Growth Insights Series: Building Competency in New User Onboarding

Our Growth Insights Series is back with more tips and strategies to help you build and grow your business with Horizon OS! In the last installment, we looked at the importance of properly setting expectations through your Product Details Page and immediately paying them off.

In this article, we’ll dive into strategies for creating effective onboarding experiences. You'll find practical approaches, common pitfalls to avoid and data-driven insights from successful titles on the Meta Horizon Store.

We’ll also start to cover the three pillars of successful onboarding that form the foundation of user retention. This article is designed to support developers currently planning a new app launch, but the tips you’ll find can also be useful for actively supporting live titles. Dive in below to start gaining strategies for effective user onboarding, and look out for our next article covering mid-term and long- term best practices.

Onboarding, sometimes referred to as the New User Experience (NUX) or First Time User Experience (FTUE) is how your app introduces new users to your experience. Onboarding includes everything a new user encounters, from effective marketing, demo modes and tutorials to introducing major systems and guiding users through them during their first weeks.

Given that VR sessions tend to be shorter and more infrequent than flat gaming sessions, you should consider that your users may be onboarding longer than anticipated and prepare to support them through the process.

Getting onboarding right can be difficult and may require a lot of iteration. This effort can pay huge dividends later on with the potential to increase engagement, engagement and in-app purchases.

There is a direct correlation between time spent on the first day and long-term retention (see chart below). For example, in the Action genre of Meta Horizon Store games, someone who played for more than 30 minutes on their first day is three times as likely to return as someone who played less than five minutes. Figures like these illustrate why nailing user onboarding is well worth the effort.

Creating an effective onboarding experience building three essential pillars that work together to set your users up for success and enjoyment:

User competency refers to a user’s ability to learn and execute on interactions within your app, like controls, movement, and UI navigation. This period of onboarding is often referred to as a tutorial.

Tutorials help users feel confident with the controls and interface, making them more likely to return to your experience. There is a direct relationship between competence and retention, meaning that if you make users feel capable, they’re more likely to stick around. VR and mixed reality experiences likely require detailed tutorials to teach users how to interact with your experience because there is a higher likelihood that they have no prior play experience to draw from.

With that being said, tutorials are the most recognizable parts of an onboarding experience and there are a wealth of best practices to lean on from existing games and apps. Where you’ll find distinction is within the details of pacing, methodology, tone and content that are personal to your app and require iteration to perfect.

The following tips should help you start framing early onboarding, including your tutorial:

Immersive experiences present unique accessibility challenges that require thoughtful comfort settings. These options prevent motion sickness and fatigue, two factors that can cause users to stop engaging with your app entirely.

Guide users through comfort settings before the core user experience begins. Leading titles like Asgard's Wrath II, Resident Evil 4, and Metal Hellsinger VR do this by having users configure their comfort settings before accessing save files or starting gameplay. This approach ensures users can customize their experience for maximum comfort from the very beginning.

When designing comfort options, consider these best practices:

When playing top apps', we estimate up to 40% of new adult users (>18 yo) are in a seated position for at least 10 minutes in the first month of play. Users value the flexibility to play in both seated and standing positions, with many regularly switching between modes during a single session. This transition typically happens as users get tired during longer sessions or become more deeply engaged with a user experience that doesn't require physical movement.

To encourage retention, design your experience to be enjoyable in both seated and standing modes, with a quick recalibration option for users who want to change positions. This flexibility dramatically improves user comfort, especially during longer sessions, and increases your potential audience size by supporting the maximum range of users and play environments.

Of course, it’s expected that some apps are designed primarily for standing or seated play. If this is the case, ensure that you have communicated this preference to users during expectation setting. Offering full support for both standing and seated play can be a powerful differentiator for your app.

A common mistake is dropping an image of all controls in front of your user and expecting them to learn them immediately. A better tactic is to teach a user skills one at a time. Figure out what is essential by listing everything users need to know to fully enjoy your experience, then ruthlessly prioritize this information. We recommend separating your list into:

Avoid overwhelming users with too much information at once. Teaching one skill at a time and giving users enough space to practice builds confidence before adding complexity.

If you’re building an experience with multiple systems (like crafting or building), introduce elements gradually throughout the onboarding process. As an example, a well-designed crafting tutorial might follow this progression:

Never assume all users are familiar and comfortable with immersive experiences. Sales promotions and network effects consistently bring newcomers into the Meta Horizon ecosystem, so it’s best to balance your designs between welcoming these new users while allowing experienced users to progress quickly.

You can make your experience accessible to newcomers by:

Immersive experiences with a controller typically use two primary interaction methods:

Direct interaction is new to users who are not deeply experienced with immersive experiences and requires some extra attention in your design. Here’s how you can make their early experiences more enjoyable:

Since apps vary in which interaction model they use, we recommend ensuring that users get early practice with object interactions.

Design your tutorials to consider different learning preferences and experience levels. Some users will want to speed through instructions while others prefer a methodical approach. Both preferences are valid, and your onboarding should accommodate these different styles while ensuring all users understand the core mechanics before moving forward.

Some common tactics for adapting to users include:

Users absorb information differently in spatial environments than on traditional digital devices. Relying solely on one communication method risks instructions going unnoticed, which is why we recommend combining approaches:

When text is necessary, position it where users can easily focus on it, not in peripheral vision where head movement can make reading difficult. Instead, anchor important information in easily visible locations and integrate it naturally into the environment.

If your experience centers on a core mechanic (like melee or ranged combat), create a safe, consequence-free environment where users can practice without pressure. Make these tutorial sections optionally repeatable so users can build confidence at their own pace before facing actual challenges.

For example, if your game requires a user to aim and shoot a weapon, start them in a space without other users where they can infinitely practice aiming and shooting before moving on. In high skill games, users often need time to practice before difficulty ramps up, and single-user environments allow them to build skills without distractions.

Immersive experiences typically have shorter play sessions than traditional games due to factors like battery life and physical comfort. With motion sickness being a key consideration, avoid lengthy non-interactive sequences during the FTUE. When including narrative elements in the tutorial, consider:

That’s a wrap on this installment of the Growth Insights Series! We've explored the first of three pillars to successful onboarding for immersive experiences: build user competency through intuitive and accessible tutorials. Consider all these tips when designing your app’s onboarding, and remember that it will require a lot of testing to create the perfect onboarding experience for your app—but doing so will set your users up for long term enjoyment and success.

Follow us on X and Facebook to stay tuned for our upcoming articles that cover the next two pillars:

Together, these three pillars form the foundation of user retention and engagement in successful Meta Horizon experiences. By investing in quality onboarding, you can set your app up for commercial success.

We’re keeping the Growth Insights Series rolling in the coming months with deeper dives into user acquisition strategies, engagement tactics, and audience insights specific to the Meta Horizon ecosystem. Our goal is to provide you with actionable strategies to boost retention, drive engagement and build sustainable revenue streams across various business models.

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