Exploring new experiences
Summarize
Summary of Exploring new experiences
Onboarding modals in ServiceNow® Next Experience are interactive overlay windows designed to introduce users to new features and applications through guided workflows. They provide contextual help at critical moments, supporting various content types such as text, images, videos (YouTube and Vimeo), and interactive questions. The modals adapt to your instance's theme (dark, light, or coral) for a consistent user experience. You can configure modals to trigger automatically on first login, upon accessing specific applications, or programmatically using custom business logic, giving you flexible control over user guidance delivery.
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Benefits
- Reduce onboarding time for users: Step-by-step guided modals simplify learning new features.
- Consistent experience for all users: Theme-aware interfaces maintain visual uniformity.
- Flexible deployment for administrators: Programmatic triggers and customizable content types support tailored onboarding.
Implementation Guidance
To start using onboarding modals:
- Review default modals: Examine pre-configured onboarding modals under All > Adoption Services > All Guidance to understand baseline functionality.
- Plan your content: Map user journeys, identify key concepts, sequence information, and define decision points where user input is needed.
- Create guidance structure: Use All > Adoption Services > Create Guidance to configure modal name, type, roles, and scope.
- Build guidance steps: Add steps using the Help Guidance Steps list, selecting layouts like Text, Video, Image and Text, Image and Question, or Question, and define step order.
- Configure launch mechanisms: Implement triggers through UI client scripts and event dispatching or use automatic triggers based on application access.
User Journey
The onboarding modal experience typically follows these stages:
- Initial trigger: Based on user login, application access, or custom rules, the system decides whether to display the modal considering user profile, roles, and prior interactions.
- Modal presentation: The modal overlays the interface, showing title, content, and navigation controls (Next, Previous, custom actions).
- Progressive disclosure: Users proceed through guidance steps at their own pace.
- Interactive elements: Question steps collect user inputs via radio buttons or checkboxes, which can influence subsequent guidance or be used for analytics.
- Completion: Upon finishing, users receive confirmation and return to their workflow. The system records completion to prevent repeated displays unless reset.
Onboarding modals introduce you to new ServiceNow® experiences through wizard-like interfaces in Next Experience. Learn about capabilities, benefits, and implementation approaches for effective user onboarding.
Overview to Onboarding modals
Onboarding modals are part of ServiceNow® Adoption Services suite, designed to introduce users to new experiences and applications through interactive, guided workflows. These modals appear as overlay windows that walk users through features, providing contextual help at critical moments.
Onboarding modals support multiple content types including text descriptions, images, video links (YouTube and Vimeo), and interactive questions. The modal interface adapts to your instance's theme (dark, light, or coral), ensuring visual consistency across the user experience.
Modals can be triggered automatically on first login, when accessing specific applications, or programmatically through custom business logic, giving you complete control over when and how users receive guidance.
Benefits
Onboarding modals provide benefits across different user populations:
| Benefit | Feature | Users |
|---|---|---|
| Reduce onboarding time | Step-by-step guided modals | All users |
| Consistent user experience | Theme-aware interfaces | All users |
| Flexible deployment | Programmatic triggers | Administrators |
| Customizable content | Multiple content types | Administrators |
Get Started
Begin using onboarding modals by following this implementation sequence:
- Review default modals: Navigate to to examine the pre-configured onboarding modal included with Next Experience. Test the user experience to understand baseline functionality.
- Plan your content: Map out the user journey for your application or feature. Identify key concepts users need to learn, optimal sequence for information delivery, and decision points requiring user input.
- Create guidance structure: Navigate to . Configure the guidance form with appropriate name, type (Modal), roles, and application scope.
- Build guidance steps: Add individual steps using the Help Guidance Steps related list. Choose layouts (Text, Video, Image and Text, Image and Question, or Question) and define the presentation order.
- Configure launch mechanism: Implement the programmatic trigger using UIB client scripts and event dispatching, or leverage automatic triggers based on application access patterns.
User Journey
The typical user journey with onboarding modals follows this pattern:
Initial trigger: User logs in for the first time, accesses a new application, or triggers a custom business rule. The system evaluates whether to display an onboarding modal based on user profile, role assignments, and previous interaction history.
Modal presentation: The onboarding modal appears as an overlay, presenting the first guidance step. Users see the title, content (text, image, or video), and navigation controls (Next, Previous, or custom action buttons).
Progressive disclosure: Users navigate through subsequent steps at their own pace.
Interactive elements: Question-based steps collect user input through radio buttons (single answer) or checkboxes (multiple answers). Responses can inform subsequent content or be recorded for analytics purposes.
Completion: Upon reaching the final step, users receive a completion confirmation and return to the application. The system records the interaction, preventing duplicate displays unless the modal is explicitly reset.