OverviewImpactContributionsProcessFeaturesFor years, onboarding users onto Later had been a challenge. Being able to see the ease of scheduling a post required new users to perform a number of different steps. This included connecting social profiles, uploading existing media, setting a publishing method, and scheduling the post to be published at a later date.
Prior to the re-design, only 17.6% of new users would end up opening the Post Builder for the first time within 7 days of signing up.
In addition, multiple teams at Later also benefited from being able to collect information from first-time users, leading to the implementation of a multi-step questionnaire. All-in-all, this meant that a single user would face up to 25 different screens before finishing the onboarding process.
Lastly, as Later grew from a simple scheduling tool to a robust social media management platform, we saw more users who were interested in features outside of scheduling, such as Linkin.bio. This effect was made more severe by the fact that new users would not be able to skip the existing, scheduling-focused onboarding process.
As the sole UX designer on the newly-formed growth team, I was responsible for re-imagining how new users experience Later for the very first time.
We started the project by auditing the existing onboarding process and possible pathways users could possibly take to complete it. This allowed us to visualize points of drop-offs and blockers for new users. This also gave us performative benchmarks to compare our new onboarding improvements with.
In addition to the audit, I also developed a common framework for the team to use as a guiding principle to base the new onboarding experience. In short, the 3-Dimensional Onboarding Framework describes how an evolving product like Later, which is much more feature-rich now than before, would benefit from opening up its rigid onboarding process in order to serve new demographics that use the platform for different reasons.
We mapped out separated UX flows to help the team understand the bigger picture before any further design or implementation. Once the flows were reviewed, I began designing early mockups help identify areas where we can use existing components for design system consistency.
One challenge we had was accounting for Instagram’s more specialized publishing flow, which required users to perform additional steps which were major blockers at the time. We were also designing around our integration with TikTok which had a similar scheduling flow. Other platforms published posts more straightforward.
Onboarding Questionnaire
Before
Upon connecting a social profile, users would be prompted to complete a profile questionnaire which induced user fatigue and inaccurate results.
After
Now, the updated questionnaire is presented right upon sign up and all questions are presented to the user at once.
Onboarding Questionnaire
We opened up the calendar to give people a chance to explore the app and come back later. Using AppCues tooltips, we were able to nudge at next steps on this main screen.
Open Calendar
We opened up the calendar to give people a chance to explore the app and come back later. Using AppCues tooltips, we were able to nudge at next steps on this main screen.
Test Image
In the past, users were forced to upload media in order to progress, even if they were not ready to post anything. Now, we’ve given them a chance to have a test image and try scheduling.
Publishing Setup
Before
Before users could test out what building a post felt like in Later, they needed to set up how they wanted to publish their content, further inducing their fatigue before realizing the value of the platform.
After
While setting up a publishing method is still required, placing that process into the post builder and letting users save drafts of their posts made onboarding much more smooth with greater satisfaction. Above, you can also see the test image that we've used in the previous section.