7 ms·

Ask HN: Any great product onboarding experiences you've had lately?

92 points by raykanani99 10y ago

Looking for some examples of simple yet effective onboarding journeys.

nstom 10y ago
http://www.blendle.com http://www.blendle.com has quite a nice onboarding process if you ask me.
whatnotests 10y ago
* https://www.sendinblue.com/ https://www.sendinblue.com/ (like Mailchimp, but easier) * https://logz.io/ https://logz.io/ (log aggregation FTW) * https://www.skylight.io/ https://www.skylight.io/ (application performance monitoring for Ruby, similar to New Relic, written in Rust)
- philip1209 10y ago
  logz.io does not appear to support TLS on their homepage. I'm getting mixed content errors that are preventing stylesheet loading. So, correct link may be http://logz.io http://logz.io instead of https://logz.io https://logz.io
  - whatnotests 10y ago
    Wow that is really weird. Thanks for pointing that out. Should probably let them know. UPDATE: I've let them know [0] and the root cause is simple. [0] https://twitter.com/devstack/status/823762402382475265 https://twitter.com/devstack/status/823762402382475265
    - philip1209 10y ago
      I talked with them. They're using wordpress, so it may not have been easy. (If they're terminating SSL at an LB or cloudflare, these things can be really annoying to debug with wordpress too!)
- unethical_ban 10y ago
  So logz.io is literally ELKaaS?
  - whatnotests 10y ago
    Yeah it sets up pretty quick and they even have a free level.
stblack 10y ago
Apple's new AirPods onboarding is sublime. One quibble: whoever believed that grey text on white paper was a good idea has issues that need to be addressed.
mikerg87 10y ago
There is a collection on boarding critiques that you might find helpful. https://www.useronboard.com/onboarding-teardowns/ https://www.useronboard.com/onboarding-teardowns/
- drewrv 10y ago
  Their Super Mario Run example is great for the "what not to do" department. http://www.useronboard.com/how-supermariorun-onboards-new-users/ http://www.useronboard.com/how-supermariorun-onboards-new-us...
  - evanb 10y ago
    Why can't I play the tour levels without network?! It makes no sense, and seriously undermines the value of the app as something to do on the train.
    - drewrv 10y ago
      Nintendo amazes me: as an organization they make incredible games yet are terrible at everything else.
      - joeld42 10y ago
        Don't forget, they are very new to mobile. Things that may be obvious to mobile devs are overlooked by a large company used to a captive console audience. Nintendo doesn't move quickly but they are very adaptable in the long run.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - viraptor 10y ago
      It looks like it's either console devs doing this, or Nintendo wrote some strict console-like requirements. Like login before you see anything and "you have to interact after the loading screen" silliness.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
zengr 10y ago
simple.com
- eric_the_read 10y ago
  Seconded! They recently changed their backend bank, and it was surprisingly simple to get things moved over, even given that I had a direct deposit in place, which necessitated a more complicated process.
markolschesky 10y ago
I thought that the Carvana trade-in onboarding was pure magic. A "custom" video that described the valuation of my car was so cool that even though I ended up trading in my car with a car I bought at a dealership I really wanted to be a Carvana customer. https://www.carvana.com/trades https://www.carvana.com/trades
drewrv 10y ago
I was pretty happy with the onboarding at flowkey.
vmware513 10y ago
You can find here a few good examples. https://www.useronboard.com https://www.useronboard.com
BrandonBradley 10y ago
Yes! Elasticsearch and associated tools. Their docs are solid. Packages available for many platforms. The tutorial is straightforward. Kibana is excellent for real-time time series graphing. (I'm really biased because of the last sentence.)
foopod 10y ago
I recently moved from github pages to http://netlify.com http://netlify.com. And wow everything was just so easy, 5 minutes I had migrated my static site, custom domain and set up SSL. Their documentation and customer support was fantastic.
- magic_beans 10y ago
  I LOVE netlify. And Open Source projects are free to host!
bobosha 10y ago
pillpack.com --> fantastic ui/ux . couldn't say enough good things about them. p.s. they are a mail order pharmacy that packages pills into sachets
andrelou 10y ago
OutSystems platform free edition. https://www.outsystems.com/get-started/ https://www.outsystems.com/get-started/
molsson 10y ago
ChromeCast was a pleasure and I was also really happen trying out Digital Ocean.
scottndecker 10y ago
We've put quite a bit of effort into our onboarding process at https://visualteamstatus.com/ https://visualteamstatus.com/. Takes less than 60 seconds to go from nothing to a full account and dashboard with analytics. We think that's pretty good considering the integrations required between VTS and Visual Studio Team Services.
the_arun 10y ago
Not sure about the question is about new user on boarding. Recently, I just installed WhatsApp desktop app on my mac and hooked app on iOS device with desktop app and was blown away by simple QR code trick. I wish we build one click experiences for every integration/on boarding.
hevel 10y ago
The plex app for the ps4 had a painless onboarding process that took about 30 seconds. It had you log in on a browser and put in a code the app gave you. It worked right away and left me impressed.
johansch 10y ago
AnyDesk, a german cross-platform remote desktop access thing. https://anydesk.com/remote-desktop https://anydesk.com/remote-desktop When you download an app on e.g. Windows you're used to first going through the installation dance. This app surprised and delighted me by having the downloaded .exe launch into running mode immediately. After I had tried it out and closed it, it then asked me whether I wanted to keep it installed.
- rawfan 10y ago
  Wow. Thanks for the tip. This is really nice compared to TV.
FLGMwt 10y ago
Headspace's 10 day guided intro sold me pretty much after the first session: https://www.headspace.com/ https://www.headspace.com/ It's kind of a tutorial run so I think that counts as an onboarding?
welder 10y ago
I was very impressed with https://www.graph.cool/ https://www.graph.cool/ and how they walk you through onboarding with tooltips for every step. Here's a screenshot: https://goo.gl/photos/jhwZSqaXRxHXUwZi9 https://goo.gl/photos/jhwZSqaXRxHXUwZi9
endodino 10y ago
I was able to get early access to status.im and can say that of all the crypto space solutions out there, onboarding with the mobile app was really intuitive. https://status.im/ https://status.im/
mfkp 10y ago
I'm a fan of the onboarding of https://privacy.com/ https://privacy.com/ - simple and clean, the opposite of the traditional payments/banking sector.
staltz 10y ago
I loved https://zeit.co/now/ https://zeit.co/now/ passwordless registration and overall first 2 minutes onboarding animations and texts.
aquark 10y ago
As a corollary, are there any good libraries for helping build more complex onboarding flows, or do these all tends to be hand-built from scratch? I've seen a few javascript walk-through tour type libraries, but what about something that integrates with a backend to be stateful on what a user has done?
simonbarker87 10y ago
Weird answer: the tutorial campaign in Factorio, each step is just the right size that you know what you have to do but you have to think a little bit and then the next step is slightly longer/more complex. I've not played a game properly for over a decade but thanks to the tutorial I'm over 60 hours in to Factorio and enjoying every minute.
steven_pack 10y ago
freelancer.com as a client had me signed up before I even realised...
jhki 10y ago
Somewhat Helsinki-specific, but the onboarding for the Wolt app is a beautiful one: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/wolt/id943905271 https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/wolt/id943905271
oulipo 10y ago
https://capsule.ai https://capsule.ai has a very nice onboarding
- davewasthere 10y ago
  Shame they don't actually say what it is... Some sort of calendar/reminder thing? Maybe it's a nicer styled google location history?
w1zeman1p 10y ago
I liked https://www.gitkraken.com/ https://www.gitkraken.com/ onboarding

