How We Designed an Awesome App Onboarding!

TL;DR

Designer JC explains the four principles and key strategies used to build the Daily Parent app's onboarding flow from scratch.

Key Points

• 1.Good onboarding follows four core principles. Responsive, intuitive, action-oriented, and educational — these guided every design decision for the Daily Parent affirmations app's onboarding flow.
• 2.Don't reinvent the wheel for an MVP. Daily Parent borrowed proven onboarding patterns from existing affirmations apps (researched via Mobbin), prioritizing fast shipping over innovation at the early stage.
• 3.Priming and transitioning is a key design psychology technique used. The team replaced a static 'benefits of affirmations' screen with a dynamic 'finding the best affirmations for you' screen, conditioning users to feel personalized curation was already underway.
• 4.Customization screens drive a sense of ownership. The onboarding lets users choose affirmation categories, notification frequency, app icon style (4 options), app theme, and a home screen widget to boost retention and conversion.
• 5.Every onboarding screen must serve a specific goal. For Daily Parent, screens were chosen to encourage downloads, recurring use, and conversion — not copied from competitors — keeping the flow brief, purposeful, and user-relevant.