SaaS Onboarding Best Practices for Mobile iOS Apps
SaaS onboarding best practices featuring the Doulingo's iOS app splash screen.
I know what you're thinking. You're not going through 20 onboarding screens to set up your newly downloaded app. I get it. Nobody would.
But after more than 10 years in the design industry, I've learned that this isn't always true. My friend Tom at Purenine and my work on Audiomack taught me that when you run a mobile app, each step of onboarding gives people another chance to leave long before they even try your product. That's why every step has to count.
We've worked on so many flows like these. Probably too many to count at this point. Audiomack's onboarding has been redesigned many times, and we've iterated through so many versions in search of the right direction. The one that helps users understand the product and makes them want to use it.
The goal of onboarding is… well. It differs based on who you are. If you’re a user, it should help you understand what the app does and potentially customize it before you even start using it. But if you’re the founder, its goal is to become a catalyst for your marketing strategy. The way you introduce a paid plan or a friend invitation can create opportunities to grow both your paying customer base and your wider user base. I'll share some tips on this later in the article.
Otherwise, if you’re a founder or designer and want a quick way to get started, you can download my SaaS onboarding template here.
Here's everything we'll talk about in this guide:
What Is SaaS iOS Mobile App Onboarding?
SaaS, or software as a service, is cloud-based software often offered through a subscription. Onboarding is the process of getting users to understand and set up their new app while reducing unnecessary friction and confusion. Think of it as the (onboarding) tour you get when you board an airplane. The crew tells you what to do in an emergency. It’s the same concept for a mobile app, where you're teaching people how to use the product and what they can do with it. (And sneak in some marketing growth hacks)
Some flows are standard. Others are more advanced. A standard flow may tell users what they can do or help them set up an account. Both are useful. However, you can go much deeper in specific situations.
If your app offers customizations, show them! Don't leave users on an empty home screen when you could help them set things up. If your app converts currencies, ask them which they use most. In a music app like Audiomack, ask which genres and artists they like. On Duolingo, ask which language they want to learn.
In this last example, you can go even further by making a task part of onboarding. Let users take their first lesson. They get to experience the app while they're setting it up and have some progress to return to.
Duolingo tested this idea by letting people try a lesson and explore the available skills before creating an account. In a 2017 interview with First Round, then-VP of Growth Gina Gotthilf said moving the signup screen a few steps later led to about a 20% increase in daily active users. After that first experiment, the team continued testing where to introduce signup next.
This Is Why SimplyWise's App Has Over 20 Onboarding Screens
Tom and I have worked closely with the SimplyWise team for many years, and one core part of the app we worked on was the iOS onboarding flow. We obviously can't take all the credit here. Their internal marketing team was stellar at identifying directions and analyzing how users interacted with and responded to the various options.
Our goal was to offer the best possible onboarding to users. And we did it by applying some of the onboarding best practices for iOS. We started by introducing the core features with on-brand illustrations and short, to-the-point copy. Then we asked users questions to personalize their experience.
Their team analyzed the results, checking whether people completed onboarding or bounced. (And where) We kept testing and iterating on the flow. After many versions, we had more than 20 screens before users reached the main app.
Each screen focused on one precise point. On a phone, this gave us room to introduce information and choices in smaller pieces while users set up an experience tailored to them. Try fitting several questions, explanations, and input fields onto one screen. People would have a lot to read and understand before they could move on.
Obviously, 20+ screens aren't a requirement for every app. It always depends on what your product does and what users need to get started. Each screen takes time, so ask yourself what the user gets out of it and how their answer affects the experience.
Duolingo's Masterclass of SaaS Onboarding Best Practices
Everyone knows Duolingo for its branding and creative app design. Its onboarding flow also offers a lot to learn from, especially how it combines setup with an opportunity to try the product.
According to Mobbin's walkthrough, the flow features:
20 introduction and early-setup screens
3 prompts to add a home screen widget
28(!!!) screens to complete your first lesson
9 screens for choosing your learning goals
16 screens to create your profile (with advanced marketing tactics)
That's a massive, capital-M number of screens for an onboarding flow. Let's look at what Duolingo does with them.
Duolingo's onboarding flow featuring the core settings options.
First, Duolingo asks which language you want to learn, then follows up with related questions. Things like your level and why you want to learn it. Then, it throws the first hook. They try to build a re-engagement system by prompting users to add a widget to their home screen. That's a spectacular way to remind people to return to your app.
Then, we get to the meat. The core task. The thing that gets you hooked on the app. Duolingo walks users through their first lesson. As we said before, this gives people a chance to experience the app before they even sign up.
Duolingo's iOS onboarding flow featuring various steps to complete the first lesson.
After that's done, Duolingo asks for their learning goals. This is the second hook. They are actively building a permission system based around notifications that doesn’t feel pushy. Because they choose how many notifications they will get. If they want them every week – you send them every week. If they want them every day – you send them daily.
