Improving IBM's Cloud trial form

IBM | 2024

Improvised onboarding form creation process

A UX case study on reducing submission errors by 40% &

increasing user engagement by 25%.

Background

At some point, we would have encountered registration forms during the onboarding process for any SaaS product. IBM uses Universal Registration Forms (URX) to onboard users for its SaaS products, gathering only the necessary information to ensure a quick and frictionless onboarding experience.

So, who creates URX forms?

Universal Registration Forms (URX) are created by product managers and demand strategists to onboard users for different SaaS products. These forms are customized to gather only the essential information, making the onboarding process simple and smooth.

To create these forms, IBM uses a tool called PerForm, which helps streamline the form creation process while maintaining consistency across different products.

For this project, we will focus on improving the URX form creation specifically for Cloud trial products.

URX Registration form for Cloud Trail products

Note to reader

URX stands for Universal Registration Form

You’ll see this term pop up a lot in the case study!

What was the problem?

The product teams at IBM frequently create URX registration forms using the PerForm tool to onboard users, managing over 1,200 forms that facilitate thousands of IBM ID registrations each year. However, as the number of forms increased, a significant problem surfaced.

The PerForm tool, which was meant to simplify things, had become too complicated, leading to frequent errors and slowing down the URX form creation process. This complexity not only frustrated the product teams but also negatively impacted the thousands of customers relying on these forms for seamless registration.

It became evident that changes were needed to boost productivity and improve the overall experience for both the product teams and the end users.

Project tight constraints: 6 designers & 6 weeks

This project was part of IBM's Incubator Program, where our team of 6 designers had just 6 weeks to get everything done—research, prototyping, testing, and handing it off to developers.

Tight timeline

With only 6 weeks to complete research, prototyping, testing, and developer handoff, we prioritized critical user flows that would deliver the most impact. To meet the deadline, we intentionally minimized the scope by focusing on essential functionality while deferring nice-to-have features for future iterations.

Team collaboration

Our team adopted a highly collaborative model, with each designer owning specific workstreams while staying aligned through daily syncs. Close communication with developers and product managers ensured that our design decisions balanced user needs, technical feasibility, and business goals.

Legacy technology

The platform's legacy technology posed limitations in implementing advanced UI elements. We worked closely with developers to understand system capabilities and design an optimal user experience. within the technical framework.

Budget constraints

Identifying core issues in the URX workflow

To gain a deeper understanding of the challenges, I followed a structured approach to uncover the core issues. Below are the key steps I took as part of the problem discovery process.

Analyzing the current workflow: Mapped the existing URX form creation workflow to identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks in the form creation process.
User interviews: conducted interviews with 10 users to pinpoint time-consuming steps and areas prone to errors.
Affinity mapping: conducted an affinity mapping exercise to categorize and synthesize data from user interviews.
Heuristic evaluation: Reviewed the current design to uncover usability issues that could be improved in the new design.

Go ahead and jump to any section if you want to explore the details of

these processes.

Analyzing the current workflow

The current URX Form creation process for the cloud trial using the PerForm tool involves 5 steps:

Talking to users and gathering insights

As PerForm is an IBM’s internal tool used by PM’s, we conducted user interviews with 10 participants. The goal was to identify which parts of the form creation process consume the most time and are more prone to errors.

These were a few example key questions:

Can you take us through the process of creating a form?
Do you remember the first time you were introduced to Perform and how long it took to create a form?
What are the struggles and frustrations you continue to have in the PerForm tool?
What do you do or the workarounds when you encounter any blockers?

Synthesizing data through Affinity mapping workshop

Our team conducted an affinity mapping exercise to categorize and synthesize data from user interviews. This process enabled us to identify patterns, themes, and key insights from the sessions.

Highlighting core issues from user interviews

80%

Lacks customization: Users expressed a desire for more form design customization and formatting options, highlighting the demand for a more flexible design experience.

75%

Onboarding challenges: Users relied on colleagues or peers to learn to create forms using the PerForm tool for the first time.

60%

Struggle with info. gathering: Users expressed that the main struggle is gathering all the required information to complete the form and inputting it correctly at the “ Configure stage”.

60%

Insufficient guides: Users expressed a need for more documentation or guides to use the tool effectively to reduce ambiguity.

50%

Lacks alerts: Users prefer to receive alerts or notifications once translations are completed.

Besides, we observed few subtle cues...

100%

Image uploading frustrations: Users encountered difficulties when adding images to forms, highlighting a critical area for UX improvement.

15mins

Time-consuming form creation: Users take more than 15 minutes to create a form, even when they have all the necessary information, indicating potential areas for simplifying the process

Prioritised issues from Design audit workshops

We conducted design audit workshops focused on the existing form creation flow. During these workshops, we thoroughly evaluated the current design to identify areas for improvement. The issues identified were then prioritized using a combination of impact vs. effort metrics, frequency of occurrence, and usability considerations.

Based on the problems discovered, we streamlined our approach by formulating a "How Might We" statement.

How Might We..

Reduce errors and time consumption in the form creation process while providing customization features and better guidance to enhance

the user experience?

Addressing one challenge at a time

Time saving workflow: Now only 4 steps

We noticed that creating a form was taking too long. Our goal was to speed up the process and cut down on the number of steps. We realized the build page was redundant and could be merged with the design stage. By combining the design and build stages, we saved time and reduced the steps involved.

Click here to see the initial workflow pages.

Initial workflow: 5 steps to create a URX form

1. Configure

2. Build

3. Design

4. Translate

5. Publish

New workflow: 4 steps process by merging Design & Build

1. Configure

2. Build + Design

3. Translate

4. Publish

The Final Design

Step 1: Configure

In the configuration stage, the scroll of the page is reduced by including two columns in the form design.
To ensure consistency, the latest IBM design system was incorporated into the upgraded design.
Field information was grouped and provided as a subcategory in the form layout.
Reduced ambiguity by including clear helper text and navigation links when needed.

Step 2: Design = Edit mode + View mode

The key major changes were made in the Design stage.
In the new design, the “Build and Design stages” were integrated into the “Design Stage”.
At this step, the user can customize the entire page, including the fields, fonts, text, content, and images used.
The user can preview the design here in the "View mode", which eliminates the requirement to preview them at the “Publish stage”.
During this step, the user can switch between "Edit and Preview mode" to save time and reduce errors.

Step 3: Translate

During the Translate stage, users are guided to send the form for translation and are provided with relevant links.
If the user forgot to add or remove languages for translation during the Configure stage, they can do it here.
The user can check the "Translation and publish status" of all translated languages at this stage.

Step 4: Publish

In the Publish stage, the user can preview the form in any language with a single click, which opens a new tab.
The user can share the link to the form internally with the team.

Jill, Demand strategist

" Updated designs provide a user experience that is optimised to ensure Marketing and Product teams create the right forms in the right way with minimal effort and confusion. "

Experience based roadmap

Project impact

40%

Reduction in form submission errors

25%

Increase in user engagement

My learnings

This project highlighted the value of designing solutions rooted in user behavior. Gaining insights into the users' daily routines allowed us to create a solution that seamlessly fit into their workflow with minimal effort. Additionally, it helped us address problems that were observed during the process, even though users hadn’t explicitly mentioned them.