New hires feel intimidated to ask questions

For this project, I am working on an internal tool called Embark. It allows managers to create onboarding plans for new hires to help them onboard effectively. The plan includes assigning an Amazon Advisor (AA) to assist new hires in learning about their roles.

Increasing Amazon Advisor , A role that is not in your team

In September 2022, only 42.3% of new hires had an Amazon Advisor. Multiple internal and external studies have identified ‘getting connected’ as a key input to successful onboarding. Upon research, these are the three main reasons:

Defining business and success metrics

I began this project by familiarizing myself with the onboarding process. I held meetings with another designer on the OnEx team and the PM to define business and user objectives.

Understanding the onboarding process and flow

Then, I explored Embark independently to conduct a heuristic analysis. These steps helped me map out the existing user flow and frame my research tasks.

Finding qualitative data and research reports

To understand how effective the current AA assignment is, I looked at the 2022 research report to see if there were any issues uncovered. Here are some insights.

Evaluating the current experience

To understand why managers are not assigning AAs , I recruited 14 managers who had never used Embark before and conducted usability testing through UserTesting. Given the issue, I would ask the participants to speak while they were given certain tasks to complete. Here are some questions I had asked.

Usability tests and results findings

Then, I categorized their quotes into a specific theme and ranked the issue's severity based on the frequency of mentions. The result is glaring. 85% of the managers confused AA with another role, and 71% mentioned they did not know who to assign.

Major findings and Uncovered insights

These were the most urgent issues that needed to be addressed based on the usability test and follow-up interviews.

Ideation: Prioritizing features with charts

After boiling down the main problems, I prioritized brainstorming quantity over quality to ensure I could deliver our designs in 1 month.  I then select solutions on the feature-prioritization chart by collaborating with the product and engineering team.

The nitty gritty design directions in a glance

After boiling down the main problems, I prioritized brainstorming quantity over quality to ensure I could deliver our designs in 1 month.  I then selected solutions on the feature-prioritization chart by collaborating with the product and engineering team.

Before - a messy and burdenful approach to intro

Many interviewed managers expressed concern about what to do after completing the plan. The current page obscures key information and does not provide clear next steps for users.

After - Simplified and clear next steps

I have removed redundant information from the page. Then, I simplified the text into concise sentences. Additionally, I changed the banner text to remind users to reach out after completing the plan.

Before: Ambiguous next steps

Initial research told us the most pressing problem was the confusions between roles. To fixed this design, I looked at the current screen.

After - Law of Prägnanz: read at a glance

85% of the interviewed managers confused Amazon Advisor with the other role. Hence, my design direction focused on enhancing legibility and glaceability through the addition of structured elements like tables and bullet points.

Pushbacks to PM

During the design process, my PMs opposed the comparison chart idea, citing concerns about excessive cognitive load for users. As the design lead, I persuaded them to retain the chart by presenting usability testing evidence demonstrating that managers need to quickly understand the roles. Additionally, following UX best practices, we should not obscure important text that aids in making key decisions.

Before - manual search

The final issue is the limited network connections, which leads to a shortage of Amazon Advisors. According to the interview, many managers lack the external connections necessary for assigning someone to become an Amazon Advisor.

Process- challenging design for automated recommendation

I designed an automated people recommendation pattern and held a UX review session. While feedback on the comparison chart and other designs was positive, the search box in the recommendation pattern remains confusing.

Process - exploring different options

To fix this issue, I have created multiple iterations and explorations on the position of different elements. I want to make sure it looks like two separate functions while does not impact "load more".

After - an automated people recommender

After several iterations, we finalized the second design. It separates the two tasks with a distinct layout and allows room for comparison.

User testing again to validate effectiveness

When the design was finished, I recruited another 14 managers to test out the new prototype. I wanted to make sure the improved onboarding creation experience worked and made sense. I am so happy with the result. Here are the results.

Further testing after implementation

In November 2023, the redesign was launched officially on Embark. However,  future testing and surveys are required to estimate the growth of employee satisfaction. Only in that case, the project is claimed "real" success.