Contextual hints should appear at the moment of need

What it is

A hint should land on the beat when this motion is about to be used: the first archivable message, the first map that must be zoomed one-handed, a list that has finally grown long enough to reorder. Ahead of the flow—on a welcome page, in Settings, on a screen that does not hold the object—is unmotivated teaching again. Contextual is not friendlier copy; it is teaching bound to object and goal.

Why it happens

Retrieval cues come from the scene: this message, this map, this handle. A hint that shares a frame with the object shares encoding and retrieval context. A hint played early must be carried across screens, which working memory will not do, and the object is not there to hang a cue on. Too late is also wrong: once someone has succeeded the wrong way (archive in a long-press menu), they will not learn the swipe. The window is the short gap after the goal exists and before a wrong path has satisfied it.

Studying it

Place the same sentence on the welcome page, one screen before the object, on the object’s screen, and after a wrong success; measure later spontaneous gesture use. The contrast that matters is on-object versus early. The task must be a real goal; the hint must not say “please swipe now”—that measures compliance, not timing.

Where it stops holding

Safety-critical actions cannot wait for “first need” (an emergency hang-up). An empty state has no object to hang a hint on; use sample data to create a situation, or wait for the first real row. System-gesture hints belong to the system; an in-app bubble can upstage them. A situated hint raises the odds of learning this time; it does not guarantee memory weeks later.

Applying it

• Show a weak hint (a peek, one sentence) the first time the object can receive the gesture; do not spend it on the previous onboarding step.
• If the user already finished the same goal with a visible button, do not block them with a gesture lesson.
• A/B welcome-page hint versus first-message hint on spontaneous swipe rate 24 hours later.

Related

• Same group: C3.32.1 First-launch teaching happens before motive, so little is retained · C3.32.3 After one successful gesture, do not repeat the same hint · C3.32.4 Teaching should be re-triggerable by the user
• Adjacent: C3.20 Gesture discoverability · C3.17 Swipe actions
• Search: just-in-time · coach mark · situated instruction