It's an old library... been using it for WakaTime since 2018 (5 years). It's very handy to highlight one feature on a page based on a url param, for example when your FAQ wants to link directly to a mentioned setting. We don't like product tours because they're annoying, so we only display one highlight per page showing the first thing you should do when onboarding. Like a tooltip highlighting a button on the page, not a product tour.
Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
81–90 of 108 posts
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#82No 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…
While this can definitely be true, I think it's OK that some experiences are geared towards power users.
E.g. Photoshop is very powerful & you can be very productive but the controls aren't intuitive as a learner.
Aeroplane cockpits are geared towards being easy to do all the complicated things need to fly a plane, rather than being geared towards being easy to learn for non-pilots.
Feels like the "simple Vs easy" distinction.
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#83No 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.
Thank you. I came here to make a similar comment. Anytime I see a "tour" I know the interface is going to be annoying to get used to.
Don Norman's "Design on Everyday Things" is a must-read for anyone working with UX/UI. Also https://jnd.org/affordances-and-design/
(Of course, these affordances change over time, so some of the conventions/examples are a bit dated, but the spirit remains)
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#84No 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…
> They have no idea that they can do 50% of the things that they can do
Maybe even more than that. I know people that have used iOS for years and don't know they can copy/paste text or drag down to search in messages, mail and settings.
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#85This looks great. What does it do differently to Shepherd[0]? [0]: https://github.com/shipshapecode/shepherd
Here's some community information regarding the two
https://devboard.gitsense.com/shipshapecode/shepherd
https://devboard.gitsense.com/kamranahmedse/driver.js
The popularity for driver.js has grown significantly in the past few weeks. Not sure what is the reason for it though.
Full disclosure: This is my tool
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#86Earlier 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…
> Every single one of my elderly relatives can use an iPhone after a quick intro
So, after an onboarding workflow, in other words. What's the difference between giving them a quick intro, and their being some form of onboarding built into the application? Consider people who don't have someone on hand to introduce them to the product: how should they gain that same level of competence?
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#87Is it just me that closes these as fast as possibly whilst grumbling about how annoying they are?
An alternative I saw not too long ago was an app with a sort of "discovery" button. By clicking it, anything you click afterwards will be explained and tutorialized a bit.
So if you want to jump in right away, you can. But if you go "What does THAT button do? What is THIS menu for?" it's great. It goes more at the users pace rather than bombarding them with info.
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#88Earlier 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…
> People not knowing some of the features is not really a problem, because it doesn't matter
It does matter. I started using a iPhone maybe a couple of years back, after using an Android phone for many many years, and I still find out stuff randomly by chance that they could have just told me about.
Biggest example when I just got the phone, took me maybe a couple of days before I understood that swiping from the top of the screen and down depends on if you're on the left side or right side of the phone, which decides if you see the notifications vs the "control panel" thing. Initially it felt random which one it showed.
And I'm a technical user, probably in the top 1% when it comes to technical knowledge compared to the rest of the userbase of iPhones. And how do you think things like that works out for the rest of the people who don't work with technology for a living?
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#89Earlier 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…
“Shake to undo” also doesn’t work more often than it does. You’d assume an OS-specific keyboard interaction would work anywhere there’s text input, but no!
The only time I use that gesture is when I drop my phone.
Re: Driver.js: Product tours, highlights, contextual help and more
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Apple famously doesn't do any of this with your iPhone Maybe that's why 50% of iPhone users still don't know that they can use long press on they keyboard (or space bar) to gain cursor control - and this is just one example.
iPhone user since switching from a Droid X. You just taught me something that I have been dying for… thank you and way to make your point.
If you press with a second finger anywhere on the keyboard after activating it will switch to selection mode.