Comment by lazaroclapp
9 hours ago
Interestingly, there are basically two kinds of programs I am sometimes happy to see guided tours embedded in:
* Creation programs (image/video editors, 3D rendering... hell, even a slides program or an IDE). Doesn't mean I won't dismiss them sometimes anyways, but these are tools that often I do want to get an initial idea how to use, that I have allotted some time to play around with, and that are sufficiently complex that a tutorial is justified. These are also places were I can spend 2-5 minutes learning the basics of the tool, because whatever I am about to do with it is going to take the next few hours anyways.
* Videogames (i.e. the tutorial). For very similar reasons to the above ;)
Also, this is always on first install. Getting a tutorial on update for an authoring tool (and to a lesser extent a game) is far less likely to be welcome.
Videogame tutorials also used to mostly suck. But in the last two decades they recognized the issues, and there's a lot of knowledge sharing in the industry
If you want to learn how to better teach new users about your product, GDC talks about video game tutorials are one of the best resource you can find
Just watched someone play Half-Life (the original). Its tutorial is better than a lot of tutorials today.
> * Videogames (i.e. the tutorial). For very similar reasons to the above ;)
Oftentimes it's less jarring to have an invisible tutorial though (a level made to exploit the new gameplay element / feature). But it depends on what you want the user to learn and the type of videogame; I don't mind a guided tour in more strategic games (RTS, turn by turn RPG, ...).
So the types of programs you usually bring time to exploratively use anyways.