Trialist onboarding research
Researching how new trial users find their footing in a complex tool.
Role
- UX Designer
Timeline
- Mar - Apr 2026
Tools
- Figma
- Hotjar
- Notion
- Claude Code
Skills
- User Research
- Data Analysis
- Onboarding Design
Problem
Raw data comes straight from your survey platform and includes all respondent metadata, such as timestamps and completion status. This lets you clean and process it in Displayr.
Sample data is data that has already been processed. It no longer includes respondent metadata, so it can't be cleaned or reprocessed further.
Key Moments
Originally, the focus was on how to get users to upload the right kind of data. When analysing the data, I discovered that 53% of trialists weren't uploading data at all. A problem me and my PM agreed was more important to solve
Users were concerned about security when uploading real personally identifiable information to a product they were trialing
Users weren’t familiar with Displayr's workflow: Upload → Create Chart → Configure
Users wanted to see what functions Displayr could perform without wanting to have to upload any data
Solution
This new upload data overlay allows users to see the charts and search for what they wan't without worrying about data. It still allowed users to easily upload their own data if they want to
Research
The full data and research behind the key moments above.
The graph below is the results of event tracking key moments in the upload flow over the previous year.
I looked at screen recordings and spoke with Customer Success and User Support teams to understand the requirements that market researchers have when using software. Market researchers handle PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and therefore have greater concerns about the security of data than typical software users
Reflection
Early on, I had assumed that it was a simple UI problem and this trapped my thinking in that it was only a UI problem. After doing the user research, my mind was opened up and I got a whole new understanding of Market Researchers.
If I were to do this again, I would take it slower. I was eager to tackle this problem as it was my first real UI/UX research project, so I rushed through it and forgot the most important thing, ask and understand.