The kind of product tour that the article says it works seems very similar to most video game tutorials.

... which incidentally always have a skip button.

> If they cannot find it in about thirty seconds, they leave.

Sorry but in many startup cases it's by design. See: got a KPI increase (email is collected), but as the user left there's no AWS resource usage! Profit!

> Why most product tours get skipped

Because I want you to leave me the fuck alone.

Why most GDPR cookie consents get randomly clicked away

Why most ads on Youtube gets get skipped

etc etc

All of the comments & discussions about this kind of stuff makes me wonder if computer keyboards should bring back the "F1: Help" button, for absolute newbies or obtuse software.

but this time, make apps actually respect it :)

Or better: tie it to an OS-level screen-reader AI that explains what's what's on the spot.

For those who think this is something new: TeachEmacsTutorial.

Hell yeah, fuck does anyone do those tours? Feels like an emperors new clothes.

GTFO of my face with product tours.

Atlassian is particularly enraging, especially if you're dealing with setting up "new" accounts. I've worked with your shitware for a decade now, I know how it works, DO NOT FORCE ME TO MAKE TEN CLICKS TO GET RID OF A FUCKING INTRO.

Rather, invest your time into a good, logical UI and, most importantly, good AND CURRENT documentation.

These tours are like the tutorial bit in a video game where the game wants to show you a new mechanic so it comes to a dead stop, and then your character is whisked off to an alternate dimension consisting of a bare room covered in Holodeck grid lines, completely empty except for a few tomato-can enemies. A dialog pops up explaining the mechanic, optionally with a video demonstrating it, which you must then dismiss; and the game will not continue until you take out the enemies using the technique shown in the dialog.

I HATE that. Let me play with the toolset you give me "in the field". Don't interrupt my fucking game/workflow to show me the feature of the moment YOU want me to use right now. (For applications software in 2026, this is likely to be some stupid AI integration.)