Tutorials, Tooltips, and Popups…oh MY! How to ease yourself and your users into in-app messaging.

Description

It can be subtle, like the gift icon in Slack that tells you there's a new feature or the walkthrough Gmail tried to get you to do when they switched you over to their new look.

It's in-app messaging, and it can be a great way to supplement your help articles, release notes, and instructional docs. It's a way to have a conversation with your users, help them out when they need it first, and tell them what you want them to know.

I'll talk about how to introduce in-app messaging to your product in a way that's methodical for your sake and enjoyable for your users.

That includes:

  1. What research to do beforehand.

    • What to look for in an in-app messaging tool.
    • What questions to have answered before you talk to your boss.
  2. How to plan for its debut.

    • What types of in-app messaging are there and when to use them.
    • What kind of things to include in your messaging style guide.
  3. And finally, how to be considerate of your user's attention while still being impactful.

    • How many messages are too many.
    • When is it ok to interrupt the user.
      • How do you prioritize and triage the flood of requests that will inevitably come in from other teams in your company once they see how great in-app messaging can be.
  • Conference: Write the Docs PORTLAND
  • Year: 2019

About the speaker

Meghan Mahar