Sparkcentral Sign In

The sign in flow had become a pain point for users, where they would frequently have issues with getting locked out of their accounts or receiving error messages that were not actionable nor did they make sense. We set out to rebuild this experience to solve those user pain points.

Problem

The sign in flow in Sparkcentral had always been very rigid–passwords must be updated every 90 days, you can not use one of your previous five passwords, and most importantly, if users were locked out of the system, they were helpless until an administrator helped them out.

First, I mapped out the possible user flows within the sign in experience. This time, limiting the possible error states and allowing the user to reset their password, so that they have the power to correct the course without disrupting and waiting on their administrator.

Next, the PM on the project and I rewrote the error messages to be more human friendly. There were many possible error messages, and many of them felt as if they were written for robots.

Finally, I redesigned the sign in screens to be more inviting and airy than before. This promotes a sense of calmness and allows space for validation and error messages to enter.

Results

Fewer support requests and increased productivity! A significant amount of support requests we received in the past were in regards to users getting locked out of their accounts or encountering indecipherable sign in error messages. These changes greatly reduced the frequency of these issues, saving both our customers and our own Customer Success team time and headaches.