In-App Onboarding Examples Worth Copying
A catalogue of the in-app onboarding patterns that work — the setup checklist, the guided empty state, the tooltip tour, the interactive-demo tour, contextual nudges — with what each is good at, where it fails, and when to combine them.
In-app onboarding is a set of patterns, and the good implementations combine two or three rather than betting everything on one. The catalogue: a setup checklist that gives direction and tracks progress, a guided empty state that solves the blank-canvas problem, a tooltip tour for pointing at the few things a user must find, an interactive-demo tour that lets the user click a scripted path, and contextual nudges that surface a feature at the moment it's relevant. Each has a job and a failure mode. The one rule that spans all of them: measure against activation, not completion — a tour everyone finishes that doesn't move the activation number is decoration.
The setup checklist
What it is: a short list of steps toward first value ("connect a source," "create your first report," "invite a teammate"), usually with a progress indicator, often dismissible.
Good at: giving a new user direction, creating a sense of momentum, letting people self-pace.
Fails when: the steps are framed around the product's structure instead of the user's goal, when there are too many, or when completing them doesn't actually deliver value.
Copy the version that: has 3–5 steps, each phrased as an outcome, that genuinely add up to the user getting value — and that disappears once done.
The guided empty state
What it is: the blank screen, replaced with a prompt, an example, or a template picker.
Good at: removing the paralysis of "now what?", teaching by example, getting a first artifact created fast.
Fails when: it's just an illustration and a sentence with no clear action, or when the only option is "create from scratch."
Copy the version that: offers a template or sample the user can open immediately, plus one clear "create your own" path.
The tooltip / coach-mark tour
What it is: a sequence of pointers highlighting UI elements, with next/skip controls.
Good at: surfacing two or three things a user needs to find and wouldn't otherwise.
Fails when: it's long, blocks the interface, fires on the first visit before the user has context, or explains obvious things.
Copy the version that: is 2–3 steps, non-blocking, triggered when relevant rather than immediately, and easy to dismiss.
The interactive-demo tour
What it is: a scripted click-through of the real (or a replica) interface, where the user drives, with a short explanation on each step — either overlaid on the live product or as an embedded walkthrough.
Good at: showing an end-to-end flow, letting the user experience the outcome before doing it for real, working outside the app (email, docs, the marketing site) with the exact same asset.
Fails when: it's mistaken for the product and the user thinks they've "done" the task, or when it's too long.
Copy the version that: covers the single most important flow in five to eight steps and hands off clearly to "now do this in your workspace."
Contextual nudges
What it is: a small prompt that appears when a user is doing a related task ("you're doing this manually — there's a bulk option").
Good at: feature discovery after the initial onboarding, at the exact moment of relevance.
Fails when: nudges are frequent, generic, or interrupt a focused task.
Copy the version that: fires rarely, is dismissible, and is tied to a specific behaviour.
Combining them
A solid default for a self-serve product:
- Guided empty state + setup checklist as the foundation — direction plus a non-blank start.
- One short interactive-demo tour of the core flow, reused in the welcome email and docs.
- Contextual nudges layered in later for feature adoption.
- Tooltip tours only where a genuinely hidden but important control needs surfacing.
The failure mode common to all of these is stacking them: an empty state, then a tooltip tour, then a checklist, then a nudge, all in the first session. Pick the two that carry the most weight and let the user breathe.
Related: the SaaS onboarding checklist, self-serve onboarding, user onboarding examples.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main types of in-app onboarding?
The common patterns are: a setup checklist that tracks progress toward first value, a guided empty state that tells the user what to do with a blank screen, a tooltip or coach-mark tour that points at UI elements in sequence, an interactive-demo tour that lets the user click a scripted path, and contextual nudges that appear when a user is doing a related task. Most good onboarding combines two or three.
Are tooltip tours good or bad?
They are fine in small doses and bad in large ones. A two or three step tour highlighting the few things a user genuinely needs to find works. A ten-step tour that blocks the interface while the user clicks 'next' repeatedly is widely disliked and mostly skipped. Point at what matters, then get out of the way.
What is the best in-app onboarding pattern?
There is no single best one. A setup checklist plus a well-designed empty state covers most self-serve products: the checklist gives direction, the empty state removes the blank-canvas problem. Add contextual nudges for feature discovery later. Tooltip tours are a supporting pattern, not a foundation.
How do you measure in-app onboarding?
Against activation, not completion. A tour with a 90% completion rate that does not raise the share of users reaching first value is decorative. Track how each pattern affects the activation rate and first-week retention of the cohorts that see it.