User Onboarding IRL

October 20, 2015

While at most companies user oboarding isn’t something Support is responsible for crafting the experience, I always enjoy seeing how companies handle a similar process much differently - UserBoard.com is a favorite of mine.

A hobby of mine off the internet is playing board/card games. Much like the user onboarding of web service I always enjoy seeing how games handle explaining the rules differently. I bought Exploding Kittens recently and was impressed by how clearly the process of playing is laid out in the instructions sheet.

In a clear and concise manner about anyone can quickly figure out how to play - Step 1, 2, 3, done.

Compare that to another card game like Guillotine where the game uses confusing names, uses a card name that you’re not sure of what it means yet, and is printed on different sides of the instructions sheet. In the end game play is about as simple as Exploding Kittens, but seems much more complicated when reading how to play.

If there’s an onboarding process that you deal with everyday I suggest looking at it on with a fresh set of eyes and making sure it’s as clear as possible to someone who doesn’t go through the process daily, there’s always a small improvement to be found.