The most frustrating part of launching a product as a solo founder.
Hey IH,
I’ve created multiple projects in the past few years (some of them with over 5k users). The one thing that I always feel that I’m missing is user onboarding.
Since I’m a technical founder, my UX skills are lacking to say the least. I seem to always get comments from users saying that they can’t figure out how to do X.
So recently I decided to do something about it. I decided to create a product onboarding library to help the users along.
Since this is an issue, I feel strongly about, I’ve decided to open source the project [1].
The reason I’m writing this post is because I want to work with you guys to figure out what is needed to make this the goto tool for technical founders to create interactive product tours.
So go on and open an issue or leave a comment here to start the discussion.
You can also reach out to me on Twitter at - https://twitter.com/JacobBeckerman
Hmmm maybe you would contribute into improving your UX skills instead of creating one more product in a very saturated domain?
Because if you don't improve your UX skills your product will be very hard to use anyway.
Do you know of any good UX resources to learn a bit more?
I'm also a developer that can struggle at times with UX. I've worked with plenty of UX folks at my last tech job so I know some basic concepts, but can't help but feel like I've only scratched the surface!
I remember there was an interesting book with tons of examples but I can't find it anymore.
Instead, I found this book and think it may be pretty useful https://www.uxpin.com/studio/ebooks/ux-design-for-startups/
Thanks!
I agree with you fully, and have been taking steps to improve my skills. This library is for others who have the same issue as me with existing products whose users need a bit of help.
I like the tool! The docs seem complete. Would be good to see some examples included amongst them - perhaps a demo site?
Thanks! I’m actually currently working on a fairly drastic refactor which will allow much more flexibility with regards to the UI elements that you can create (tooltips/modals). After that goes live, next up are demo sites where it can be played around with.
It may seem silly, but I like demo videos—sometimes it’s just easier to watch someone else do it first
This actually gave me an interesting idea. The annoying part about creating videos is that when the UI of a website changes, the videos are now irrelevant. My idea is to create a service that will auto-generate new videos every time your site changes so that the videos are never out of date.
What do you think?
That’s very interesting—I really like the idea. Reminds me of a framework I saw that generates templates for social media, etc. https://mechanic.design/ . I’ve also seen it’s possible to make videos in react too https://www.remotion.dev/ . I think the best solution would be using cypress https://docs.cypress.io/guides/guides/screenshots-and-videos#Screenshots as it’s already used for e2e testing, so why not just write tests for what you expect users to do? Twofer
that is what was about to propose. A bit of how-to screen cast & keep on adding them as ideas appear or questions pops up.
The solution is both simple and difficult: Let someone use your product while you are sitting next to them. Minimal guidance on your side. It will surprise you where users will stuggle in completely unforeseen situations.
That is so true! I was sitting with a friend and showed him the video editor that I created and he couldn't even figure out how to add a video to the timeline. Turns out having a small + button appear on hover isn't the greatest UX pattern.
I like it! My background is the same as you, strong in technical stuff, bad in UX. I'm curious, what did you do to get better at it?
Well, I mainly got better by mimicking other sites’ UX. But this library is coming to help other founders who need a sprinkling of onboarding for their projects.
Cool, thanks for the insight!
Hi @jacobbeckerman,
Before building your solution, have you tried any of the existing tools and resources available? Maybe a customer success chat like Intercom.
Cheers,
I've looked at a number of existing solutions, and they basically split into 2 groups. The commercial offerings like Appcues which were way too expensive, and open source options which were very limited in terms of features.
The issue with Intercom is that sometimes users won't reach out, and I want to make it foolproof.
Additionally, I have many cool ideas on where to take this project further. Ideally I'd like to make this a toolbox for all product adoption needs. Starting off with what I already have (interactive tooltips), I'd like to continue with creating intro modals, user surveys, analytics, autonomous onboarding, and more).
But in order to get there, I want to make product decisions with users so that I make sure I address real world issues well.