The Single Vista Account
In October 2020, Vista made a significant acquisition by bringing 99designs into its portfolio. This move was seen as a promising step toward strengthening Vista's position in the design and marketing industry. However, until recently, there had been limited progress in integrating these two platforms effectively.
In addition to the acquisition of 99designs, Vista also added another graphic design company to its roster, known as Crello. The ultimate goal for Vista is to establish itself as the leading expert in design and marketing services specifically tailored for small businesses.
The Goal
Our cross-functional team had recognised that for the business to achieve being the ultimate expert design and marketing partner for small business we needed to create a unifying account system to allow our users to easily access all the services under Vista.
The Challenge
Cumbersome User Experience: Although some teams had initiated the process of enabling Vista users to collaborate with 99designs' designers, the existing setup proved cumbersome for users to navigate. For instance, when a Vista user attempted to engage with 99designs' designers through Vista, they often had to create a new 99designs account. Given that less than 1% of Vista users had pre-existing 99designs accounts, this added complexity to the user journey.
Lack of User Tracking: The lack of a streamlined process also meant there was no straightforward way to track if a user who created a new 99designs account did so through Vista or independently. This posed challenges in assessing the effectiveness of the integration and user adoption rates.
Independent Teams: Up until this point, 99designs and Vista operated with separate product and design teams, spanning different geographical locations such as Australia, India and the United States. Coordinating efforts across these teams was crucial to ensure the success of the new account system.
Collaboration and Role In this complex landscape, the project required a high degree of collaboration. The product design team, including myself, was tasked with addressing these challenges. My role specifically focused on validating and designing the 99designs authentication experience. This involved working closely with my design counterpart on the Vista side in the United States to ensure that the new account system seamlessly served Vista users across the board.
Overcoming these challenges necessitated close coordination, innovative design solutions, and a deep understanding of both Vista and 99designs' user bases, ultimately leading to the successful integration and improvement of the user experience between the two platforms.
Define
In defining the project scope, a cross-functional working group was established, involving teams in the US, Australia, and India. The US team focused on the Vista side's login/signup experience, while the Indian team managed the authentication backend and Vista development. Our team was responsible for the 99designs experience and development. The group collectively decided that expanding the Vista authentication system to cover all platforms, rather than creating a new one, was the optimal approach, driven by Vista's extensive user base and the Indian team's backend capabilities. To begin, I conducted an assessment of how Vista's design changes might impact our 99d users, considering various entry points and user experiences. Notably, 99d featured two distinct user types with different signup flows, necessitating careful consideration. Close collaboration with the Vista design team was also crucial for a successful integration.
Design
In the design phase, addressing the diverse user journeys and user types was paramount. Whether users were signing up as designers or creating client briefs, I had to account for various pathways within the authentication process. Collaboration played a central role in the project's success, as I didn't have direct ownership of the authentication page itself. Regular communication with my colleague at Vista was essential to ensure that our design and experience requirements were aligned.
One significant challenge we encountered was the technical complexity that prevented us from altering the visual language of the authentication page. Given that most users were unaware of the acquisition, introducing a new Vista-branded login page would likely confuse them further. User testing confirmed this, as testers expressed confusion and skepticism about a login/signup page with a different visual style than what they were accustomed to on 99designs.
To mitigate this issue, especially for users accustomed to 99designs' visual language, I introduced a one-time transition page. This transition page aimed to improve the experience of encountering the new login page and help users smoothly adapt to the changes brought about by the acquisition.
Outcomes
In September 2022, we successfully launched the new authentication experience, initially in specific regions and subsequently globally across Vista and 99designs. This rollout was met with considerable success. By the end of October 2022, all active 99designs users had seamlessly transitioned to the new authentication method, and our support team reported no significant increase in case load, indicating a smooth user adoption process.
The completion of this project had a positive ripple effect across various teams within both 99designs and Vista. Teams that were reliant on this integration could now pursue their objectives effectively in the subsequent quarter, showcasing the project's substantial impact on the overall organisation.