92 points by raykanani99 10y ago

Looking for some examples of simple yet effective onboarding journeys.

nstom 10y ago

http://www.blendle.com http://www.blendle.com has quite a nice onboarding process if you ask me.

whatnotests 10y ago

* https://www.sendinblue.com/ https://www.sendinblue.com/ (like Mailchimp, but easier) * https://logz.io/ https://logz.io/ (log aggregation FTW) * https://www.skylight.io/ https://www.skylight.io/ (application performance monitoring for Ruby, similar to New Relic, written in Rust)

philip1209 10y ago
logz.io does not appear to support TLS on their homepage. I'm getting mixed content errors that are preventing stylesheet loading. So, correct link may be http://logz.io http://logz.io instead of https://logz.io https://logz.io
- whatnotests 10y ago
  Wow that is really weird. Thanks for pointing that out. Should probably let them know. UPDATE: I've let them know [0] and the root cause is simple. [0] https://twitter.com/devstack/status/823762402382475265 https://twitter.com/devstack/status/823762402382475265
  - philip1209 10y ago
    I talked with them. They're using wordpress, so it may not have been easy. (If they're terminating SSL at an LB or cloudflare, these things can be really annoying to debug with wordpress too!)
unethical_ban 10y ago
So logz.io is literally ELKaaS?
- whatnotests 10y ago
  Yeah it sets up pretty quick and they even have a free level.

stblack 10y ago

Apple's new AirPods onboarding is sublime. One quibble: whoever believed that grey text on white paper was a good idea has issues that need to be addressed.

mikerg87 10y ago

There is a collection on boarding critiques that you might find helpful. https://www.useronboard.com/onboarding-teardowns/ https://www.useronboard.com/onboarding-teardowns/

drewrv 10y ago
Their Super Mario Run example is great for the "what not to do" department. http://www.useronboard.com/how-supermariorun-onboards-new-users/ http://www.useronboard.com/how-supermariorun-onboards-new-us...
- evanb 10y ago
  Why can't I play the tour levels without network?! It makes no sense, and seriously undermines the value of the app as something to do on the train.
  - drewrv 10y ago
    Nintendo amazes me: as an organization they make incredible games yet are terrible at everything else.
    - joeld42 10y ago
      Don't forget, they are very new to mobile. Things that may be obvious to mobile devs are overlooked by a large company used to a captive console audience. Nintendo doesn't move quickly but they are very adaptable in the long run.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - viraptor 10y ago
    It looks like it's either console devs doing this, or Nintendo wrote some strict console-like requirements. Like login before you see anything and "you have to interact after the loading screen" silliness.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

zengr 10y ago

simple.com

eric_the_read 10y ago
Seconded! They recently changed their backend bank, and it was surprisingly simple to get things moved over, even given that I had a direct deposit in place, which necessitated a more complicated process.

