RESEARCH

In order to understand how customers view the unboxing experience, we conducted both contextual inquiries and task analyses. We talked to a range of drone users from novices to seasoned experts. Regardless of how familiar customers were going to be with hobby drones, we needed to design a first-time unboxing experience that facilitates setup for all experience levels.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS, KEY TAKEAWAYS
Our first step was to learn what Autel's biggest competitors (3DR & DJI) did well and did poorly within their onboarding expriences:

USER & TASK ANALYSIS, KEY TAKEAWAYS
We performed 4 User Interviews & 6 Task Analyses (had users go through the motions of setting up the Autel X-Star with their current unboxing/onboarding experience) and determined the following key takeaways:

• Participants do not understand diagrams
• Participants would rather look at pictures/videos than read the manual
• Enthusiasm declines throughout unboxing
• Participants are confused by the "connect app" step

PLAN

After gathering our user research, we created affinity diagrams and developed a persona to base our designs off of. As a tinkerer, Gary wants minimal guidance through the setup procedure while still having access to it when needed. Gary is an amalgamation of the user data we gathered on current drone users looking to upgrade to the new Autel X-Star Premium model.

DESIGN

The challenge within the design of this app was fundamentally in both the amount of information we were choosing to present as well as the method of demonstration. Our first iteration was a grayscale prototype that included diagrams currently in the Autel manuals shown through progressive disclosure. Our primary focus was to give a one screen overview with the ability to click through for more detailed information. After our first round of testing, we made some fundamental changes in how we displayed our designs and came up with a hi-fidelity mockup with inspiring visuals. 

During this process, I also designed a single-page leaflet directing users to download the Starlink app to begin the setup process (see below).

TEST

We conducted usability tests with our grayscale prototype to determine pain points with or design decisions before iterating to a hi-fidelity version. The main takeaways were that users were reluctant to click through for more information so the primary screens offered too much confusion. We also decided to trim what information we were presenting as they were not necessary for a user taking their first flight, and instead created more sections in the "quick guides" section. We altered how we displayed instructions versus taught through visuals as we found that users were prone to looking at pictures and ignoring text completely. However, the manual diagrams were also confusing so we took our own photographs for use in this prototype. 

SUGGESTED NEXT STEPS

While we only had 3 weeks to create this initial design, we handed the following suggested next steps to Autel to work with their next iteration:

• Align our design solutions with current established design patterns
• Build out additional quick guide walkthroughs
• Add in video tutorials from Autel's existing video library
• Test with alternative user flows to fine-tune design decisions