How to Stop People from Skipping Your Onboarding

Users land in your product, already confused.

In this UX case study, we’ll explore why that happens—and how to fix it.

Using YNAB (You Need A Budget) as our example, we’ll break down why people are likely to ignore three common onboarding techniques

Then we’ll look at the subtle UX changes that drive better engagement and retention.

P.S., this is perfectly paired with this Cheatsheet on writing copy that's effortless to read.

Okay, let's get stuck in.

We've just looked at an example where the user attempted to skip part of the onboarding.

The easiest thing to do is to give them more context.

But there are other methods.

This requires really understanding your users, but in the example above it's possible that they just want to explore the features of YNAB.

You might find that any additional education is ignored or skipped.

The user might know that the budget-creation process will take an investment of their time, and pre-emptively be rushing through this process to reach a point of interactivity.

In which case, you could use intent-driven outcomes.

YNAB could create a demo dashboard for the user to interact with, satisfy their urge to play with the app, and then bring them back into the onboarding process.

As a real world example, RevenueCat does exactly this.

Intentions can seem obvious as a user—we know why we do things.

For example:

By catering to intent, not actions, you can often be far more effective with onboarding, and reduce self-inflicted wounds.

It's fairly likely that you also recognised it as an error, or alert.

And that's because it looks like one.

Which is a shame because that perception carries negative connotations.

But what's really happening in this moment, is that YNAB are trying to teach you about the limitations of a feature. You're trying to auto-assign cash, but you don't have enough to cover everything in your budget.

So this pop-up is educating you about the decision.

This is why UI matters in UX.

And by changing the tone, you can influence how people read, digest and retain that information.