Since Google offered the domain registration service in 2014, the support costs in user assistance had been high. The goal of this illustration project was to guide users through a complex journey of transferring* their domains.
*
A domain transfers refers to the changing of internet services provider (ISP) from one to another. For example, a business who owns a .com domain hosted by GoDaddy might switch over to Google Domains.
My Role
Illustrator, Visual Designer
I joined a team of 3 (an interaction designer and a team manager) as the first in-house visual designer to create illustrations and visual design.
This project took about a month from concept to finish.
Process of illustrating the customer journey.
Identify
Current experience designed for expert only
Personas of this service vary between small business owners and tech-savvy web administrators. This project focused on the former who had challenges completing the process.
Focused persona - small business owner.
Switching domains is an infrequent process (once every year at maximum). Most customers are unfamiliar with the underlying technology and are often confused with the terminologies providers are referencing.
"Domain lock, Transfer lock, or EPP lock."
"Authorization code, Auth code, Transfer code, or EPP code."
Terms used by providers that are referring to the same thing.
Synthesize
Rewriting the story line
One of the concepts was to switch the approach from telling the story chronologically to chunking events by location.
From (chronological)
Existing experience. Users follow a long list of steps in sequence which require them to between two locations.
To (groups)
To help tell a story at high level, new illustration focused on summarizing the items by locations.
Simplify
Metaphors and actions
Improve communication through the use of actionable icons and graphics.
Even though this set of illustrations did not make it to the final development, the effort brought new lights to improving the existing interaction design. The second half of this project focused on the interaction design of transfer steps. Please contact me if you are interested in the details.
