ShareConnect: Improving the time to benefit
Increasing Sign Up conversion and dramatically improving the time to benefit time for new ShareConnect usersOverview
ShareConnect is a product that lets you access your computer from anywhere in the world and from any device.
Let’s say you have a desktop computer in your office and another one at home. With ShareConnect, you can access these computers using the ShareConnect app when you’re at a beach without needing to be in front of your desktop computers physically.
ROLE
Product Designer
Concepts, Interaction design,
Visual design, User testing
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2014 - 2016
I was the sole product designer for ShareConnect. I was responsible for the end-to-end design of this product on all platforms.
The challenge
The ShareConnect mobile apps were available for free on the App Store and Play Store, which meant that anyone could download and use ShareConnect.
This is different from most other Citrix products, which are typically sold as a bundle to users who have background knowledge of the product.
After the launch of the iPad app, we watched numbers (not disclosed) for six months
-
Number of app downloads - Good 😀️
- Number of user registrations - Poor 😞️
- Users who used ShareConnect - Dismally low! 😩️
User testing
I ran usability tests with users who downloaded the app and found that they had these questions:
- Why do I need this product?
- How will it make my life easier?
- It doesn’t tell me anything about what it does.
The welcome screen that they saw after downloading the app didn’t provide them with any information about ShareConnect.
There were two types of users:
“I’m out of here!” 🤯
The majority were put off by being asked to sign up and left after the welcome screen. This was 76% of users.
The majority were put off by being asked to sign up and left after the welcome screen. This was 76% of users.
“Hmm, I’ll try to explore.” 🤔
This was a tiny number of users, but they were willing to try it and signed up to find out.
This was a tiny number of users, but they were willing to try it and signed up to find out.
I saw this as an opportunity to address both these types of users.
Designs
What does ShareConnect do at a glance?
We needed to provide users with a friendlier welcome screen that told them what ShareConnect did before asking them to Sign Up.
Give interested users a sampling
To entice users into signing up and setting up a remote computer, I created the “Demo PC.” The Demo PC allows users to play around with the experience of what they would get if they set up a remote computer.
To entice users into signing up and setting up a remote computer, I created the “Demo PC.” The Demo PC allows users to play around with the experience of what they would get if they set up a remote computer.
Results - Part 1
There was a dramatic increase in the number of registrations after these two changes. We saw a 3x increase in the number of users signing up.
But there was one more problem ...
3x increase in the number of users who signed up 🎉
But only 24% used ShareConnect at least once.
This was because users couldn’t do anything until they set up a remote computer they wanted to access.
Unlike most other apps that users used, ShareConnect provided no immediate value.
There was one big step needed - Set up a remote computer.
The required users to
Physically get up > Go to their remote computer > Download and install ShareConnect
This led me to another round of user testing.
The arduous flow where ShareConnect lost users
User testing - Part 2
When numbers lieNPS scores were still meeting targets but looking deeper; the trend was worrisome. Most users either loved it or hated it. Not many in between.
I ran usability tests with ten users to understand the problem, and I was very surprised with what I found -
Yes, they added a remote computer.
As soon as the installation was complete, the webpage displayed the computer they added, and 80% of users intuitively clicked on it. By doing so, they connected from their computer to the very same computer!
This made their screens go black. They didnt want to try ShareConnect anymore.
Yes, they added a remote computer.
As soon as the installation was complete, the webpage displayed the computer they added, and 80% of users intuitively clicked on it. By doing so, they connected from their computer to the very same computer!
This made their screens go black. They didnt want to try ShareConnect anymore.
Designs - Part 2
A tweak in the flow helped with this -
I created a new webpage to launch in a new tab/window as soon as the installation is complete. This was users wouldn’t see the ShareConnect webpage displaying their newly added computer.
I created a new webpage to launch in a new tab/window as soon as the installation is complete. This was users wouldn’t see the ShareConnect webpage displaying their newly added computer.
Results - Part 2
This did not increase the number of users who set up a remote computer. Still, it reduced the problem of them connecting from their remote computer to the very same computer to almost 0%!