Architecting feature walkthroughs, pre- and post-TipKit

Soon to be presented at ARCtic Conference in March 2025.

Abstract

How might we guide our users through a new or experimental feature?

In this workshop, we'll use TipKit to highlight the noteworthy elements of a dense feature. We'll also learn how to create a custom tooltip solution in SwiftUI, which can be leveraged by apps that support operating systems below iOS 17.

And, lest we overwhelm our users with too much education, we'll learn good design principles for determining when and how to ask for users’ attention.

Outline

• Introduction: what's a feature walkthrough?
• Tinkering with TipKit
  • Creating, displaying, and dismissing a tip
  • Supporting user interaction
  • Styling a tip
  • Writing rules to determine when to display a tip
  • Displaying a group of tips
• A TipKit-less take (custom tips)
  • Contrasting a custom walkthrough solution with TipKit
  • Extending upon a custom walkthrough
• Closing remarks: my tips on tips

Prerequisites

Before participating in this workshop, please complete the following set-up steps:

• download Xcode 15+
• clone this repository

Introduction

See slides.pdf within this repository!

Tinkering with TipKit

Please open the Iliad app playground in Xcode, and follow the instructions within the README enclosed therein.

A TipKit-less take (custom tips)

Please open the Odyssey app playground in Xcode, and follow the instructions within the README enclosed therein.

Closing remarks

See slides.pdf within this repository!