guiding-users

# Guiding Users Through Onboarding and Help Systems

## Purpose

This skill provides systematic patterns for onboarding users and delivering contextual help, from first-time product tours to ongoing feature discovery. It covers the complete spectrum of user guidance mechanisms, ensuring optimal user activation, feature adoption, and self-service support.

## When to Use

Activate this skill when:
- Building first-time user experiences or product tours
- Implementing feature discovery and announcements
- Creating interactive tutorials or guided tasks
- Adding tooltips, hints, or contextual help
- Designing setup flows or completion checklists
- Building help panels or documentation systems
- Implementing progressive disclosure patterns
- Measuring onboarding effectiveness and user activation
- Ensuring onboarding accessibility

## Quick Decision Framework

Select the appropriate guidance mechanism based on user state and content type:

```
First-time user          → Product Tour (step-by-step)
New feature launch       → Feature Spotlight (tooltip + animation)
Complex workflow         → Interactive Tutorial (guided tasks)
Account setup            → Checklist (progress tracking)
Contextual help needed   → Tooltip/Hint system
Ongoing support          → Help Panel (sidebar/searchable)
Feature unlock           → Progressive Disclosure
```

Reference `references/selection-framework.md` for detailed selection criteria.

## Core Guidance Mechanisms

### Product Tours

Step-by-step walkthroughs that guide users through key features:
- Sequential spotlights with modal overlays
- Progress indicators (Step 2 of 5)
- Skip, Previous, and Next controls
- Dismiss and resume capability
- Context-sensitive activation

**Implementation:**
```bash
npm install react-joyride
```

See `examples/first-time-tour.tsx` for complete implementation.
Reference `references/product-tours.md` for patterns and best practices.

### Feature Spotlights

Announce new features to existing users:
- Pulsing