Shape Private APIs installation onboarding experience
Product
Private APIs
Company
Precisely
Role
Lead UX designer
Device type
Web application
Team
1 UX designer
1 PM
2 Engineers
1 QA
1 Content writers
Sales engineers
Supports
Time
4 months
Status
Shipped
Overview
Background
Customers install the Private APIs to interact with Precisely Software Development Kit (SDK)
Software Development Kit (SDK) provides a comprehensive set of tools, including APIs, libraries, documentation, and sample code, to help developers build applications for a specific platform or technology. We provide the Private APIs solution for users who are looking for REST interface to interact with the SDK and Kubernetes-based deployment.
Challenge
Failed to complete the installation
Currently, users need to navigate themselves through the installation process, which is spread across multiple platforms. The lack of onboarding support caused users to fail to complete the installation, and they often needed to reach out to sales or support for additional guidance.
Solution
Provide onboarding installation checklist and centralize information
An onboarding checklist is provided on the Product Downloads page, guiding users through the installation steps for different Private APIs, which helps them access information efficiently in one place and record their installation progress even when they drop off from the task.
Impact
Increase user engagement and reduce training and support efforts
This self-service onboarding checklist has enabled users to complete the installation successfully and significantly reduced the additional training and support needed from our internal sales engineers and support, allowing them to reallocate their resources to more important capabilities.
Business Goals
Vision
Provide an integrated Private APIs installation process under Data Integrity Suite platform
We want to integrate the Precisely Data Experience website with the Data Integrity Suite workspace, so users don't need to learn and access 2 different platforms, starting with providing a smooth and consistent installation process for the Private APIs.
Precisely Data Experience website: download data and products.
Data Integrity Suite workspace: view API usage, subscriptions, and account details.
Enable customers deployment
Enhance the Private APIs deployment's onboarding process and user experience.
Future expansion/migration
Easier to sell as a whole Data Integrity Suite product bundles.
Research
01 Understand Users
As a workspace administrator, I need to get onboard easily and complete the installation process of Private APIs.
02 Understand Our Problems
Need to navigate across 3 platforms to complete all the installation steps and access account information
In the current installation process, users need to access GitHub documentation to view deployment guides, and then download products (3rd & 7th steps) from the Precisely Data Experience website.
Besides, they can only view subscription and usage in Data Integrity Suite workspace.
GITHUB DOCUMENTATION
Need to go through static and lengthy installation documentation for different Private APIs
If users have more than one Private APIs to install, they need to navigate in the lengthy Github documentation in order to find the right content themselves, and all the content is stored in different places/files.
Design Challenge
How can we make installation documentation easily accessible without navigating across multiple platforms?
Final Design Prototypes
Design Solutions
01 Integrate links and content in one place
Add a new "Downloads" page under "Account" settings in Data Integrity Suite workspace in one single place, allowing users to easily find and navigate to related information.
02 Provide an onboarding checklist to guide users through installation process
A collapsable onboarding checklist is provided on the top of the page, so when users first come in, they would realize to follow the steps to complete the installation process.
Task content is simplified with the "learn more" links provided, directing users to the Github documentation if they need more advanced information.
The "Find products" button is provided to filter down the products in the list to help users find the items in the list more efficiently.
03 Provide a menu to easy access different Private APIs
Users can easily see all the Private APIs they've subscribed in the menu and access the installation steps for each of them.
Iterations
01 Checkboxes vs. Text Button to mark task as completed
I initially used checkboxes for task completion, but usability feedback revealed that they were unclear and looked similar to table row selection. To improve clarity, I replaced them with a “Mark as Completed” link button, making it explicit that users need to manually and sequentially confirm each task.
02 Indicate task progress and summary to encourage completion
We considered showing estimated time or percentage to track progress, but accurate time estimates were difficult due to the local execution of tasks. With up to 6–8 tasks, percentages could also appear too small or fractional.
Instead, I chose to display the exact number of completed tasks with a progress bar for a clear summary, visual motivation, and a sense of accomplishment to encourage completion.
Outcome
This new self-onboarding checklist has shipped for 3 Private APIs already, which has helped our sales engineers reduce efforts on training and support customers on installing the Private APIs.
"
The checklist is intuitive and looks amazing. It helps guide our users through the installation process without any support from us.
By Sales Engineer
Future Enhancements
If I could enhance the checklist to be more personalized, engaging & visually appealing…
Due to technical constraints, the checklist is currently shared among all users in a workspace. Ideally, it would be personalized—visible only to users with appropriate roles or permissions—and show task completion status for each member to help admins track team progress.
I also added more visual clues, such as underscores, icons, and colors, to help users quickly identify which task to focus on by eliminating visual noise, creating a more engaging and delightful experience.
Reflection
Demonstrate first-time user experience impact
This was an unprecedented project in Precisely dedicated in enhancing the onboarding user experience, which demonstrates the value and impact on first-time user experience.
ADDITIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Build first-time user experience design team to enhance users sign-up onboarding journey
Due to the success of this project, we built our first-time user experience design team. I collaborated with the Cloud Services team and Content writer to enhance the new user's sign-up flow and the welcome emails they receive, creating a consistent, welcoming, and smooth onboarding journey for first-time users.
