🧘‍♂️ Zen and the Art of Music App Onboarding

(Or: why I stopped assuming users would just figure it out)

When you build an app, you're building a solution.

And if that solution is novel, then by definition… no one’s seen it before.

So what happens when someone opens your lovingly hand-crafted app with zero context – and just starts tapping?

Either they get it, or they get out.

I realised (rightly or wrongly, possibly both) that simply hoping people would "just understand" Muser Studio's loop-based video workflow in the first 45 seconds was... optimistic.

If you've made something new, users aren't just learning buttons —they're learning concepts.

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🎯 The Problem: New Workflow, No Map

Muser Studio doesn’t work like a typical camera app.

You don’t just hit record, do a thing, and stop.

Instead, you build something — a layered loop performance, by marking in and out points, stacking harmonies, improvising. And eventually rendering a short, shareable performance video.

That’s a lot of moving parts.

I had to keep in mind that in essence this is a music app, onboarding is vital. So I built a system to help users actually get it — without overwhelming them.

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🧊 The Tour: Frosted Glass Meets Friendly Nudges

The new Tour system works like this:

• The screen frosts over slightly

• One UI element is revealed through a clean, focused cutout

• A speech bubble call out explains what that thing does

• Once the user taps or completes the step, the tour moves on

  
  

It guides users through:

1. Starting a recording

2. Defining the start + end of a loop

3. Creating a second loop

4. Prompting them to sing or play over the playback

5. Stopping the session

6. Watching the automatically edited video

Each step appears just when it’s needed. No giant wall of text.

Just a gentle walkthrough that turns "what am I looking at?" into "oh, cool."

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🌀 Why Bother with Music App Onboarding?

Because if the app helps users make something they're proud of, or at the very least feel the potential of, on their first try, they're more likely to come back.

And if they come back, they’ll explore deeper. They’ll loop more. They might even post it.

Which is the whole point.

Guides aren't just for clarity — they’re creative encouragement disguised as UX.

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🧠 Final Thought

The In-App guide doesn’t try to teach everything.

It just teaches enough to get someone moving –because once a user is in motion, they learn through doing.

And that’s the spirit of Muser Studio anyway.

Not perfection. Not production.

Just tapping in, layering up, and seeing what happens.

Photo credit: Jason Leaung