markolschesky 10y ago

I thought that the Carvana trade-in onboarding was pure magic. A "custom" video that described the valuation of my car was so cool that even though I ended up trading in my car with a car I bought at a dealership I really wanted to be a Carvana customer. https://www.carvana.com/trades https://www.carvana.com/trades

drewrv 10y ago

I was pretty happy with the onboarding at flowkey.

vmware513 10y ago

You can find here a few good examples. https://www.useronboard.com https://www.useronboard.com

BrandonBradley 10y ago

Yes! Elasticsearch and associated tools. Their docs are solid. Packages available for many platforms. The tutorial is straightforward. Kibana is excellent for real-time time series graphing. (I'm really biased because of the last sentence.)

foopod 10y ago

I recently moved from github pages to http://netlify.com http://netlify.com. And wow everything was just so easy, 5 minutes I had migrated my static site, custom domain and set up SSL. Their documentation and customer support was fantastic.

magic_beans 10y ago
I LOVE netlify. And Open Source projects are free to host!

bobosha 10y ago

pillpack.com --> fantastic ui/ux . couldn't say enough good things about them. p.s. they are a mail order pharmacy that packages pills into sachets

andrelou 10y ago

OutSystems platform free edition. https://www.outsystems.com/get-started/ https://www.outsystems.com/get-started/

molsson 10y ago

ChromeCast was a pleasure and I was also really happen trying out Digital Ocean.

scottndecker 10y ago

We've put quite a bit of effort into our onboarding process at https://visualteamstatus.com/ https://visualteamstatus.com/. Takes less than 60 seconds to go from nothing to a full account and dashboard with analytics. We think that's pretty good considering the integrations required between VTS and Visual Studio Team Services.

the_arun 10y ago

Not sure about the question is about new user on boarding. Recently, I just installed WhatsApp desktop app on my mac and hooked app on iOS device with desktop app and was blown away by simple QR code trick. I wish we build one click experiences for every integration/on boarding.

hevel 10y ago

The plex app for the ps4 had a painless onboarding process that took about 30 seconds. It had you log in on a browser and put in a code the app gave you. It worked right away and left me impressed.

johansch 10y ago

AnyDesk, a german cross-platform remote desktop access thing. https://anydesk.com/remote-desktop https://anydesk.com/remote-desktop When you download an app on e.g. Windows you're used to first going through the installation dance. This app surprised and delighted me by having the downloaded .exe launch into running mode immediately. After I had tried it out and closed it, it then asked me whether I wanted to keep it installed.

rawfan 10y ago
Wow. Thanks for the tip. This is really nice compared to TV.

FLGMwt 10y ago

Headspace's 10 day guided intro sold me pretty much after the first session: https://www.headspace.com/ https://www.headspace.com/ It's kind of a tutorial run so I think that counts as an onboarding?

welder 10y ago

I was very impressed with https://www.graph.cool/ https://www.graph.cool/ and how they walk you through onboarding with tooltips for every step. Here's a screenshot: https://goo.gl/photos/jhwZSqaXRxHXUwZi9 https://goo.gl/photos/jhwZSqaXRxHXUwZi9

endodino 10y ago

I was able to get early access to status.im and can say that of all the crypto space solutions out there, onboarding with the mobile app was really intuitive. https://status.im/ https://status.im/

mfkp 10y ago

I'm a fan of the onboarding of https://privacy.com/ https://privacy.com/ - simple and clean, the opposite of the traditional payments/banking sector.

staltz 10y ago

I loved https://zeit.co/now/ https://zeit.co/now/ passwordless registration and overall first 2 minutes onboarding animations and texts.

aquark 10y ago

As a corollary, are there any good libraries for helping build more complex onboarding flows, or do these all tends to be hand-built from scratch? I've seen a few javascript walk-through tour type libraries, but what about something that integrates with a backend to be stateful on what a user has done?

simonbarker87 10y ago

Weird answer: the tutorial campaign in Factorio, each step is just the right size that you know what you have to do but you have to think a little bit and then the next step is slightly longer/more complex. I've not played a game properly for over a decade but thanks to the tutorial I'm over 60 hours in to Factorio and enjoying every minute.

steven_pack 10y ago

freelancer.com as a client had me signed up before I even realised...

jhki 10y ago

Somewhat Helsinki-specific, but the onboarding for the Wolt app is a beautiful one: https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/wolt/id943905271 https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/wolt/id943905271

oulipo 10y ago

https://capsule.ai https://capsule.ai has a very nice onboarding

davewasthere 10y ago
Shame they don't actually say what it is... Some sort of calendar/reminder thing? Maybe it's a nicer styled google location history?

w1zeman1p 10y ago

I liked https://www.gitkraken.com/ https://www.gitkraken.com/ onboarding