First impressions stick, particularly in UX. After we noticed that new customers of our Yoast search engine marketing for Shopify app have been skipping key steps or dropping off early, we knew our onboarding wasn’t working. Utilizing journey mapping and repair blueprints, we redesigned the expertise to be sooner, clearer, and extra supportive from the beginning. Right here’s how small, well-timed modifications made a giant distinction.
Launching an improved onboarding expertise
We recently launched a redesigned onboarding experience to assist Shopify retailers arrange for fulfillment. Behind that replace is a much bigger story: how considerate UX choices, team-wide alignment, and repair design strategies reshaped the person expertise. And we imply that within the broadest sense, from discovery to giving customers the sensation that the app is working for them and serving to them succeed.
On this interview, we spoke with our UX designer, Tom Ottjes, who led the challenge to unpack that course of. His solutions will supply a more in-depth take a look at the issues we would have liked to unravel, the instruments he used to speak throughout groups, and the omnichannel modifications that made the largest distinction.
Earlier than you begin studying, right here’s a fast animation exhibiting the assorted components of the service blueprint we labored on. In fact, there’s way more, however we can’t present you the whole lot.
From patterns to priorities
Earlier than redesigning a single display, the crew wanted a option to perceive and talk what wasn’t working. They wanted to uncover what needed to change to repair the expertise for folks in a manner that additionally helped us obtain our firm objectives. That’s the place service design instruments, significantly buyer journey maps and repair blueprints, got here in.
Buyer journey mapping helped visualize what customers have been experiencing from discovery by means of set up and first use. It highlights not solely the steps clients take but in addition the place they turn out to be confused, hesitant, or drop off. Primarily based on help conversations, surveys, and analytics, the journey map revealed a number of points. A type of points was a scarcity of early steerage, which led to missed configuration steps, amongst different issues.
Earlier than we moved on to motion, we wished to outline success by figuring out KPIs. That is a vital step. It should assist form the path of the service and expertise you may be designing. As an alternative of viewing onboarding as only a UI downside, the service blueprint mapped each person motion alongside the techniques, processes, and other people behind them. This included content material, buyer help, notifications, and dealing inside Shopify’s personal platform constraints.
As a result of it connects what’s seen to the person with what occurs behind the scenes, a service blueprint grew to become central to the challenge. It gave each crew, from UX to improvement, help, and advertising and marketing, a shared reference level. By mapping every part as its personal blueprint, the crew might prioritize fast wins whereas maintaining a tally of a longer-term onboarding imaginative and prescient.
It turned a fancy, cross-functional subject into one thing everybody might contribute to. The blueprint helped make enhancements simpler to design, construct, and check in smaller, clearer components.
An actual instance: Turning uncertainty into reassurance for bigger shops
One of many extra shocking and necessary insights from our service blueprinting course of was about scale. We found that whereas the app felt quick and responsive for smaller Shopify shops, bigger ones had a really totally different expertise. For outlets with tens of hundreds of merchandise and pages, the preliminary processing and indexing step might take anyplace from a number of minutes to some hours.
The issue? We weren’t telling customers that. Small shops would see their knowledge mirrored nearly immediately. Massive shops would land on a clean dashboard, with no indication that the system was nonetheless working within the background. From the person’s perspective, it regarded like nothing was occurring.
We addressed this with a collection of small however intentional modifications. First, we launched a correct loading state with messaging acknowledging what was occurring. Then, we added an e-mail subject to that display, giving customers the choice to be notified when setup was full. Once they enter their e-mail, they obtain a affirmation message as soon as the whole lot is prepared.
It’s a small element, however one which shifts how the expertise feels. As an alternative of confusion or doubt, customers now get suggestions, a way of transparency, and a option to re-engage later. And for us, it’s a concrete instance of why aligning the front-end and back-end by means of service design really issues.
Meet the designer
Meet the UX designer: Tom Ottjes
This interview is with Tom Ottjes, certainly one of Yoast’s UX designers. He led the onboarding redesign for our Shopify app and was co-responsible for designing the Yoast AI options. With a number of years of expertise working throughout product and advertising and marketing, his method facilities on translating person conduct into actionable design. A lot of his work focuses on simplifying complicated flows, bettering person steerage, and serving to groups perceive the shopper journey.
Tom, what downside have been you seeing that made this challenge a precedence?
With our Yoast SEO for Shopify app, we try to ship actual, tangible worth to our customers. That begins with understanding their expertise from the second they set up the app. Via a mixture of person surveys, interviews, help request evaluation, and product analytics, we started to see clear patterns emerge.
There have been three most important friction factors we stored listening to and seeing:
- A scarcity of steerage: Many customers merely didn’t know how you can use the app successfully. They put in it however weren’t positive what to do subsequent to optimize their retailer.
- Unclear worth supply: We observed that essential steps, like finishing the ‘Web site illustration’ settings, which unlock speedy search engine marketing advantages, have been usually skipped. That advised us customers weren’t seeing the connection between setup actions and actual outcomes.
- Hesitation to have interaction with the free trial: Customers have been cautious of testing the app, uncertain of what the trial included or whether or not it was really risk-free.
All of those insights pointed to at least one factor: the onboarding expertise wasn’t doing its job. It wasn’t guiding, reassuring, or demonstrating worth early sufficient. We visualized all these points in an in depth buyer journey map, serving to us to zoom out and see broader patterns. We discovered totally different person sorts, the place they dropped off, and what confused them. That map grew to become a key alignment instrument and helped us body the onboarding redesign as a top-priority challenge.
What would success appear to be for you from the person’s perspective?
