“Add a Site”
Flow Redesign
Interviewed users to understand confusion, then redesigned a flow that lifted new sites by 25%.
- Role:
- Lead Designer
- Team:
- 1 Designer, 1 PM, 3 Eng
- Company:
- GoDaddy
Summary
Problem
Few users were adding their sites to the Hub.
Adding sites is the first step to utilizing the most valuable features in the Hub, but we observed low click through rate on entry points for users to add a site and low numbers of sites added for active users.
Approach
Learn how users interpret what it means to “add a site”.
I ran user interviews and audited the existing experience, then used these insights to redesign the activation flow for adding a site to the Hub.
Reflection
This project felt too big for a single shippable experience.
I'd be curious to explore how breaking it into more contained experiments (error management, content updates, and UI updates separately) might have produced timely, more measurable results at each step.
Outcome
Product
The Hub, a variation of a customer's GoDaddy account that has features and tools tailored for tasks related to client and site management.
Process and designs
Before
By mapping out the existing experience first I found outdated patterns, misguided error management, and confusing content.
Action based text without understanding the why behind the action doesn’t motivate.
Through interviews we learned that the word “connect” can mean something more permanent.
After
Insights from interviews allowed us to understand what users needed to know to move forward. I also designed with more modern stepped flow patterns and simplified user choices.
By using value driven headlines we can give context to why this action is important. Adding your site is just the firs step, not the goal.
Through research we learned that even more knowledge is needed for users to connect the dots between this action and the features it unlocks.
Avoiding the word “Connect” and opting for a less intimidating call to action.
Why Interviews?
Adding sites was the primary activation flow, but almost nobody was starting it. That gap told me something wasn't landing with users, and I suspected the team's assumptions about how users understood the product were part of the problem. I needed to get in front of real users and understand their mental model firsthand.
Learnings and takeaways that became guidelines for all future content
Users weren't connecting the dots between site maintenance features and the step of adding their site.
→Lead with value. Adding a site is really just a step toward the features they were promised at signup.
It was unclear what qualified as a GoDaddy site, especially when hosting and domain were split between different companies.
→The only thing that matters is whether it's a WordPress site. If it's in the account, setup is fast. If not, users enter credentials.
Users are extremely protective of client sites. If it wasn't clear exactly what would happen after adding a site, they wouldn't risk it.
→Confirm with users that adding a site to the Hub makes no updates or changes to the live site.
What I’d do differently
I’d set better expectations on how long research will take, and work with the team on how to break the project apart into multiple phases. By trying to conduct interviews and redesign the flow in one launch we had spent a lot of time on this project, which took away from how effective this research was not only for this project but any future activation or onboarding content.