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Reactive Onboarding

Reactive onboarding is a method of educating users about your product, by explaining what, and why something happened.

Featured in 8 UX Bites

Similar psychology:

Likely impacts:

Productivity & Efficiency

Attention & Interest

Complexity & Understanding

Last updated: 03/11/2026

How to utilise this in your designs

If someone presses a shortcut that means something different in your product, you could show a tooltip explaining what it does here, so they learn the difference.

Chat message composer. After typing about a link and pressing the "+" attachment button, a tooltip suggests a faster route: "Trying to add a link? Use ⌘ + V instead", teaching the paste shortcut in context.

Example from

Slack

Try reactively prompting the step that finishes a task when someone pauses partway and then waits, so they don't assume it's already done.

Recording screen. With the recording paused and a play button to resume, a tooltip above the "End" button prompts "Tap end to generate your notes", explaining what ending the recording does.

Example from

Granola

An empty search could become reactive onboarding: when it returns no results, explain what the search can and can't do, so people know how to ask next time.

Search results empty state. When a spending question returns no results, a "How to use this search" link opens a sheet listing "Things you can search for" and "Things you can't search for yet".

Example from

Starling

Consider offering onboarding for a better approach once someone has sent several unhappy prompts in a row, rather than waiting for them to find it.

Chat screen for an AI app builder. Above the prompt box, a dismissible tooltip says "Feeling stuck?" and "Use chat mode to create a plan.", nudging users towards the "Chat" mode button.

Example from

Lovable

When something is slow to load, it may help to use the wait to explain ways to speed it up, so users learn the faster method while they're feeling the delay.

Analytics loading screen. While a slow query runs, a progress bar shows with tips under "Need to speed things up?", including a "10% sampling" link that turns on sampling to get results faster.

Example from

Posthog

Possible impacts

Reactive onboarding could increase feature usage, by introducing a feature at the moment users hit the problem it solves, rather than in an upfront tour.

As seen in:

Starling A better empty state

Lovable Thoughtful onboarding

Suggesting a shortcut or faster method right as users do something the slow way might help them get tasks done more quickly from then on.

As seen in:

Slack Onboarding incorrect shortcuts

Tips shown only when they relate to what users are doing right then may hold their attention better than upfront tours, which they're likely to skip.

As seen in:

Vercel Wait, we recommend this

Gojek How much luggage can you bring?

Explaining what just happened and why, straight after a user triggers it, could help users understand a complex product more easily without a lengthy tutorial.

As seen in:

Slack Onboarding incorrect shortcuts

Starling A better empty state

Written by Peter Ramsey

Consultant to 100+ companies

Published: 06/09/2023

How to utilise this in your designs

If someone presses a shortcut that means something different in your product, you could show a tooltip explaining what it does here, so they learn the difference.

Example from

Slack

Try reactively prompting the step that finishes a task when someone pauses partway and then waits, so they don't assume it's already done.

Example from

Granola

An empty search could become reactive onboarding: when it returns no results, explain what the search can and can't do, so people know how to ask next time.

Example from

Starling

Consider offering onboarding for a better approach once someone has sent several unhappy prompts in a row, rather than waiting for them to find it.

Example from

Lovable

When something is slow to load, it may help to use the wait to explain ways to speed it up, so users learn the faster method while they're feeling the delay.

Example from

Posthog

Possible impacts

Reactive onboarding could increase feature usage, by introducing a feature at the moment users hit the problem it solves, rather than in an upfront tour.

As seen in:

Starling A better empty state

Lovable Thoughtful onboarding

Suggesting a shortcut or faster method right as users do something the slow way might help them get tasks done more quickly from then on.

As seen in:

Slack Onboarding incorrect shortcuts

Tips shown only when they relate to what users are doing right then may hold their attention better than upfront tours, which they're likely to skip.

As seen in:

Vercel Wait, we recommend this

Gojek How much luggage can you bring?

Explaining what just happened and why, straight after a user triggers it, could help users understand a complex product more easily without a lengthy tutorial.

As seen in:

Slack Onboarding incorrect shortcuts

Starling A better empty state