Product onboarding
Project type
Onboarding - Education
Client
Pink Gellac
Role
Solo UX/UI Designer
Timeframe
3 months
Onboarding customers to product selection and guiding them to the right choice
Pink Gellac restructured its starter kits into three distinct tiers, Discovery, Luxury, and Build Your Own, to simplify its product offering. My role as the UX/UI Designer was to redesign the onboarding experience, helping both new and existing customers understand the available options and confidently choose the right kit.
Problem
Customer research with a selected group of Pink Gellac customers revealed that beginners struggled with two key decisions: first, choosing between the three manicure systems, Gel Polish, Gel Nail Stickers, and Press-ons, and second, understanding which starter kit was right for them once they had chosen a system. Existing customers were already familiar with the products, understood the different application methods, and knew which products suited their routine. Beginners, on the other hand, lacked that context and often didn't know where to start.
The project was more so focused on designing a journey that gradually built understanding and helped first-time customers make a confident purchase. Competitor analysis highlighted a similar pattern. Most comparison pages relied on long specification tables that explained product features but did little to support how customers actually compare options and make decisions.
Progressive disclosure as the main principle
Instead of exposing every option upfront, the experience was structured around the order in which customers naturally build confidence. The journey starts by choosing a manicure system. From there, customers compare the available starter kits. Breaking the journey into smaller decisions reduced cognitive load and kept each step focused on a single task.
Key design decisions
Separate orientation from customisation
Early discussions explored introducing a recommendation quiz to help customers choose a kit. Although it was a strong UX direction, it was postponed due to development capacity and planned as a future enhancement.
At the same time, the vision for Build Your Own evolved throughout the project. Initially, the idea was to offer a fully customisable starter kit, but as the scope became clearer, customisation was limited to selecting gel colours and optional add-ons. Because of this, it didn't make sense to introduce configuration on the comparison page. Asking users to compare multiple products while also making configuration decisions would have added unnecessary complexity at a point where they were still trying to understand the differences between the kits.
Instead, I separated the journey into two clear stages: first decide which kit is right, then personalise it.
Simplify it
A large part of the project was deciding what not to show. For example, each kit contains several manicure essentials such as the base coat, top coat and nail file. Rather than listing every individual item, these were grouped under a single "Manicure Must Haves" category. The goal wasn't to hide information, but to avoid overwhelming first-time customers with unnecessary detail before they'd even chosen a kit. Tooltips were included for the events that users wanted to know what does a product category such as "Manicure Must Haves" includes.
Prioritise clarity over completeness
Several approaches were explored for presenting the differences between kits, including product photography, badges and icons. When I did internal usability test, the results showed that the simplest approach worked best. Reducing the reliance on imagery and presenting information in a consistent hierarchy made the comparison easier to scan. Users could quickly understand the differences without constantly shifting their attention between visuals and supporting text.
New product configuration
The introduction of Build Your Own also required a completely new Product Detail Page. Customers could choose between kits containing 5, 7 or 10 colours, so the configurator needed to respond dynamically as they made their selections.
I designed the interaction so that changing the kit size immediately updated the number of colour slots, while selected colours were reflected directly within the interface. The product price also updated in real time, making it clear that changing the kit size affected the final price. To prevent incomplete configurations, the primary CTA remained disabled until every required colour had been selected
Reflection
Working within technical and business constraints meant some ideas, such as a recommendation quiz or fully customisable starter kits, had to be postponed. Rather than trying to force those ideas into the experience, I focused on crating the most user-friendly experience possible at this phase, and left room for future iterations.