Beatwave iPhone app first time user experience
The good bits:
- Beatwave offers the new user a simple choice upon launch of the app. She can choose to jump right into the product, or view a rich media tutorial. The tutorial is not forced by default.
- The tutorial, while presented in slideshow format, is more contextually demonstrative than typical product intros. (See the video post above to view the tutorial in action). Beatwave starts by introducing the basics of the app’s composer grid, using animations of the app’s interface paired with sound to show how to create different notes and then combine notes using multiple layers. The sound works well as a mental anchor for the lesson.
- The tutorial is broken up into logical sections and paced by the user, instead of forcing the user to watch a long video or try to understand static screenshots.
- During the tutorial, the user always has the option of dismissing it via the “X” at the top left of the screen.
- The user can call up the tutorial again–including additional tutorials– from the settings screen once she is in the app.
- The app provides the user with sample demos so that she doesn’t have to start with a blank slate.
To be improved:
- Most of the tutorial is helpful, but there are a few confusing panels at the end. While the first few panels are focused on extremely simple tasks that have accompanying sound to help anchor the lesson–the creation of notes on a grid, or low notes vs. high notes–the final panels are silent and briefly introduce a user to complex and custom menus that are more difficult to learn. Additionally, these more complex panels appear after 7 others, which encroaches on the typical 5-7 items that a person can store in short term memory.
- I assume that the team also felt this way, as there is a hint that pops up over the menu control when a user gets into the main app.
- Because the tutorial represented the UI in a realistic scale, there were many moments when I thought I needed to tap or do something on the screen to try one of the tasks the app was describing. Perhaps Beatwave could consider making some of these more interactive (this might help, especially, when it comes to the lessons regarding the custom menus or layers).
- The tutorial does not have any form of signposting; there should be some indication of how many more lessons remain.