Aboard

Helping New Users Succeed Faster With an Interactive Guided Tour

When I started working on this project for Aboard, the challenge was clear: too many new users were signing up but never reaching that critical “aha” moment. Aboard is a collaborative platform that helps people organize projects, workflows, and ideas into boards. But for first-time users, the concept of creating and customizing boards wasn’t always intuitive. This led to slower onboarding, lower activation rates, and higher churn. My goal was to design an interactive guided tour that helped new users understand the product’s core value quickly, build their first board with confidence, and stay engaged long-term.

Focusing on Activation as the Primary Goal

The first step was to clearly define the desired outcome: reduce early churn by helping users reach value faster. Instead of overwhelming them with documentation or tooltips scattered across the UI, I designed a structured, interactive tour that walked users through the core actions step by step. Each part of the experience was focused on driving toward the first meaningful success: building and customizing a functional board.

I structured the tour around three core actions: choosing what kind of board to build, adding and organizing content, and learning how to use key features effectively. By breaking the journey into manageable steps, I reduced cognitive load and helped users build momentum as they progressed.

Designing for Learning Through Doing

One of my main principles for this flow was to make the tour highly interactive rather than passive. Instead of simply explaining features, I guided users to actually use them. For example, instead of just telling them they could “add a list,” the tour prompted them to add one directly in the interface. This hands-on approach gave users immediate familiarity with the product and built muscle memory for future use.

Each step included contextual explanations and lightweight guidance to reinforce the “why” behind each action. This helped users understand not just how to use a feature, but why it mattered to their workflow.