About
Unite.ly is an IT services platform that allows teams to communicate and collaborate in one easy tool. Unite.ly's main client was Utah Foster Care (UFC), and we built out their custom program called Bridge.
The goal of Bridge was to be a place where UFC employees and Foster Parents could communicate, collaborate, and create a supportive community for foster children.
The Problem
We were experiencing low platform adoption among UFC employees. Feedback indicated that employees were confused about how to use Bridge and the purpose of its various sections — as a result, users were defaulting to old tools and not utilizing the platform.
UFC was understandably concerned about onboarding Foster Parents while employee adoption was still low. As a team we brainstormed potential solutions to improve product understanding for current users and create a smooth onboarding path for new ones.
"We couldn't onboard Foster Parents if employees weren't confident using the platform themselves. The product tour had to solve for both."
We decided the best solution was a product tour.
Research & Competitive Analysis
Before designing anything, I did competitive analysis and research on product tours. I was looking for what makes a product tour successful — examining various types of tours and different UI patterns across the industry.
The research helped me narrow down 3 key elements I believed would solve the retention problem while also enabling a smooth onboarding experience for new users.
Choosing What to Highlight
To decide which features to highlight in the tour, I met with our product owner and the UFC customer success manager. We aligned on two primary areas: the main navigation and chat.
The main navigation presented a unique challenge — all section names and icons were customizable per program. The tour needed to be responsive to the custom names selected for Bridge while still providing meaningful descriptions.
Within chat, the key interactions to highlight were how to start a chat, the various chat features, and how to use video. We also prioritized surfacing how to contact the support team.
Next: Partnering with Development
With only 3 weeks until Foster Parents were being onboarded, I partnered with the developer early to determine what was realistically achievable within the timeframe. I presented research-informed sketches of potential solutions and we iterated together before landing on a final direction that was feasible within scope.
Design
After iterating multiple times based on development feasibility and team alignment, I designed the finished product tour.
Results
We shipped the product tour before Foster Parents were onboarded — hitting the hard deadline. I left Unite.ly shortly after, so I wasn't able to measure long-term adoption impact firsthand.
The tour is still in practice today on Unite.ly — which speaks to the durability of the solution.
3wk
Research to shipped product tour
✓
Shipped before Foster Parent onboarding
Still live
Tour remains in use on Unite.ly today