LAUNCHPAD

SUMMARY

  • THE PROBLEM:

    
Onboarding can be a lengthy and boring process. Due to the vast amount of information that users are required to learn, they often struggle to retain information, and complete the process out of necessity with little interest in the important information they are presented with.

  • ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

    UX Researcher

    UI Designer

    Front End Developer

  • DELIVERABLES

    Style Guide

    Hi-Fi Desktop Prototype

    Hi-Fi Mobile Prototype

    Responsively Designed Webpage

  • THE SOLUTION

    To reduce the onboarding process’ monotonous nature while effectively equipping new employees with the information they need to thrive in their jobs.

  • TEAM SIZE

    Completed as a group of 2

  • TOOLS USED

    Figma

    Google Suite

    VS Code

    Git Hub

USER RESEARCH

We defined a proto persona in order to identify possible pain points user's may have while going through the onboarding process. We then collected both qualitative and quantitative data through 4 semi structured interviews and a survey to evaluate these ideas, with our goals being to find out:

  • If users enjoy the onboarding process?

  • What are the pain points of the onboarding process?

  • What makes the onboarding process effective? (what do we need to emulate?)

USER INTERVIEWS

We also conducted an heuristic evaluation of the website to discover what aspects of the design we could improve upon, and an accessibility evaluation to find out which aspects of the website needed to be improved to become more accessible to a wider range of users.
We then focused on the navigation, and tested 4 users's ability to navigate the current USDA website.

USER SURVEYS

Our survey received 27 responses with 59% being between the ages of 25 to 34. Most responses consider onboarding useful, however there are more users who consider it incredibly boring and useless than enjoyable and incredibly useful.

75% of users struggle to memorise their company’s rules and regulations, with the most common reason being that they get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of rules to memorise. Many users expressed a need to practice what they’ve learned and experience it first hand in order to consolidate their learning.

CONCLUSION

Users struggle the most when they don’t receive the necessary support, and feel overwhelmed when there is too much to learn. They value connecting with their colleagues the most, and often rely on them for support when they are struggling to adjust to their new job.

definition and synthesis

Having identified key pain points that users face during the onboarding process, we defined a persona and problem statement:

problem statement

Through our user research, we have discovered that users struggle in an environment that is unorganised, or lacking in connection with their teammates. This can cause a decrease in productivity. How might we successfully integrate new employees into organisations so that they have a stronger commitment to their role and subsequently decrease turnover rate?

ideation

In order to identify possible solutions to our user’s pain points, we conducted a competitor analysis:

direct competitors

Direct competitors were analysed to identify key features that could benefit our product. We learned that adding a personal touch by enabling users to connect with colleagues was essential in user satisfaction. This could be achieved through the use of welcome videos and a messaging platform.  

indirect competitors

Indirect competitors were analysed to identify ways to gamify our application, creating a fun learning environment and present the information new starters need to learn in a more digestible manner. We discovered that the use of repetition helps users to learn complex information over a shorter period of time.

We brainstormed ideas for features for the app using the ‘I Like, I Wish, What If?’ method, and prioritised them through a feature prioritisation matrix.

The features we landed on were:

  • A chat feature so that users are able to freely communicate with their team, allowing for easier relationship building,

  • Profile/bio of each team member to help users feel more familiar with their team, and creating conversation points with the people they meet for he first time,

  • A gamified learning section with mini-courses with information in bite sized sections, to help users not feel so overwhelmed.


We then created a storyboard to ideate how our app will be used, an the benefits the user will receive:

prototyping

We created a user flow diagram to identify the required pages. Using this as a point of reference, we brainstormed some paper wireframes before moving on to the mid fidelity prototype.
After testing these mid fidelity prototypes, we then iterated in accordance with user pain points and created a style tile.

We then used the style tile to create a high fidelity version of both the mobile and desktop prototype. We made the presentations of the users’ team a priority throughout the design, making sure everything related to them is easy to find and see. We added animations to the courses section in order to amplify the gamified feel of it, and create excitement throughout the learning process.

Testing

We conducted 3 usability tests on both the mobile and desktop mid fidelity prototype, aiming to evaluate:

  • If users can easily access their messages

  • If users can easily read learning material

  • If users can successfully complete a course lesson

mobile testing

The greatest confusion related to the navigation bar, with users struggling to identify which button leads to which page due to a lack of consistency between mobile and desktop prototypes.

Furthermore, the wording and icons of some navigation buttons did not align with the user’s expectations (eg. they did not expect to find the messaging function under the people icon).

desktop testing

Similar to the mobile prototype, users struggled to associate specific pages with their titles within the navigation bar.

There was also confusion relating to the modules section, the tests and course material. The different labels of each section and lack of connection between the three of them was difficult to understand.

iterations

We iterated the navigation to ensure the mobile and desktop navigation were exactly the same, and ensured that users were brought to the correct pages when using it. To further strengthen the relationship between the desktop and mobile prototype, we iterated the mobile prototype’s visual design to more accurately reflect the desktop’s.

We also renamed the “People” page to “Messages”, and added iterated titles to the desktop modules page to make it easier to understand.

Furthermore, we added a home button to the mobile navigation bar to make it easier for users to navigate back to the home screen, and iterated the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen to only include the primary functions of the app in order to reduce confusion.

final prototype

front end development

I developed a responsive web page design of one of our course lessons, using grids and flex to change the size according to the proportions of the page. I used VS Code and GitHub to write and publish the code.

conclusion

We had intended to reduce the monotonous nature of the onboarding process, making it easier for users to connect to their colleagues, and to make the process of learning the company's rules and regulations less overwhelming and more enjoyable. During this process, we reaffirmed the importance of a consistent UI throughout the prototype, and the effect this has on the brand identity of a product. 

Due to time restrictions, we focused solely on the perspective of an employee when producing this prototype, however we had also considered the perspective of the company as well. After briefly consulting an onboarding manager during our research phase, we imagined that each feature within the prototype would be personalised to suit the company’s preference, with the ability to omit features that do not align with their purpose.

Future considerations for LaunchPad would be to further develop the learning method available to the user by including video tutorials and possibly a ‘Pocket Manager’ - an AI assistant with the knowledge of everything the user needs to know for their role. Users would be able to ask it any question relating to their work, so that they are able to have constant support even after the end of their induction period.