Coach marks are temporary messages that educate users through new or unfamiliar product experiences. They can be chained into a sequence to form a tour.
Coach marks are in a tour when the primary action of one coach mark will lead to the display of another. The "Skip tour" button creates an escape path for the user to avoid having to click through each step.
A step indicator is optional but encouraged. Display of progress should be consistent throughout the tour — either all steps should have this, or none.
Coach marks can contain images that relate to their content, such as demonstrations of gestures, the UI being used, or illustrations.
Coach marks in a tour can be dependent on an action. Unless the tour is skipped, they will persist until the user takes the corresponding action. In this example, the coach mark would disappear once a user opens the panel.
The coach mark indicator comes in standard (large) and quiet (small), with a light, dark, and blue variant for contrast in different situations.
When the title and body text are too long for the available horizontal space, they wrap to form another line. The steps are always shown in full and never wrap or truncate.
Choose a width for your coach marks that is spacious enough to accommodate all of your content. Within a tour that includes many coach marks, keep the width consistent across each one.
Aim for concise titles, and keep complex information in the body text. Titles should be in sentence case. Avoid wrapping if possible.
Coach marks are meant to be quick overviews of functionality. Body text should be at least a few words, but no more than a few sentences.
Coach mark copy should be concise, but written in complete sentences and expressing encouragement and usefulness. View the voice and tone guidelines for more information.
Coach marks are aligned with their related components in the same way as popovers. Choose a placement that keeps the related component visible on screen.
Don't obscure a relevant part of the UI with the coach mark.
Unlike popovers, the UI component a coach mark refers to does not need to take a down state. Use the placement of the coach mark and its indicator atop the component to indicate source.
The “Skip tour” button should always be a quiet secondary button, even when it’s the only button available in the dialog. Omit this button on the last step of a tour.
The primary action should be brief and consistent. Use "OK" for a single coach mark. Within a tour, use “Next” for all but the last step, and “Finish” for the last step. Don’t use different primary action names for every step in a tour.
When a coach mark is dependent on a user action, it’s OK to remove the primary action button as long as the user still has a way to exit.
On a one-off coach mark, this means that the primary action button should remain as a way to dismiss. In a tour, it’s acceptable to show only the "Skip tour" button.
When a coach mark is dependent on a user action, don't force the user to confirm that they've taken that action.
For RTL (right-to-left) languages, the default layout of the coach mark is mirrored. Text is right-aligned while the chevron and the button group are left-aligned.
Key | Interaction |
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Tab | Moves focus to the next button inside the popover (last becomes first). |
Esc | Exits the current coach mark. If in a tour, proceeds to the next coach mark (does not skip the entire tour). |
Date | Number | Notes |
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Apr 06, 2022 | 6.0.0 |
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Sep 11, 2019 | 5.1.1 |
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Aug 22, 2019 | 5.1.0 |
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Apr 19, 2019 | 5.0.0 |
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Includes all interactive states that are applicable (hover, down, focus, keyboard focus, disabled).
Works properly across all four color themes (lightest, light, dark, darkest).
Includes a desktop scale (UWP, macOS, web desktop) and a mobile scale (iOS, Android, web mobile).
Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information (WCAG 2.0 1.4.1).
Text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for small text and at least 3:1 for large text (WCAG 2.0 1.4.3).
Visual information required to identify components and states (except inactive components) has a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 (WCAG 2.1 1.4.11).
UI language and information design considerations have been incorporated into component design.
Includes relevant options (variant, style, size, orientation, optional iconography, decorations, selection, error state, etc.)
Includes guidelines for keyboard focus, layout (wrapping, truncation, overflow), animation, interactions, etc.
Includes a list of dos and don'ts that highlight best practices and common mistakes.
Includes content standards or usage guidelines for how to write or format in-product content for the component.
Works properly across various locales and includes guidelines for bi-directionality (RTL).
Follows WCAG 2.0 standards for keyboard accessibility guidelines and includes a description of the keyboard interactions.
All design attributes (color, typography, layout, animation, etc.) are available as design tokens.
Includes a downloadable XD file that shows multiple options, states, color themes, and platform scales.
Includes a downloadable XD file, generated by code using design tokens defined in Spectrum DNA, and shows multiple options, states, color themes, and platform scales.
Component is included in the Spectrum for Adobe XD plugin.