Role: Lead Designer ∣ Teams: UX Design, Product, Analytics, Creative ∣ Timeline: 3 months
Led the Onboarding experience with a dual brand redesign for the Macy’s App and the Bloomingdale’s App, improving opt-in rate for location services by 26%, push notifications by 19% and App activity tracking by 15%. These improvements strengthened adoption of downstream revenue-driving features such as personalized recommendations, store discovery, targeted messaging, and promotional engagement. The onboarding process provides the opportunity to enable key settings that would benefit both the user and the business. For Macy’s and Bloomingdales, enabling location services, push notifications and App activity tracking were key so the user could utilize strategic features.
Increased
Location Services
↑ 26%
Increased
Push Notifications
↑ 19%
Increased
App Activity Tracking
↑ 15%
Context and the problem
The onboarding process provides the opportunity to enable key settings that would benefit both the user and the business. For Macy’s and Bloomingdales, enabling location services, push notifications and App activity tracking were key so the user could utilize strategic features such as “Store locator, Ads, Product recommendations, Notifications, etc.” The existing flow had several problems, As a result, permission opt-in rates underperformed, limiting the effectiveness of personalization, store-based experiences, and marketing engagement strategies.
Key issues
– Permission requests lacked context
– Users encountered interruptions later in the experience when permissions were required mid-task
– The onboarding felt lengthy and disconnected from the shopping experience
– The two brands operated with inconsistent onboarding approaches, creating inefficiencies across design and engineering teams
Discovery &
Research
To better understand the friction points in the existing experience,
I partnered closely with analytics and customer support teams
Quantitative Analysis
We analyzed exit rates, drop-off points, rage-click behavior, permission denial rates, time-to-completion metrics. The data showed users were abandoning the onboarding flow early and often dismissing permissions without understanding their value.
Qualitative Analysis
I reviewed customer service feedback and recurring user pain points related to interruptive, permission requests, confusing onboarding steps, lack of clarity around feature benefits.
Then, as a strategic synthesis, I mapped user needs against business
priorities to identify where alignment existed and where friction emerged
Business goals
→ Increase adoption of key permissions tied to revenue-driving features
→ Reduce onboarding abandonment and friction
→ Create a scalable onboarding framework adaptable across both brands
→ Improve operational efficiency between product, engineering, and creative teams
User goals
→ Reach the shopping experience faster
→ Understand the value behind requested permissions
→ Avoid disruptive permission requests later in the journey
Strategy &
UX Principles
Through discovery, I identified three strategic onboarding principles and translated them into a framework that aligned and guided design decisions. This approach helped shift onboarding from a compliance-driven flow into a more intentional product entry experience.
1
Get users to the product
as quickly as possible
2
Prioritizing only the permissions
critical to downstream experiences
3
Clear value communication
around permissions
Measurable success
I partnered with analytics before implementation to ensure the experience could be evaluated through measurable outcomes enabling the team to measure onboarding performance improvements, validate permission strategy decisions and Identify future optimization opportunities.
KPIs
→ Location services opt-in rate
→ Push notification opt-in rate
→ App activity tracking opt-in rate
→ Onboarding completion time
→ Drop-off and exit rates
Cross-Functional Leadership
A core part of the project involved organizational alignment between the UX, product, analytics and creative teams. This helped reduce ambiguity during development, prevent duplicated work across brands, surface stakeholder concerns early and maintain momentum during implementation. The collaboration model also improved communication between digital product teams and creative stakeholders, which had previously operated more independently.
Alignment plan
I led recurring:
→ Design reviews
→ Alignment meetings
→ Working sessions
→ Documentation and decision tracking
Design Execution
Throughout exploration, I evaluated permission sequencing, progressive disclosure, approaches, visual hierarchy, brand introduction moments and timing of opt-in requests. The final direction prioritized speed, clarity, and contextual relevance over promotional or tutorial-heavy onboarding patterns.
Final designs
The redesigned onboarding experience delivered measurable improvements across both brands and created operational efficiencies by enabling a scalable dual-brand onboarding model that reduced future design and engineering overhead.
Increased Location Services
↑ 26%
Increased Push Notifications
↑ 19%
Increased App Activity Tracking
↑ 15%
Reflection
This project reinforced the importance of viewing onboarding as part of a larger ecosystem rather than as the sole opportunity to request permissions.
One major learning was that permission strategy should extend beyond onboarding and become more contextual throughout the product experience. Users are often focused on reaching the product quickly during first launch, which can reduce engagement with permission requests regardless of design quality.
The project also highlighted the importance of involving brand and creative partners early in product definition. Because onboarding is often the user’s first interaction with a brand, visual storytelling and brand perception play a critical role in shaping trust and engagement from the beginning.
Albert Gooding
Designer
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Anastasia Wang
Illustrator
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Deborah Wright
Designer
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Sean Snyder
Developer
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Quantitative Analysis
We analyzed exit rates, drop-off points, rage-click behavior, permission denial rates, time-to-completion metrics. The data showed users were abandoning the onboarding flow early and often dismissing permissions without understanding their value.
Qualitative Analysis
I reviewed customer service feedback and recurring user pain points related to interruptive, permission requests, confusing onboarding steps, lack of clarity around feature benefits.
Strategic Synthesis
I mapped user needs against business priorities to identify where alignment existed and where friction emerged.
Business Goals
→ Increase adoption of key permissions tied to revenue-driving features
→ Reduce onboarding abandonment and friction
→ Create a scalable onboarding framework adaptable across both brands
→ Improve operational efficiency between product, engineering, and creative teams
User Goals
→ Reach the shopping experience faster
→ Understand the value behind requested permissions
→ Avoid disruptive permission requests later in the journey
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