Project Overview

Client: Dell Technologies
Role: UI Designer (Workflow Design & Prototyping)
Tools: Figma, UserTesting

 

Dell’s API Portal serves as a central platform for developers to discover and integrate APIs. To improve developer adoption and reduce friction, the team needed a streamlined onboarding experience that would guide users through the setup process and key workflows. I was responsible for designing the UI across multiple onboarding workflows—ensuring clarity, consistency, and a developer-friendly interface from first touchpoint to full activation.

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The Problem

The original onboarding process lacked a guided structure, which led to:

• User confusion about next steps

• Drop-offs before API key generation or usage

• Poor visibility into onboarding progress and requirements

 

Our challenge was to rethink the onboarding journey from a UI standpoint—breaking it into digestible steps, supporting different user scenarios, and creating a sense of momentum and accomplishment throughout the process.

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The Process

I collaborated with product managers, developers, and UX researchers to map out the complete onboarding flow. The process included identifying common developer needs, edge cases, and technical requirements (e.g., API key handling, permission settings).

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My approach included:

• User journey mapping to align UI states with onboarding logic

• Designing modular, reusable UI components for each step in the process (e.g., form entries, success states, error handling)

• Creating variants for different workflows (e.g., public API vs private/internal onboarding)

• Prototyping micro-interactions to enhance usability and feedback

• Close collaboration with developers for implementation-ready handoff

 

I focused on keeping the experience minimal, actionable, and transparent—especially for developers who prefer speed and clarity over marketing-heavy content.

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The Solution

The onboarding flow was broken down into clear, visual steps that guided users through registration, API key creation, documentation access, and usage analytics.

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UI improvements included:

• A step-based progress tracker for orientation

• Contextual help tooltips and inline validation

• Quick-start guides and embedded code snippets in key steps

• Consistent visual patterns and spacing for a clean, dev-focused UI

• Responsive design to support all device sizes (especially tablets and widescreens)

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Outcome

The updated onboarding experience launched as part of the API Portal redesign. While full data insights were tracked post-launch, early results and internal feedback noted:

• Reduced drop-off rate during onboarding flow

• Increased completion rate for API key generation

• Positive responses from internal teams on the design system consistency and modularity