One Front Door: Rethinking Onboarding After a Week in a Highland Cottage

I spent last week in a small white cottage in the Scottish Highlands. That's it on the cover: one door, a few windows, a chimney and a mountain behind it that kept disappearing into cloud. No Wi-Fi, patchy signal and a lot of rain. I ended up sketching our onboarding on the back of a walking map.

The cottage turned out to be a good design brief.

One obvious way in

You never wonder how to get into that house. There's one door, in the middle, facing the path. Our sign-up flow, by contrast, has three ways in, and two of them lead to a settings page. New members need one obvious first step: say hello in the Welcome Lounge.

Few rooms, each with a purpose

The cottage has a kitchen, a sitting room and two bedrooms. Nothing is there just in case. When someone joins this network, we currently show them dozens of spaces. I'd rather show them three that match what they told us they care about.

Thick walls

Those walls keep the weather out so the inside can be cosy. Moderation does the same job. Members rarely notice it when it works, and it's the reason they feel safe enough to post.

A kettle by the door

The owner left milk, tea and a handwritten note saying which tap runs hot. Small, specific, human. That's the tone I want for our welcome messages.

Over the next month I'll be simplifying the first-week experience here based on these notes. If you remember what confused you when you joined, please tell me in the comments. It's the most useful feedback I can get.