The common misconception is that product tours are simply automated versions of traditional user onboarding. But product tours are more than just pop-ups that provide feature overviews—they’re integral parts of SaaS user experience that combine different design elements to make onboarding more efficient.
A modern product tour combines different UI patterns like pop-ups, interactive walkthroughs, beacons, tooltips, and explainer videos to allow new users to learn in the flow of work. These patterns offer more contextual guidance that creates a stronger first impression with new users. That strong first impression improves product adoption rates compared to traditional user onboarding.
A well-designed product tour streamlines the onboarding process. It helps new users understand features and UI elements faster than if they had to learn entirely on their own. The more sophisticated your product, the more important it is to have a product tour that guides users through the learning curve.
The main goal of user onboarding is to get users to recognize the value of your product as quickly as possible. This recognition of value is also called the aha moment, and it propels your users toward activation and full product adoption.
Effective product tours streamline the path to that aha moment in three key ways.
Product tours are core components of self-serve user onboarding. And when done well, they increase product adoption while reducing inbound support calls and the need for manual training.
The most effective product tours adhere to a few key guidelines. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to designing product tours. But focusing on these basic principles will help minimize time-to-value for new users:
There’s a fine line between a product tour that efficiently drives aha moments and one that is simply a disruptive experience for users. The guidelines listed here will help you design product tours that fit seamlessly into your UX.
There are two steps to deciding which UI patterns to use for your product tour: learning the different UI patterns available to you and understanding their unique strengths.
A digital adoption platform (DAP) gives you access to the five key UI patterns that make up effective product tours. Combine these different options to create the perfect product tour for your unique SaaS experience.
Quickly engage users and explain the value of your application with pop-up elements in your product tour. Pop-ups can be simple splash screen graphics. Or they can be modal windows that require users to take action.
Provide step-by-step instructions for key workflows. Users see these instructions as they follow the steps of your product tour, learning about processes as they work.
Product walkthroughs are especially useful for simplifying the training processes for complex enterprise applications. You can use them to engage users both during initial onboarding and when you roll out new features.
Guided walkthrough with Whatfix DAP
Create alerts that draw user attention to certain elements of your application. You can deliver crucial information about feature updates, workflow changes, and advanced use cases with these UI patterns. Beacons allow users to interact with training material when they’re ready, which is key to a self-serve onboarding process.
Give users a quick overview of what a feature or UI element can do. Tooltips don’t prompt action from users. Instead, they convey key information in a way that’s less obtrusive than guided product walkthroughs.
Combine this product tour UI pattern with pop-up modal windows to create engaging welcome messages for new users. When users log in for the first time, you can present a video overview of your product’s key features. This is an effective way to engage first-time users and increase the likelihood that they complete key actions.
No matter how you combine your product tour UI patterns, the goal remains the same—give users prompts to learn your application in an interactive way. The most well-designed product tours engage people at all stages of the tech adoption curve without frustrating tech-savvy users or overwhelming slower adopters.
In recent years, trends like simplicity, interactivity, and minimal design have made product tours more widely accepted parts of SaaS user experience. And in 2021, there are three trends that can further improve the value of product tours:
The best product tour software tools fall under the category of digital adoption platforms. These kinds of tools integrate with your application to present users with all of the most important product tour UI patterns. Digital adoption platforms give you an all-in-one solution for creating product tours, distributing the content, and analyzing its performance.
Here are a few of the best DAPs that can serve your product tour software needs. Check out the articles linked below linked articles for a full overview of each platform’s strengths and weaknesses:
Thinking about investing in a DAP to fill your product tour software needs? Here are three examples of companies that increased user adoption by creating self-serve onboarding processes with a DAP:
Dimensions UK increased three-month user adoption for its product from 10% to 50% after implementing comprehensive digital guidance for users.
A variety of self-service content and features helped 451 Research streamline product adoption by eliminating the time-consuming process of manually teaching customers how to use their platform.
Interactive walkthroughs helped Corrigo cut its rising customer training costs and lower its time to productivity. According to former Training & Content Development Manager Scott Mandery, “All our customers that have seen our product with Whatfix interactive guides have loved it!”
