Designing the Onboarding Experience for Dev Tools
WAYSCRIPT
Overview
WayScript is a drag and drop programming platform that allows users to automate their workflows using variables, functions, and logic to trigger events. In plain terms, it provides you with the opportunity to automate really cool workflows like receiving daily or weekly alerts on stock markets you’re interested in following. Our client approached us with two objectives - create an onboarding experience and improve customer retention on the platform.
Details
Role: UX Designer & Researcher
Team: Caroline Morant, Patricia Gomez
Methods: User Research, Interaction Visual Design, Contextual Inquiry | Competitive & Comparative Analysis, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Tools: Sketch, Keynote, InVision
Timeline: 1 month
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
WayScript offers a variety of tools and integrations on the platform, however users lack understanding about specific use cases and workflows WayScript could be used for. This yielded a need to dive deeper to identify areas of opportunity and also investigate the challenges that users currently faced.
Our high level goals were to:
1. Create an onboarding process for new users that clarified the power and value of the software
2. Explore possibilities of adding or enhancing or features to increase customer retention
3. Reimagine working the existing features into a better workflow that is more engaging and focused on the value it brings to users
GETTING TO KNOW THE USERS
Moving into the research phase we knew that we had two areas of focus- discover how existing users were using the platform and identify the first time user experience. We employed contextual inquiry method since we wanted to get an insider view of existing users’ context of use and workflows. We learned that while users like to save time by automating tasks, they weren’t using the platform much since they didn’t understand the value proposition of WayScript. A key takeaway from the interviews with both new and existing users was that the platform was viewed as a complex system to learn.
EARLY INSIGHTS FROM THE USERS
Based on the user interviews conducted with users on the existing WayScript platform, we found the following key insights:
Users preferred to see how other developers’ built workflows and solved problems; found value in the Marketplace and Community
Users valued clean and intuitive design and were overwhelmed by the steep learning curve
Users didn't fully understand the value proposition of WayScript, but saw potential
MEET LOGAN
Utilizing the insights gained from the interviews, we constructed a provisional persona, Logan, a back-end programmer who enjoys finding simple and intuitive automation processes to alleviate his complex workflows.
VISUALIZING THE JOURNEY
We used experience mapping techniques to visualize and communicate the users end‐to‐end experience across various touch‐points. This allowed us to represent user pain points and identify where we needed to focus our attention. Defining the users emotions was key to setting client expectations about the aspirational emotional state we were aiming to design for.
REFRAMING THE CHALLENGE
We moved into redefining the focus of the project and fine tuning the vision statement. After synthesizing all of the research and data points, we created a design statement to guide us through the design process.
“How might we help users find the value in using WayScript to create flows that automate tasks involving application integration?”