Help the people start using your software earlier

This post is inspired by a recent discussion in the ASP groups.

It was noticed that most of software don’t offer users an option to immediately launch the program in the end of setup process. After installation, users have to locate the application shortcut manually in Start menu among dozens of other software groups.

You made your potential customer download and install your program why do you make it hard to locate it? Users hardly know what’s your application name among 50 similar ones they just installed until they realize what they need.

There is a simple and inexpensive solution.

After your application is installed, make one more step and offer the user to immediately launch the application. You may add the ‘Run ABC…’ check box in the last screen of setup wizard and make it checked by default. Many setup builders do support this feature.

Another way is to automatically open Start menu folder where your application placed its shortcuts. So user can run your software immediately, check out help file or whatever is there.

Don’t make users think. Help them start using your software as early as possible.