Gmail’s tour of new collaboration features

Even industry giants like Google know the importance of feature announcements. They might be a bit late to the party with some of their collaboration tools (oh hey, Zoom and Microsoft Teams), but better late than never, right?  😉

And Google made their new feature tour not only informative, but also very visual.

Tooltips guide the user to each new feature, including Chat and Rooms located within Gmail.

What makes this really good UX:

• The tooltips have a progress indicator in the lower right corner, showing users that there are only 3 new features to explore (not an endless tour of new things). Users click on the “Next” button to move to the next feature, or they can click the “X” in the upper right corner to exit the tour.
• Each tooltip includes a short description of the new feature and its benefits (Rooms keep group projects organized and on track, etc.).
• Google stays on-brand with primary-colored graphics across each tooltip. New feature announcements are always an opportunity to remind users of the company behind the product.