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Lately, it seems that many mobile apps, upon first launch, are stepping users through multi-screen “walkthroughs” where all the features of the app are demonstrated, painstakingly, one-by-one. Worse still, are those overlays of help screens that appear at start up, with the scrawled handwriting, circles and arrows best left on whiteboards – not in user education material.

That’s not to say that apps don’t need to explain their functions to users. But some are taking things too far. Long, step-by-step tutorials are not what users want to see when launching apps. And to be clear, I’m talking about apps here, not games. Mobile games are a different beast, with a slightly different set of rules.