What App Onboarding Can Learn from Video Games’ Tutorials

App onboarding is a crucial stage in any digital product. It is the very first impression a user is going to have of a digital experience, where users can learn about the application and make their first interactions with it, highly impacting retention, engagement, and overall satisfaction.

Just like app and web developers, video game developers have been crafting ingenious game tutorials for ages. In fact, a well-thought-out game tutorial can make or break a player’s experience, as it relies on user immersion in the game to be successful. It is a very delicate and important art present in the most successful games ever made.

Both game tutorials and app onboarding rely heavily on making users feel comfortable and capable, while generating value and user retention. So, what can UX designers learn from video games’ tutorials?

Learning by Doing

The “Learning by Doing” principle aims to gradually introduce users to a new experience without overloading them with excessive text, instructions, or complicated information. By naturally introducing concepts and interactions to the user, it can completely shift the way users relate to the product. This is one of the reasons why Super Mario Bros. is such a successful case study for tutorials.

Through very well-crafted game design, Super Mario Bros. teaches users how to jump and move Mario without any sort of popup or text box. The user learns by instinctively pressing buttons through trial and error, while experiencing the actual world they have been inserted into. Step by step, the user is exposed to small chunks of ideas and gets deeper into the experience without being overwhelmed for a second. Suddenly, a world where you are an Italian plumber jumping on random creatures, interacting with a green dinosaur while actively trying to save a princess feels natural and highly addictive.

Effective onboarding consists of similar traits: showcasing instructions and information only when really needed, and letting users naturally experience the interface. Interaction over instruction is a core principle Duolingo uses in its onboarding. In fact, Duolingo places the user immediately into a language lesson upon first entry, instead of endlessly instructing them about the complexities of the app. The first minutes, or even seconds, of the experience are key for immersion and user retention.

Immediate Engagement

When users open an app or start a game, it does not take long for them to realize if they want to engage further or simply leave the experience. Confusing, slow, or overwhelming initial interactions can be very detrimental and frustrating to users. Therefore, quick hooks and as little friction as possible are of great importance in order to demonstrate immediate value to the user.

Exactly like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild immediately drops the user into an amazing world and encourages them to instinctively experiment with the main character’s surroundings. It does not waste time trying to explain hundreds of possible magical interactions and functionalities. It lets users take action right away. In a generation where everything needs to be instant and attention spans are shortening by the minute, immediate engagement is paramount to a product’s success.

TikTok exemplifies this whole concept in a very straightforward approach. It is fast, simple, and efficient. The user opens the app and can immediately start watching quick and dynamic videos. No login or traditional onboarding. TikTok replaces traditional onboarding with behavioral onboarding, allowing users to instantly understand the product through use. It rapidly accomplishes user goals, consequently generating value faster than almost any other app on the market.

Freedom vs. Guidance

It is the designer’s job to analyze and determine how much instruction, restriction, or information is presented during onboarding. However, it is rarely an easy decision to make. The balance between user freedom and guidance is a very fine line, and quite a blurry one. No instructions can make users feel lost when using complex products, while too much instruction can be restrictive and overwhelming for both video games and apps.

Going back to many millennials’ childhoods, The Sims presents a very fine-tuned balance of freedom and guidance. It simulates human life in a video game, so just like real life, it should present different paths for different-minded people. Players can interact with the game however they like, or go through some skippable and light tutorials if they want to get more in-depth. There are no wrong paths, and the game does not restrict the user to a single journey.

Although it is a quite complex application, Figma behaves in a very similar fashion. Upon first entry, it showcases a few tooltips that are easily dismissed and informs users of an extensive catalog of tutorials if they are interested. However, it allows users to explore on their own terms.

Conclusion

Video games are a very complex and entertaining form of art, having been constantly studied and developed for decades. As designers, it is possible to learn many different aspects of design from them, more specifically how they craft user immersion and first interactions. Interaction over instruction, immediate engagement, and user freedom are some of the many key learnings that can be applied to UX design and digital products. In fact, these concepts are directly used by many top-of-the-market companies and have a direct correlation with their success.