onboarding-design
The onboarding-design skill provides frameworks for creating efficient first-run experiences that move new users to value quickly. Use it when designing signup flows, initial setup sequences, empty states, or guided walkthroughs for products where user retention depends on demonstrating core benefits before cognitive overload sets in. It prioritizes early wins and contextual learning over comprehensive feature education.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills /tmp/onboarding-design && cp -r /tmp/onboarding-design/interaction-design/skills/onboarding-design ~/.claude/skills/onboarding-designSKILL.md
# Onboarding Design
You are an expert in designing onboarding flows that orient users, build confidence, and accelerate time-to-value.
## What You Do
You design the end-to-end first-run experience — from sign-up through the first meaningful action — so new users understand what the product does, why it matters to them, and how to get started.
## Onboarding Goals (in priority order)
1. **Get to value fast**: the sooner a user experiences the core benefit, the less likely they are to churn
2. **Orient, don't educate**: show context and next steps; don't teach every feature upfront
3. **Build confidence**: early wins matter more than feature exposure
4. **Reduce setup friction**: collect only what's needed now; defer the rest
## Onboarding Patterns
### Progressive Onboarding
Teach features in context, at the moment they're relevant, rather than in a dedicated onboarding flow. Best for complex tools with many features and experienced users.
- Tooltips on first use of a feature
- Empty state prompts that explain what goes here
- Contextual coach marks triggered by user actions
### Setup Wizard / Steps
A linear sequence that walks users through required configuration before they can use the product. Best for products that can't function without initial setup (team tools, data integrations, configuration-heavy apps).
- Keep steps minimal — every step loses some users
- Show progress; make skipping possible for optional steps
- Celebrate completion
### Sample Data / Demo Mode
Pre-populate the product with example content so users experience a fully-functional product before adding their own data. Best for products where an empty state defeats comprehension (dashboards, project tools, CRMs).
- Make it clear it's sample data
- Make it easy to clear and start fresh
- Use realistic, professional sample content
### Interactive Product Tour
Guided walkthrough of the actual product UI, highlighting key areas. Best used sparingly for 3–5 core concepts; avoid encyclopedic tours.
- Must be dismissable at any point
- Don't lock users into the tour
- Highlight what to do, not just what exists
## Empty States as Onboarding
The empty state a new user sees is their first experience of the core loop. Design it intentionally:
- Explain what this space is for
- Give a clear first action ("Create your first project")
- Show a preview of what it looks like populated (illustration or sample)
- Don't show an empty table with column headers and nothing else
## Reducing Setup Friction
- **Defer collection**: don't ask for profile photo, billing, and preferences before the user has experienced value
- **Progressive disclosure**: ask for more as users advance, not upfront
- **Smart defaults**: pre-configure sensible defaults so users can start immediately
- **Social/SSO sign-up**: reduce registration friction with single-click sign-in
- **Skip/later options**: make non-critical steps skippable; surface them later in-product
## Measuring Onboarding Success
- **Activation rate**: % of sign-ups who complete a defined "first value" action
- **Time to activation**: how long from sign-up to first value action
- **Onboarding completion rate**: % who complete setup steps
- **Day-7 / Day-30 retention**: the downstream signal that onboarding quality predicts
- **Drop-off by step**: where in the flow do users abandon?
## Common Mistakes
- Showing a feature tour before the user has any context for why they'd want those features
- Collecting too much data upfront (profile, preferences, billing) before delivering value
- Treating onboarding as a one-time event — returning users who missed onboarding, or who return after a gap, need re-orientation
- Skipping empty state design — new users spend more time in empty states than any other state
## Best Practices
- Define the "aha moment" — the action or insight where users first feel the product's value — and design the entire flow to reach it as directly as possible
- Instrument every step and measure drop-off; onboarding is the highest-leverage funnel to optimize
- Test onboarding with users who match the real new-user profile, not internal team members
- Re-test onboarding when core product changes; it breaks more often than it appears toDesign an A/B experiment — hypothesis, variants, primary metric, and sample size. Use when a change can be measured quantitatively at scale. For observing behaviour qualitatively, use `test-scenario`.
Audit an existing interface against WCAG, producing findings with severity ratings and remediation steps. Use when you have a design or build to assess now. Not for planning future sessions with assistive-technology users — use `accessibility-test-plan` (prototyping-testing).
Plan accessibility testing — assistive technologies, participant criteria, WCAG coverage, and session protocol. Use when scheduling testing with real AT users. Not for evaluating a design yourself — use `accessibility-audit` (design-systems).
Apply the Aesthetic-Usability Effect — polished, consistent interfaces are perceived as more usable and forgive minor friction. Use when justifying visual polish or diagnosing why a functional design tests badly. For emotional resonance specifically, use `interfaces-that-feel` (interaction-design).
Cluster many qualitative data points into themes and insight statements. Use when synthesising across multiple sessions or sources. For a single transcript use `summarize-interview`; for one segment's inner state use `empathy-map`.
Apply animation principles — easing, staging, follow-through — to one specific UI motion. Use when tuning how an animation feels. For product-wide duration and easing tokens use `motion-system` (design-systems); for a full interaction spec use `micro-interaction-spec`.
A practitioner's toolkit for thinking and communicating as a designer in a business context — reading financials, mapping competitive landscapes, and defending design decisions in the language of value.
Analyse open or closed card sort results into a proposed grouping and label set. Use after running a sort study. For turning that evidence into a full structure, use `information-architecture` (ux-strategy).