After a skip, keep a way back in
Aliases: replay tour · revisit onboarding · help after skip
What it is
Skip ends this automatic playback, not the life of the explanation. Replay means the same guidance can still be summoned from inside the product after a skip: a help menu, “what is this” beside the feature, “replay intro” in settings. Without that entry, skip is permanent deletion; when the step is actually needed there is no lawful second chance. This entry sits on top of skip already existing. It is about retrieval after refusal, not about forced playback itself.
Why it happens
Need for the lesson often lags. First open is for creating; export arrives on the third visit. Skip at first open, before the need exists, is rational. If skip destroys the copy, the lagged need has only guessing or an external search. Replay turns the explanation from a one-shot broadcast into summonable help; the automatic layer and the manual layer share one text so two copies cannot drift. The entry must appear where the need occurs: buried in a welcome page already passed is no entry. It must also be findable: “Help” is easier for an experienced person to open than “Beginner tutorial,” which feels like admitting incompetence. Skip only suppresses auto-play; the summoned copy must not demand a full watch before work, or replay becomes another forced gate.
Where it stops holding
A compliance notice that was skipped (if the system wrongly allowed it) cannot be repaired by replay; it must block again before the action. An account that syncs “already skipped” to a new device but not the replay entry drops people into a hole: no auto-play, no explanation. After a large version change, replay should open copy that matches the current UI, not an old screenshot tour. A skip during a demo or shared screen may need a local “show intro” that does not depend on cloud state, or bystanders cannot recover the lesson.
Applying it
- Let skip close auto-play only, and leave “replay intro” in help or settings with the same content that was skipped.
- Put a short entry (question mark, “about this”) beside the taught feature that opens the same sentences, not a different article.
- Replay must be reachable from inside an operable UI, not only from a welcome flow that has already ended.
- Verify: skip once, then do a task that needs the feature, and see whether the explanation can be summoned in-app and still matches. If it cannot, or it is an expired screenshot, the entry has failed.