Software Wizard
An intuitive, multi-layered self-onboarding tool was required for our complex safety products.
The first order of business was to make sense of all possible user paths. Each account could have dozens, or even hundreds of administrators with several different permission levels (which may or may not affect feature accessibility).
Brain Dump
With plenty of variables, we chose to isolate each product from the start. Even though several products would have the same steps, we could always auto-skip the account's completed steps if need be. This simplified the wizard's flow.
Product Isolation
Steps that are related can be condensed into one experience, reinforcing the interconnectedness of the system and bringing efficiency to the overall process.
Condensed Steps
Complex functionality required tooltips, but the biggest issue was copywriting. Particularly with field names and features, the developers didn't know how to communicate what the system would do without thoroughly confusing users. Fortunately, I held a session with our designers to bring some much needed clarity.
Speak Easy
After redesigning our portal, clients were impressed... but there was still an onboarding gap for our complex safety software. Clients usually didn't know where to start when configuring their accounts, and to make things more complicated, we had to accommodate multiple permission levels and products. Our support staff had to manually walk new clients through the setup process, so we decided to empower our clients by building a seamless, intuitive walkthrough to alleviate the bottleneck.
The Challenge
We thought we might as well include our entire mobile app configuration functionality within the self-onboarding flow... and it has worked wonders. Since the implementation, our clients have increased utilization of this feature by over 30%.
Configuring Apps
The rollout of self-onboarding was a huge success. The newfound ease-of-use even inspired additional marketing efforts to attract prospects via free trial offers.
Outcome
"I am not a computer wizard, but with the 911Cellular system, it is very user-friendly... if I can do it, anybody can."
-Dave McLaughlin, Safety Director at Ashland University
This project was heavy on user-mapping, which created a few late night team sessions, but the experience gained was invaluable. Through some post-launch tweaks, we discovered just how integral each step is to the whole experience and the ability for the user to finish their required set-up stages.
Final Thoughts
As lead strategist and designer, I worked closely with our Chief Technical Officer to brainstorm all possible paths of configuration before working more closely with other team leads. It felt like most team sessions were conceptual in nature... I ended up carrying out the prototyping and mock-up stages as well.
My Role
People learn by doing, so with each step, we educate the user before encouraging interaction. Some steps aren't required, but the functionality is important for them to understand as they get holistic exposure to the system, so we included those as well.
Interactive Learning