And lastly, when they're completely hooked, Duolingo asks them to create an account. Some apps do that backward and ask people to sign up before they've tried the product. Duolingo offers great content and provides value upfront. Then it comes back and asks for something in return. By this point, the user has a much stronger reason to create an account.
And there's more. The last gem is another key marketing tactic: it asks users to add contacts from their phone to learn together. This gamifies the experience by making learning into a competition. Transforming the gamification into a marketing growth hack built on top of word of mouth.
Make Every Screen in Your Mobile App Onboarding Count
Users don't have patience. They want everything, and they want it now. That's why every screen needs to be in the right place in the flow. So, before adding one, ask yourself: Would I honestly be willing to answer these questions and spend all of this time?
If the answer is yes – you're good.
If it's no – drop it.
And the thing is, to be fair, you don't even have to be right at that very moment. Successful apps keep iterating and analyzing their results. Try a new flow. Analyze its results. Ask users. And if you don't have any yet, ask a friend to try it out. Then iterate from there.
So, here's a plain example: If your app helps users learn a new language, do you really need to know their country? Probably not. So just drop it.
Then, obviously, the design matters too. One of the biggest mistakes founders make is adding too many questions or options to the same screen, which makes it long and annoying. Keep it simple and direct. Now, we can go in multiple directions. We can go extra minimal and just opt for a text-only direction. Very elegant and modern. Or we can go more visual and create on-brand designs for each screen, as Duolingo did.
Using Onboarding as Part of Your Marketing Strategy
Not many people realize this, but onboarding can also help skyrocket your marketing. We already covered a few tactics Duolingo uses.
Things like:
Requesting Notifications
Home screen Widgets
Inviting Friends
Upgrade plans
You can fit them all into your SaaS onboarding flow.
Take Duolingo’s widget. During onboarding, it asks users if they’d like to add one to their iOS home screen. A widget can remind people to return without waiting for them to open the app. If you have one, show users what it does before asking them to add it.
Duolingo's onboarding featuring the 'Add Widget' step, prompting users to add it to their iOS home screen.
Duolingo also asks users to choose their learning goals and how often they want to practice. That gives the app a reason to send reminders based on their choices. If someone chooses daily practice, a daily reminder can help them stick to that goal. Just let them change the timing or turn it off later.
Then there are friend invites. Duolingo asks users if they’d like to add contacts from their phone and learn together. That can turn learning into a bit of friendly competition, while giving people a reason to tell their friends about the app. Make the invitation optional, and explain who will receive it.
If you offer an upgrade, onboarding is a good place to introduce it. Show users what they could get. (Or what they could miss if they don’t upgrade.) Make the price, trial terms, and when billing begins clear. If you offer a free option, make it easy to find.
If a paid feature relates to the user’s goal, try showing the upgrade after they’ve had a chance to use the app. Test the timing and see what happens after the trial starts, too. Getting more people to tap the trial button is exciting, but you’ll also want to know if those users stick around.
Measuring Your SaaS Onboarding Flow
I cannot stress this enough. Your job doesn't end the moment you create and ship your first SaaS onboarding flow. Because chances are you won't be able to craft the “perfect” flow the first try. Especially if it’s your first rodeo.
Let's start simple – Measure how many people started onboarding and how many finished it (aka your onboarding completion rate). How many didn't, and at which step. And if they did finish, did they start using the app or not. It may be hard at first, but after a while, it all becomes more intuitive.
If you offer a trial, look at how many trial users become paying customers and how many return to the app afterward. (aka the trial-to-paid conversion)
This is true for design, but also for marketing – look at what other apps are doing and study them. Generally, people suggest looking at competitors. I believe you can go further and look at everyone else. You may discover an interesting flow developed by a food app that you can then adapt for your SaaS app. We do this all the time with design, too. We find inspiration in products from different industries.
In Conclusion
Every screen in your onboarding should have a reason to be there. Help users understand what your app does, give them ways to personalize their experience, and let them try it. Keep testing, checking where people leave, and asking users what they think. You probably won’t get everything right on the first try (and that’s okay).
But obviously, your job doesn’t stop at just onboarding. It continues after that. At that point, you want to keep app engagement and retention high. You can read more about it in my other article on app engagement.
If you’d like help with your onboarding flow or app design, Tom and I at Purenine would love to hear from you. You can reach me at matteo@pure9studios.com, and we can talk about your project.
Written by Matteo Della Chiesa
Matteo is a Freelance UI/UX and Web Designer with 10 years of experience working with agencies, startups and well-established companies. He had the opportunity to work for clients like Activision Blizzard, Adobe, CBS, Marvel, and Nickelodeon. He is a partner at Purenine Studios and a Designer at Convertri and ThriveCart. He started designing in Photoshop at 14, and graduated as a Graphic Operator and Advertising Graphic Technician.