User onboarding varies significantly between platforms and individual applications. Without proper onboarding, people are left confused about how to use an app and how it can benefit them. With so many apps available, customers generally won’t take the time to learn one through trial and error when they can choose something similar that simplifies the learning process.
Lack of good onboarding is one reason people abandon apps in droves. UX designers can be tempted to rely entirely on onboarding examples similar apps use, often turning to onboarding teardowns. Those teardowns come with limitations—namely, that the people doing them generally lack information about onboarding conversion rates, internal goals, pressure from product teams, and even legal constraints.
