User onboarding
Slack’s customization modal is a fun little ride
Slack offers its preference settings through a small tooltip first, then an eight-step modal with two or three illustrated choices per step.
At the time of the screenshots, Slack introduced its preference settings with a small tooltip: "Set your preferences to match how you work. You can decide how Slack looks, feels, and sounds." Its Show me how button opens a customisation modal of eight steps ("Step 1 of 8" and so on), covering vision, sound and keyboard preferences. Each step asks one question and offers two or three illustrated options, such as whether to play animated GIFs, which colour theme to use (including themes for colour blindness) and how screen readers should read messages.
Why it works
✅ Tooltip before the modal: a small, dismissible tooltip asks first. Only users who click Show me how get the full modal, which matters in a tool people open to get work done.
✅ Long but light steps: eight steps is a lot, but each one is a single question with two or three choices and a Go Back button, so it moves quickly.
✅ Show, don't tell: every option comes with a small preview (a moving toggle, a theme swatch, a sample message), so users see the effect of a setting before they choose it.
More on this pattern: UI modals and personalised onboarding.
