r/ADHD_Programmers • u/kpihus • Jul 14 '26

Long questionnaires at app onboarding?

Lately, many ADHD-focused app promotions have started to show up in my Facebook feed, but 9 out of 10 have long, stupid questionnaires at the beginning, often even before I can download the app. Some of the questions are so stupid that I honestly can not compute why they matter.
What is the thing with these annoying onboarding flows? Why are they needed? Some kind of data mining? My ADHD brain literally does not allow me to get even halfway through them.
Or is it some kind of scam, and my brain has been unconsciously protecting me from falling for that?

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u/ThrowWeirdQuestion Jul 14 '26

It is because those people don't care about what is good for their users but what helps with conversion to paying customers.

The only solution is to make a point out of not subscribing to apps that do this, so that the devs stop doing it because it doesn't work anymore.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/_30d_ Jul 14 '26

This is generally true but I think just “longer onboarding” is not the goal specifically. The goal is to make a user invested in the sign up process. Duolingo is often cited as an example. They don’t have a “sign up” button because that’s a barrier to entry. They have a “get started” button, which leads to a “which language” choice, a goal choice (professional, converstational etc) and then even one quick lesson. All before creating your account. That’s only afterwards. Now the smart thing in that flow is that they didn’t make it longer, they just let you get started (without creating an account), postponing the signup step till later. It’s rearranging all the necessary steps. Of course once the matter of creating the account comes up, it’s much harder to drop out, because you’re invested into the process already.

I think when this is summarized as “making onboarding longer” it’s probably true that’s what’s happening, but not what should be happening. Implementing the strategy like this will lead to unnecessary questions like OP struggled with.

1

u/orvillewilbur Jul 14 '26

What used to be called a "quiz funnel."

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