Interactive Product Onboarding

Transforming Help Center article content into into an interactive onboarding experience for users of an all-in-one asset, wealth, and investment management platform.

Screenshot of Addepar's online training platform showing a lesson titled "Set up portfolios for your firm" with a video player and a sidebar menu with lessons on portfolio ownership, troubleshooting, offline assets, attributes, reporting, client portal, and maximizing investment.

My Role

  • Instructional Designer

  • UX Researcher & Designer

  • Content Strategy

The Team

  • Brit Olson - Project Manager

  • Brittany Smith - Project Mentor

  • Cross-functional collaboration with Content and UX Design teams

Timeline

3 months (Proof of Concept)

The Challenge

Addepar & Current Onboarding

Addepar is a FinTech company with an all-in-one platform for wealth, investment, and asset management. The platform is quite extensive with many opportunities for customization, making it unique among its competitors. Although this is a big selling point for the platform, it also makes onboarding new clients a long process. Current onboarding is reliant on:

  • 1-on-1 solutions consultant support

  • Synchronous learning requirements that create bottlenecks

Text overlay on a scenic mountain road image reads: "Onboarding takes 1 year and 150-300 service hours."

Long-Term Impact Goal

The long-term goal of this project is to reduce the time to onboard to...

Green circular badge with white text that reads '2 Months'.
Circle sign with white text that reads '20 Service Hours' on a dark background.

The Solution

I transformed a static help center article into an interactive, asynchronous, guided learning experience that users could complete at their own pace, reducing dependency on live support while maintaining learning quality.

Proof of Concept Scope

This project served as a proof of concept, focusing on transforming one critical help center article - "Set up portfolios for your firm" - into an interactive learning experience to validate the approach before broader implementation for all onboarding content.

A presentation slide titled 'Redesigned Article' with a subtitle 'Portfolio Setup - fundamental onboarding information' and a checkmark icon.
Sign indicating a 25-minute duration with the phrase 'Concise, focused, and applied learning' and a check mark.
Slide showing learning objectives for point 3, emphasizing clear, applicable, measurable outcomes with a checkmark.

  • The “Set up portfolios for your firm” article is a critical first step for new users.

  • In this format, the content is static and requires a lot of scrolling.

  • The lack of interactivity leaves the content in a format that is one-size-fits-all.

  • Activities that could help with scaffolding and real-world application are asked to be completed out of context.

  • Learning objectives are not clear and content is presented in a non-sequential format.

Original Article

Key Design Solution

Making Content Digestible

To reduce cognitive load, I focused on incorporating interactive elements to make the content more digestible and contribute to more effective learning.

Infographic comparing two-level and three-level ownership structures with diagrams of each.
Screenshot of a slide titled 'Rule of Thumb about RIAs' discussing different levels of ownership in portfolio structures, including three levels for RIAs and four levels for traditional structures, with an example of 'Households > Clients > Accounts'.
A webpage discussing ownership, control, and benefits related to assets, with blue clickable links and black text on a white background.
Mobile app screen for Addepar Training showing a 6-minute audio training on creating an ownership structure for a portfolio hierarchy.

Encouraging Active Recall

I designed activities to move users from passive reading to actively applying knowledge around what the user just learned about portfolio blueprints and ownership structures, which contributes to knowledge retention and overall competence.

(The following activities were designed on Gemini Canva)

An interactive quiz interface with a list of six options on the left: Global Logistics, Smith Real Estate, Smart Homes Initiative, Smith Family Trust, Smith Technology Ventures, and Smith Family Holdings. The screen displays drag-and-drop elements and a 'Check answers' button at the bottom.
Screenshot of a user interface with controls and options to select a template, add elements like Household, Client, Account, Legal Entity, and buttons for clearing the canvas, analyzing structure, and downloading as PDF.

Building Confidence with Guided Practice

The final step is relevant application. The Setup Simulation provides allows users to practice the actual workflow within a replica of the Addepar interface before they jump in. This prepares them to work in their own live account using their own data or move on to a more open demo environment, like a Sandbox.

Screenshot of a digital interface showing a report for Johnson Household in an analysis and reporting application, with tabs and options for managing household data.

Final Design Walkthrough

Slide titled 'Sequential Learning Paths' with bullet point about structured content, digestible sections, and clear progress tracking.
Slide titled 'Interactive Elements' with text about hands-on activities, exploration, and discovery in constructivist learning.
Slide titled 'Prerequisites & Context' with instruction to 'Clear "Before you begin" sections to set proper expectations and requirements.'
Slide with the heading 'Learning Objectives' and a bullet point about explicit outcomes for lessons, emphasizing understanding and real-world application.

Long-Term Projected Value

For Users

  • Self-paced learning flexibility

  • Faster time to productivity

  • Reduced dependency on support

  • Better learning retention through interactive transferable activities

Icon of two stylized human figures, one with a circle head and another with a rounded head, overlapping in green.

For the Business

  • Significant cost savings on support

  • Scalable onboarding process

  • Improved customer satisfaction

  • Faster revenue realization

  • Faster time to value

A building with multiple floors, likely an office or apartment complex.