Guiding Users Through Onboarding and Help Systems

Purpose

This skill provides systematic patterns for onboarding users and delivering contextual help, from first-time product tours to ongoing feature discovery. It covers the complete spectrum of user guidance mechanisms, ensuring optimal user activation, feature adoption, and self-service support.

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• Building first-time user experiences or product tours
• Implementing feature discovery and announcements
• Creating interactive tutorials or guided tasks
• Adding tooltips, hints, or contextual help
• Designing setup flows or completion checklists
• Building help panels or documentation systems
• Implementing progressive disclosure patterns
• Measuring onboarding effectiveness and user activation
• Ensuring onboarding accessibility

Quick Decision Framework

Select the appropriate guidance mechanism based on user state and content type:

First-time user          → Product Tour (step-by-step)
New feature launch       → Feature Spotlight (tooltip + animation)
Complex workflow         → Interactive Tutorial (guided tasks)
Account setup            → Checklist (progress tracking)
Contextual help needed   → Tooltip/Hint system
Ongoing support          → Help Panel (sidebar/searchable)
Feature unlock           → Progressive Disclosure

Reference references/selection-framework.md for detailed selection criteria.

Core Guidance Mechanisms

Product Tours

Step-by-step walkthroughs that guide users through key features:

• Sequential spotlights with modal overlays
• Progress indicators (Step 2 of 5)
• Skip, Previous, and Next controls
• Dismiss and resume capability
• Context-sensitive activation

Implementation:

npm install react-joyride

See examples/first-time-tour.tsx for complete implementation. Reference references/product-tours.md for patterns and best practices.

Feature Spotlights