Onboarding for Merlyn
CLIENT
Merlyn Mind
YEAR
2025
RESULTS
73% increase in onboarding completion rate
41% reduction in user drop-off during onboarding
56% increase in feature adoption post-onboarding
28% reduction in onboarding support tickets
THE SHORT
Navigating Complexity: Designing a Smarter Onboarding for Merlyn
At launch, Merlyn prioritized speed to market over a fully optimized onboarding experience. This leads to high support needs and inconsistent adoption across schools. We quickly identify onboarding as a key friction point and prioritize a redesign.
Merlyn’s onboarding presents unique challenges. It serves a B2B2C model with varying deployment methods. Large districts use automated installs, mid-sized ones rely on IT admins, and smaller districts often have teachers handling setup themselves. Combined with Merlyn’s hybrid hardware and software experience, this creates dozens of potential entry points.
Our solution is a dynamic onboarding flow launched directly from the Merlyn app. It adapts based on user role and setup, creating a streamlined, personalized experience that reduces friction and increases adoption at scale.
THE LONG
Diving Deeper: The Strategy Behind Designing Merlyn’s Scalable Onboarding Experience
DISCOVERY + DEFINITION
The onboarding experience was identified as a key friction point in Merlyn’s user journey. Stakeholder feedback and user testing surfaced several core issues:
To address these concerns, we aligned with product and engineering teams to define clear goals for the redesign:
RESEARCH
Our research phase focused on understanding user behaviors and pain points through:
User Testing & Interviews
We conducted usability tests and interviews with 50 new users to understand their experiences. Key findings included:
Journey Mapping
We mapped the existing onboarding experience to identify high-friction areas. This exercise highlighted opportunities for improvement, such as:
A further exploration of the role-based onboarding paths identified 6 key flows into which the dozens of possible permutations might follow.
DECISIONS + NEXT STEPS
Our research revealed several key areas for improvement in Merlyn’s onboarding experience. Users often felt overwhelmed by too much information upfront, leading to frustration and drop-offs. To address this, we introduced a step-by-step guided flow with clear progress indicators, breaking information into digestible sections. Additionally, the lack of role-specific onboarding made the experience feel irrelevant for different user types. We solved this by implementing a personalized onboarding path that adapted based on whether the user was an IT admin, teacher, or other stakeholder.
Another major challenge was low engagement with tutorials, which resulted in users underutilizing key features. To counter this, we integrated interactive walkthroughs that encouraged hands-on learning rather than passive instruction. Moreover, onboarding was previously too intertwined with the first-time user experience (FTUE), causing users to miss crucial information. We separated onboarding from FTUE to ensure that regardless of how a user first interacted with Merlyn—through hardware setup, software installation, or classroom use—they would always receive the right content at the right time.
Finally, a lack of clear feedback on progress left users uncertain about their onboarding status. To improve this, we added a visible progress tracker and success milestones, reinforcing a sense of accomplishment and guiding users to the next steps. These insights informed our UX flows and wireframing process, ensuring a structured, data-driven approach to the redesign.
IDEATION, PROTOTYPING + TESTING
We iterated through multiple design solutions before finalizing the optimal approach. Key design decisions included:
- Dynamic Onboarding Paths – Regardless of start point, all roads lead to the app
- Online Assistance – Contextual tooltips and help prompts minimized confusion
- Gamification Elements – Progress indicators and small wins increased motivation
After wireframing and prototyping, we conducted testing with 100 users, comparing the old and new onboarding flows, revealing significant improvements.
The results confirmed that the new onboarding significantly improved user comprehension, reduced drop-off, and enhanced feature adoption.
LAUNCH + BEYOND
The redesigned onboarding experience was successfully launched, delivering:
Next Steps
This iterative approach ensures that Merlyn’s onboarding will continue evolving to meet user needs, improving both user experience and business impact.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Redesigning Merlyn’s onboarding experience provided valuable insights into user behavior, engagement drivers, and UX best practices. This project reinforced the importance of:
- Balancing guidance with efficiency – Too much information overwhelms users; too little leaves them lost.
- Personalization – Users engage more when onboarding feels relevant to their needs.
- Data-driven iteration – Continuous testing and refinement lead to measurable improvements.
By applying these principles, we successfully transformed Merlyn’s onboarding into a seamless, engaging, and effective introduction to the platform.
CASE STUDY
AMNH’s Digital Totem
Designing an interactive exhibit that turns visitors into explorers.
AMNH’s Digital Totem
Designing an interactive exhibit that turns visitors into explorers.