Ask YC: "Getting Started" guide in app. What do you guys prefer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: "Getting Started" guide in app. What do you guys prefer?

5 pointswhalesalad6 comments

Hey guys, another Mac app question. I'm going over some of the "Getting Started" stuff in our app right now and am just wondering what all of you think about an initial guide to help jumpstart the use of an app. I come from the web world (im an xhtml/css hacker, designer) so I don't know too much about typical/best practices in terms of app development.

Its my personal belief that we've accomplished our mission of a user can come right into our app and quickly, without the need of a guide, understand where to go and what to do. What do you guys think? We're doing something pretty edgy (never done before, new concept, etc...) so it might be necessary in this case.

Ideas? Thoughts? Any hidden resources out there for good practices RE: mac apps would be great!

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We're working on a new concept idea too (isn't everyone? i'm sure "myspace for left-handed-black-blind-jewish-lesbians" is completely original) --- but a couple observations:

1) Like you said, we constantly work to make our app as intuitive and documentation free as possible. I've done quite a bit of UI design, but I'm still surprised users' obliviousness -- "just launching" is always quite humbling!

2) People usually just click around until they get stuff to work. Create a UI thats a won't punish people if they screw something up.

3) Anything longer than two sentences won't be read anyway -- we've found brief contextual help pretty effective.

4) Don't get discouraged about iterating over and over and over on designs until stuff starts to gel. I'm preaching this to myself right now.

Best luck.

Avoid anything that requires reading more than a few paragraphs and (heaven forbid) any kind of "wizard".

On first-run, I have an assistant (Mac developer euphemism for wizard) in my app (wonderwarp.com/shovebox) and I haven't quite decided if that's a good idea. On one hand, I introduce a couple concepts, illustrate the fact that it's a menubar app, and let them configure a couple things that really ought to be configured up-front. But I think even at 4 screens, it's far too long and cumbersome.

Your empty/no content screens can have tastefully-inserted instructions on how to get started (e.g. see the arrow thingy that appears in the time-tracking app On The Job).

Brief, to-the-point screencasts and visual guides to specific features are great!

If your app requires real thought to use, make sure help is available on every page. A button that says, instead of "Help," "How do I get started?" or "What do I do now?" can aide the new user. Name the buttons after the kinds of questions real users ask when getting to that page.

Also, I second the idea of contextual tooltips for everything.

Finally, a "quick-start" guide is not a bad idea. Make it in bullet-list form, just to set the frame-of-mind of the user.

Contextual popup bubbles are the best. If I can't figure out what a button does, I usually hover for a second for an explanation.

Yes, I find these most helpful too.

If actions/controls are made obvious (intuitive) then you don't really need the wizards/assistants.

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