Instagram Business Account Onboarding
Lead
Designer
Product Framework
Jun 2018 -
Dec 2018
Android &
iOS
Tens of millions of business owners and entrepreneurs run their business on Instagram, which offers a suite of tools to help companies succeed. New users want to convert to a business account to use the tools, but the process isn’t easy - nearly half of them who started the conversion flow didn’t finish it. The redesigned flow has an improved experience; after launching, Instagram grew from 35M to 90M monthly active businesses within two quarters.
My Role
I was the only product designer on this project. My job was to revisit the design framework to future-proof the Instagram business platform by addressing the changing user needs.
I worked cross functionally with product, engineers, analysts and
researchers to identify the crux of the problem and an effective solution. We had collaborated closely to overcome a number of internal and external challenges.
The Impact
We see a 6.5% lift in completion of the new flow while maintaining the same retention rate - which means the new flow has onboarded not only more new users but more meaningful new users to the ecosystem.
The new experience was rolled out in phases starting in mid-2019.
My Process
In this project, I followed this process: unpacking the problem, exploring solutions, testing and iterating.
Unpacking the problem
Through quantitative and qualitative research, we found the existing design was not meeting the audience's expectation caused by the gradual shifting of demographic. It was manifested in 3 key usability issues:
Picking a category that accurately summarizes the type of business I do is cumbersome.
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30% drop-off in this step, which was the largest across the entire funnel
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There was low accuracy in business category and business content matching, as rated by both human and machine raters
Connecting to a matching Facebook Page is error-prone, and the value was unclear.
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The majority of users skipped this step because they don't understand its value.
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This was the most common complaint by businesses.
Irrelevant contacts hinder businesses' momentum.
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The traditional business contacts have become irrelevant. More and more businesses are shifting their customer communication to online and social media. However, the current flow asks for dated-information, like physical address and email, without checking relevance.
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There was a high level of friction to fill information caused by a pogo-sticking user experience.
As the new generation businesses become more niche and diverse, we realized that the old one-size-fits-all solution no longer serves them. We need a more sophisticated approach while still staying true to Instagram's product philosophy - simplicity first.
Exploring solutions
After rounds of discussion, brainstorming, and concept exploration, we aligned on a vertical-aware approach - building a system that dynamically shows relevant content to different business verticals. In this way, we could remove noises and provide a focused experience.
Informed by data, we decided to focus on Media Creator, Online Retailer, and Local Services. They are the most prominent business verticals on Instagram.
After agreeing on the strategy, I explored a wide range of solutions for the end-to-end user flow, the Select Category Step, the Connect to Facebook Step, and the Business Contact Step.
Testing and iterating
We collected initial user feedback by testing an interactive design prototype. The feedback was very positive. Most participants liked the new design as they thought it was easier to understand and flow smoothly.
Through the testing, I identified some areas of improvement for further iteration. Below is the final design prototype.
