GoGuardian - Signup Process Redesign
Redesigned the onboarding experience for new users to install GoGuardian’s products.
UX Research | UX Design | Interaction Design
Redesigned the onboarding experience for new users to install GoGuardian’s products.
GoGuardian is an Ed-Tech company that provides K-12 schools with software to help students access safe online educational content and software for technology management such as Chromebooks. In 2019, I worked with GoGuardian as UX Design Intern in Los Angeles, CA.
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GoGuardian expands its customer base by providing new users with a free trial of their products. Although many new users attempted to access the free trial, GoGuardian noticed a very low conversion rate of its users signing up to access the products.
This problem was given as a prompt to me to identify the cause and propose a solution.
Responsible for all the research, design and testing
8 Weeks | July - August 2019
Product Manager, Support Team Lead, Engineers
Sketch, Principle, Invision, Confluence
Admins are the primary users in this case, as they are the ones who can go through the entire signup process to install the products offered by GoGuardian for their school/organization.
They show interest in products offered by GoGuardian. As they cannot go through the signup process to install the products, they connect Admins to GoGuardian's team to get access to products.
Users can access GoGuardian products 2x faster while retaining all installation steps and reducing more than 50% of screen visits with Bookmark Script.
Go To Final Designs
What is Bookmark Script?
It has Javascript that will install products automatically in Google Admin Console rather than manual installation.
• No existing research has been done
• Unable to interview users due to summer break in schools
• Could not access competitors signup process
To understand what stops users from accessing GoGuardian products, I had to identify all the steps involved in the signup process that enables them to access the products in the first place.
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After I was able to identify all the steps that are involved in the signup process, I dug deeper into each step to identify issues that may hinder users' access to the products.
Interviewed stakeholders to understand the context, challenges, and reasoning for each step that are there in the existing signup process.
With the help of the customer support team, I was able to review feedbacks received from users to understand the issues they encountered with the signup process.
I went through the entire sign-up process to experience and map all the challenges that resonated with what stakeholders and online feedback forum mentioned.
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When conducting user testing sessions for other projects with IT Admins, I used the opportunity to ask questions about their role and daily tasks.
After gathering all the data from research, I did multiple whiteboard sessions with the product manager to define our target users and map key issues in the signup process.
To try GoGuardian products, Admins need to install GoGuardian extensions and change over 16+ settings manually in Google Admin Console, where schools manage their organization.
• Purchasing & Installing applications
• Manage and maintain Chromebooks
• Provide school with better management tools
• Help teachers access applications they want to try
• Signup process is complex
• Unable to successfully sign in
• Get quick access to new products
• Clear instructions on installing products
I discovered three main barriers in the signup process that hinders admins access to GoGuardian products. The three barriers are miscommunication, authentication, and installation.
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Users are unsure which role to select as the titles are not universally used in all schools, and they end up clicking on the wrong role.
Pre-installation, admins must self validate by enabling API in GAC and sign into Google. They fail to sign in as the steps are unclear.
Over 16+ steps to install products in GAC are unclear, complex, & long; Leading admins to toggle between screens & dropping out.
I further validated the issues found through Google Analytics by mapping users drop-offs at each step in the process. This way, I verified issues both from stakeholder's and user's side.
The effect of the signup process was worse than imagined as in January 2019, there were 10,000+ sessions to access GoGuardian products and had less than 10% success rate.
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How might we eliminate these three barriers of entry to provide quick and easy flow for admins to access products.
After understanding the barriers, I took two design considerations to access the products faster.
We must provide a better information structure to help users take the right action at each step.
Guide users in complex steps to provide a smooth & engaging onboarding experience.
I led the whiteboarding session, and we heavily focused on the third barrier i.e., installation, as this is the most complex step that takes time, needs technical literacy and better guidance.
This method doesn’t need setup & will help users experience the products with dummy data. It got rejected for privacy reasons.
This method will have a visual guide (Gifs) throughout the installation process to help admins install the products efficiently.
This hybrid method will give admins two options to install products: automatically with Bookmark Script or manually with a plugin.
After getting approval on the final solution: Hybrid Installation, I restructured the sign-up process to resolve all the barriers that were hindering users' access to the products.
Before I moved forward with the design, I took inspiration from other SaaS platforms on how they onboard their users so that I can optimize each page to be engaging and straightforward.
Next, I started creating wireframes to build a structure for the signup process and took feedback from senior designers to iterate on designs.
As I was also simultaneously working on the Design System for GoGuardian, I used the components I created in the design system for the signup process. View Design System
How I solved the barriers in the signup process.
Users are unsure which role to select as the titles are not universally used in all schools, and they end up clicking on the wrong role.
Redesigned the page based on what service users use to manage their organization for a clear context and guide them to the right form.
Pre-installation, admins must self validate by enabling API in GAC and sign into Google. They fail to sign in as the steps are unclear.
Over 16+ steps to install products in GAC are unclear, complex, & long; Leading admins to toggle between screens & dropping out.
Helping users install the products automatically or manually with clear direction, simplifying the process with no toggle between screens.
Automatic Installation will change over 16+settings and install extensions in GAC automatically.
Key Steps
• Drag & Drop Bookmark (Visual guide)
• Go to Google Admin Console
• Click on Bookmark
• Give consent to install
• Launch GoGuardian
Manual installation will help admins install extensions and change settings with no toggle between screens.
Key Steps
• Download Plugin
• Go to Google Admin Console
• Click on the Plugin
• Follow the step by step setup guide
• Launch GoGuardian
With the new sign up process, I was able to eliminate more than 50% of screen visits while retaining all the installation steps to install GoGuardian products.
During my final week of the internship in August, Schools started to open up again, and I was able to test the solution with six admins.
I did qualitative usability testing throughout my design process from wireframes to high fidelity designs from senior designers and admins.
Iteration 1
❌ Context is not clear
❌ Avoid clickable cards
💡 Personalized content & add icons
Iteration 2
❌ Change the title "Select Role."
❌ The page is overwhelming & distracting
💡Service specific content
💡 Bring attention to cards
Iteration 3
✅ Transparent & reduced content
✅ Attention on cards
✅ Clear layout
Iteration 1
❌ The page is very text-heavy
💡 Provide recommended option
💡 Bring attention to Automatically install
Iteration 2
❌ Titles are getting too much attention
❌ "Next button" is redundant
❌ Content should be more transparent
💡 Link to details on each installation steps
Iteration 3
✅ Transparent & Reduced Content
✅ Attention on Automatic Installation
✅ Link to an external site for details
Admins found the new process to be fast and easier to complete. Minor changes in context were needed to be universally understood. A suggestion if a short clip is given as an overview of the entire process at the beginning would help admins be prepared.
"I liked the new flow it's smooth, it's simple, and I don't think I would need to reach out to you guys with questions."
Tech Support Specialist | School district
"It's well designed and easy to read. I was able to follow along the entire process. I like it"
Assistant Admin | School district
Things I learned through this process:
• Don't hesitate to ask as many questions
• Involve engineers early into the project
• Seek feedbacks consistently
• Look into the problem from others view
I pitched the solution to the heads at GoGuardian. After seeing the impact, they are currently negotiating with Google to access the automatic installation process. Now, the new signup process is released with a manual installation process.