a problem, because it doesn't matter. Every single one of my elderly relatives can use an iPhone after a quick intro and they don't need help afterwards. The device is essentially self-serve once you understand one or two core ideas. Them not knowing about some features is not a problem, they can do all the important things without someone helping them out. No oth…

Come on, iOS is not so special. Grandmas all over the world get by just fine on an Android as well. If you don't do much with your device, you don't need much. At the same time, it is obvious that gestures should be consistent, and the documentation should be clear, on device, and easy to find.

Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more

#70

Post by willio58 »

local_issues wrote: post #16

No no no no no. Design your product to be understandable at first pass. Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone, while Sony forces you to do it on every new device. Let the onboarding be a forcing function for usability. This isn't a crutch, it's something worse and damaging.

The "Hints" app is included with iOS, showing even Apple struggles with this. Most things should be obvious through using your product. For more complex things, it can be hard to rely on discovery.
Post reply on HN