Sierra Biddulph

I led the creation of IBM's new onboarding pattern that increased onboarding retention by 50%. I collaborated with visual design, PMs, and content to deliver a pattern that was green lit to use across IBM's product suite.

+50%

RETENTION

+40%

COMPLETION RATE

Overview

I led the redesign of IBM’s onboarding pattern, working with visual designers, information architects, and product managers to build a scalable onboarding system. I delivered an end-to-end onboarding experience that offers users help at the right time, reducing cognitive load and decreasing bounce rate.

Outcome

Designed Figma library of 10+ components and documented best practices to support adoption across diverse IBM products.

Presented onboarding pattern to IBM design leaders and secured buy-in for cross-product adoption

Role

UX Design Intern

Responsibilities

Product Strategy, Design Systems

Collaborators

UX Design Team, Product Manager, Visual Designer, Content Designer

Timeline

May - Aug 2024

The Challenge

The current onboarding flow started with a full-screen modal with a wall of text and a option to skip onboarding or start.

BUSINESS NEED

Users weren't completing onboarding at a staggering 80% drop-off rate. This led to product abandonment and extra customer service support.

USER NEED

Users had cognitive overload from walls of text and lacked the ability to revisit onboarding materials when they needed guidance.

Brainstorming

Our team conducted a workshop to to identify user pain points and opportunities to encourage product learning using Gen AI.

We identified three focus areas.

Break complex flows into manageable pieces to avoid cognitive overload.

Create multiple entry points into the onboarding, allowing users to pick up where they need help the most.

Create progress indicators to reduce user abandonment and create a sense of achievement.

ITERATION

Early Iterations

Ideating meaningful ways the walkthrough could integrate with the interface besides

BUSINESS NEED

Users weren't completing onboarding at a staggering 80% drop-off rate. This led to product abandonment and extra customer service support.

USER NEED

Users had cognitive overload from walls of text and lacked the ability to revisit onboarding materials when they needed guidance.

Direction #1

Collaborating with information archeturure, we went in the direction of a onboarding module on the homepage dashboard.

USER TESTING

Testing version 1

Unmoderated testing with 4 participants …

NEGATIVE

Overall sentiment was the module was difficult to rememeber all the steps of the process and the

POSITIVE

Users liked having a progress meter on the dashboard they could refer to. They also liked the onboarding purple design, which stood out from the rest of the interface.

ALIGNING DESIGN SYSTEM

Color application

I worked with visual design to make onboarding content stand out but while integrating with IBM Carbon.

We chose the purple color strategy to clearly show onobarding information and attract user interest. We used the light color strategy in areas of the interface that are more permanant and instead used motion to attract attention, such as the inline tips and progress tracker

FINAL DESIGN

Full flow

Circular pattern

Nudges

Onboarding begins when a user explicitly requests assistance, allowing users to explore the software independently if they prefer.

Progress chart

The onboarding focuses on teaching users to establish a cloud connection. After creating their cloud, they are directed to the cloud details page with a clear list of remaining steps, allowing them to track progress efficiently.