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Mobile onboarding and activation
Guides new users toward their first useful result with progressive information requests and actionable empty states.
mobile-onboarding-activation
Team members using this skill
When is it useful?
Use when signup asks too much before users experience value.
What does it help you do?
- Minimizes early steps and makes optional guidance skippable.
- Requests data and permissions when their purpose becomes clear.
- Turns empty screens into concrete next actions.
Try asking this
Redesign first use of a task app so someone creates a useful task before completing optional profile details. Skip the introduction and create a task with only required fields. Ask for notifications when the user schedules a reminder, not before the purpose is visible.
Detailed documentation
Read the skill’s original instructions, examples and checks in their authored language.
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Onboarding & Activation
Guide new and returning users to their first meaningful outcome as quickly and effortlessly as possible.
Core Onboarding Principles
- Value before friction: Let users experience core product value before demanding account creation, lengthy setup, or non-essential profile data whenever product constraints allow.
- Task-focused progression: Align every onboarding step directly with what the user needs to know or configure to achieve their first meaningful result.
- No decorative carousels: Avoid multi-slide marketing tours that users immediately skip and forget; teach through contextual, interactive steps or clear empty states.
Progressive Data Collection
- Ask now vs ask later: Separate inputs strictly required for initial activation from preferences or profile details that can be collected later in context.
- Contextual permission timing: Do not fire a barrage of OS permission dialogs on first launch. Request permissions at the moment the user triggers a feature that needs them, preceded by a clear rationale when helpful.
- Resumable setup: If onboarding or verification spans multiple steps (e.g. email/SMS verification, document upload, profile setup), save progress automatically so users who leave the app can resume where they left off.
First-Value & Empty-State Activation
- Actionable first screen: Ensure the screen a user lands on after onboarding has a clear primary action, helpful starter content or templates, and zero dead ends.
- Returning user paths: Distinguish first-time activation from returning sign-in, session expiry recovery, and device switching so returning users bypass first-time tours.
Included files 1
SKILL.md