Comparative Analysis - What We Learned:

Account Creation + First Project Creation Make a Great Pair.

Many project management tools group the creation of a user’s first project into the onboarding process itself. Glossa treats this as two discrete steps.

Jira Onboarding and Project creation Screen

Jira's onboarding flow includes project creation

One Screen, One Action.

Mainstream project management tools often included one action per screen, creating a simple and deeply linear onboarding experience.

Monday.com shows that no question is too small to warrant its own dedicated, distraction-free screen.


After Onboarding, Give the User A To-Do List.

The project dashboard can include quickstart tips, checklists, and more.

Often a dashboard will display metrics, analytics for repeated users. But since this is a first-time experience and the the user hasn’t created anything to analyze yet, this space can be used to guide the them through the tool instead.

But after the user has completed onboarding, the opening screen needn’t be blank. You can use empty screen real estate valuably to guide the user through the tool. Glossa’s, conversely, contains very little info.

Notion’s dashboard gives you a nice checklist, teaching you how to use the tool and helps ensure that you take all the necessary steps to get started.

Conversely, Glossa’s dashboard is very sparse. It advises you to create your first project, but doesn’t teach you how to use the tool.

Help Is On The Way.

Having a help button on every page can be very valuable - especially for first time users. A common pattern is to have a help button in the bottom right corner, and some tools also include an option to chat with AI.

Notice the help bottom in the bottom right of the screen (and check out the "Complete your Profile" checklist while you're over there.

Good Tooltips Can Make a Big Difference

Tooltips, when used deliberately, can guide the user through some of the disorienting visuals when learning a new app. Animation and color can catch the user’s eye. 

An example of good tooltips shown to first time users of Monday.com - with graphical elements and a progress bar,

describing the nuances of a tool that wouldn’t be immediately obvious to new users.

At the same time, tooltops should also not be used redundantly, especially to showcase the painfully obvious. This Linkedin post showcases how frustrated users may feel about unnecessary or half-baked tooltips.

In this example, the start button is obvious - bright yellow. I don't know about you, but I’m pretty sure that a user can infer that the word “start” means that’s where they begin their journey with the tool.

Options are not necessarily a bad thing.

In general, these software follow a linear path through onboarding with little to no deviation from a straight flow. But, when the user is given a few choices, they feel like they have agency over the experience. It’s okay to let them choose to skip ahead. Not every user is the same - some people prefer a guided tour, others just want to jump in.

Loom empowers users with an important choice. Do they want to perform an action immediately, receive summaries passively, or explore the app before doing either?

Thanks for reading! I’m open to new opportunities and projects. Feel free to reach out.

LinkedIn

Instagram

ben.einstein@gmail.com

(323) 828-9901