From the person’s viewpoint, success meant feeling assured and supported from the very first interplay with our app. We wished customers to land within the onboarding stream and instantly perceive two issues: how the app can assist them enhance their Shopify retailer’s search engine marketing, and what steps to take first to see outcomes.
That meant providing a smoother, extra intuitive expertise. An expertise that clearly communicated worth upfront, supplied improved steerage round preliminary setup steps, and highlighted key options. It also needs to guarantee customers that attempting the app was protected and worthwhile.
First, we wished to assist customers rapidly perceive the complete worth of the app. As well as, we wished customers to finish key onboarding actions comparable to filling out their ‘Web site illustration’ settings and exploring core options related to their retailer. Emotionally, we aimed for a way of readability, belief, and motivation to proceed.
Finally, if a person might say, ‘I do know precisely what this app does, what I must do, and I can already see it working for me,’ then we knew we have been heading in the right direction.
Are you able to clarify your service design course of and the way it helped the groups?
After mapping the present onboarding journey and figuring out the important thing ache factors, we knew we didn’t simply want a greater UI. We wanted a extra holistic service expertise. That’s the place service blueprinting got here in.
We began by defining clear KPIs to measure the affect of our modifications, comparable to completion charges for essential onboarding steps, time to worth, and have discovery. These metrics gave us a shared definition of success and helped form the path of the person expertise.
Then we used the service blueprinting methodology to reimagine onboarding as an entire service. A service blueprint maps the relationships between folks, processes, and touchpoints tied to a buyer journey. It helped us visualize each what the person sees and the whole lot occurring behind the scenes to help that have, from content material technique to buyer help workflows to engineering necessities.
This systems-level view was important in aligning a number of groups, like UX, improvement, advertising and marketing, and help. Everybody might see how their work related to the person’s expertise and the place coordination was wanted. It additionally helped us determine inside gaps, inefficiencies, or dependencies early, so we might design round them.
To maneuver rapidly and ship worth incrementally, we broke the optimized onboarding journey into phases, prioritizing what would have essentially the most speedy affect for customers. That method lets us ship enhancements sooner whereas staying grounded in a long-term imaginative and prescient for the onboarding expertise.
We approached the entire effort utilizing a service design mindset. We zoomed out to know the system customers work together with, not simply the screens they see. Service blueprinting helped us take what customers have been experiencing (empathy and perception), determine inside blockers, and construction releases round clear hypotheses. It wasn’t nearly delivering onboarding, however about bettering the service behind it.
How are you monitoring whether or not it’s serving to customers get began sooner?
From the beginning, we knew that redesigning onboarding wasn’t nearly launching one thing new. We wished to show it made a distinction. So, we outlined clear KPIs to measure the affect of our modifications. To make this measurable, we constructed the monitoring infrastructure wanted to observe person conduct at every step.
However we didn’t cease at numbers. We additionally integrated qualitative buyer listening instruments, issues like in-app suggestions, help conversations, and interviews. As we wished to know how customers really feel as they transfer by means of onboarding.
Are there nonetheless enhancements to make?
Completely, as a result of onboarding isn’t really ‘completed.’ It’s an evolving expertise, and we see it as a steady alternative to raised help our customers.
The subsequent part of our optimized onboarding journey will give attention to deepening the steerage we offer, serving to customers transcend setup and begin making extra significant enhancements to their retailer. We’re taking a look at how we will higher floor insights, counsel subsequent steps based mostly on context, and empower customers to unlock much more worth with confidence.
Whereas I can’t share all the main points simply but, I can say this: we’re not stopping at getting customers by means of the door. We’re targeted on serving to them thrive as soon as they’re inside.
Good issues are coming. As at all times, we’re listening intently to our customers to ensure what we construct really meets their wants.
Professional suggestions for getting began with service blueprinting
Considering of utilizing service blueprinting in your individual work? Right here are some things that helped us:
- Begin with an actual journey: Mapping is most helpful when it’s grounded in precise person conduct. Use help knowledge, interviews, and analytics to anchor the blueprint in actual issues.
- Outline what “success” means upfront: Earlier than mapping, align your crew on what outcomes you’re working towards (e.g., sooner time to worth, fewer drop-offs).
- Map front-end + back-end: Don’t simply observe what customers see. Embody inside techniques, help workflows, engineering dependencies, and something that influences the expertise.
- Hold roles seen: Present which crew is answerable for which course of. It retains conversations targeted and collaboration smoother.
- Don’t overcomplicate: A blueprint doesn’t have to be a cultured artifact. Begin easy. The worth is in getting groups aligned, not in the way it appears to be like.
Blueprinting doesn’t change good UX analysis or design, but it surely’s a strong option to join them to the broader expertise. If you happen to’re engaged on something cross-functional, it’s completely price attempting.
A shared understanding drives actual change
This challenge wasn’t nearly delivery a brand new stream. We wished to design with a transparent, shared understanding of our customers and the processes that help them.
Our service blueprint turned out to be a terrific instrument to align groups round a single aim: serving to customers rapidly see the worth of the Yoast search engine marketing for Shopify app. Alongside the best way, we uncovered friction, mapped dependencies, and constructed towards one thing extra constant, supportive, and efficient.
Considerate onboarding is the beginning of the whole lot that follows. By making these early minutes really feel clear, calm, and grounded in actual outcomes, we’ve not solely improved setup instances and reached our KPIs but in addition modified how we work, design, and hear collectively.
The work continues, specializing in function onboarding, improved steerage, and even future WordPress experiences. Collectively, we’ll apply these classes any more. We’ll design by placing customers first, construct teamwork on transparency, and create experiences that information, not simply onboard.
