Secondary Research • Workshops • Prototype testing

Reshaping onboarding into a valuable experience for MURAL users

Overview

My team developed and tested 2 interactive prototypes for the onboarding experience MURAL, an online white-boarding and collaboration tool. Over several months our team conducted secondary research, design workshops, and usability testing to produce a final prototype that maximized desired features and user engagement. In this project I created and managed project timelines, facilitated and participated in workshops, planned and moderated usability tests, and presented research findings to the client.

Role User Researcher, Project Manager

Methods Research Review, Moderated Prototype Testing

Tools MURAL, Google Sheets, Figma

Secondary Research

The scope of the project was limited to analyzing existing user data provided by the client. We grouped user quotes into an affinity diagram and familiarized ourselves with survey data reports. From this we were able to identify 6 design principles based on user onboarding needs.

Design Principles

  1. Humanize the experience

  2. Highlight what’s in it for me

  3. Reduce my stress by building confidence

  4. Make it fun

  5. Keep me informed

  6. Don’t box me in

The client’s user data was conveniently stored in their white boarding tool, making for efficient affinity diagramming.

Design Workshops

Next I moderated a series of group design exercises that yielded 2 unique onboarding concepts:

  1. Method to the Madness: In this concept we built the experience to empathize with users’ feeling of being overwhelmed at the beginning of a project, using a "detangling” metaphor to assure new users that they would be guided through both the onboarding process and their collaboration project.

  2. Build the Brief: In this concept we emphasized visual and interactive elements from the product with a focus on making new users familiar with product. Here we addressed users’ pain points around time pressures and project deadlines, saving them time by transforming onboarding into a valuable product tutorial.

Early stage brainstorming for Concept 1, Method to the Madness

Prototype Testing

I tested the 2 concepts with a set of 10 participants. I observed users going through both onboarding concepts and listened closely to what they liked, what didn’t work, and whether this introduction to the product felt like it was getting them set up for a successful collaboration project.

Users were given a survey after testing each concept to determine which concept better exemplified the established design principles for this project and gave users a more satisfying and engaging experience.

  • Concept 1, Method to the Madness, was preferred overall

    This concept better exemplified the design principles and was overall more engaging and satisfying to use than the Build the Brief concept.

    However…

  • Key interactions from Concept 2, Build the Brief, were highly valued

    Interactions based on MURAL itself were valued as introductory tutorials and sneak-peeks into the product during onboarding.

Engagement Scores for Method to the Madness

Design Principle scores for Method to the Madness

Comparing survey scores between concepts

Results

The user feedback I collected allowed me to synthesize a series of design recommendations for my team. We were able to implement the preferred visual metaphor and select the most effective interactions from each concept to combine in the final design.

I worked closely the design team to oversee changes to the final design, and annotated a copy of the design with research insights to show how the changes were linked directly to user feedback. Some of these included:

  • Leaning into the follow-the-line visual metaphor

  • Key tutorial-like interactions that felt delightful to users

  • Reordering page flow

  • Clarified copy choices

  • Emphasized call-to-action buttons

We delivered a final consolidated design prototype, and I recorded a presentation walkthrough of the project process and the resulting design. Product and business stakeholders were excited about the outcome, and reported that they felt confident in our evidence-backed approach.

Limitations & Lessons

Secondary research is valuable! Existing data can be a valuable starting place to start building a picture of your users and their needs.

Check-ins get you buy-in. Regular updates with the client team ensures that expectations are managed and clients stay engaged.

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Smartsheet • Benchmark Series