Improving the onboarding experience : A qualitative analysis of onboarding slides and tooltips

Sammanfattning: When a user uses an application for the first time, they are being onboarded to the application. The user needs to find out what the application is for and how to use it. This thesis aims to explore different onboarding techniques and investigate how two of these techniques, onboarding slides and tooltips, can affect the first time usage of an application. The techniques were implemented in a high-fidelity prototype and 15 participants were recruited for user testing. These were randomly assigned into 3 groups, one control group without an onboarding technique, one with onboarding slides and one with tooltips. The users had to complete seven tasks using the prototype, all of which were designed to mimic what actual first-time users of the application could face. The participants were then asked 10 questions about their experience during a follow-up interview. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data was performed, resulting in four main themes for each group. Together, the user tests and the results of the thematic analysis indicated that adding onboarding slides does not give a quicker onboarding but that the slides often give a more welcoming experience, and that tooltips might speed up tasks for first-time users and help them learn how to use the app.