The above screens represent my first time user experience with MailChimp’s campaign editor app for iPad. The experience was quite extended, so here’s an overview of what screens I included:
- The opening product tour/walkthrough
- Signing in/creating an account
- Creating my first campaign
I was inspired to download the app by MailChimp’s UX newsletter, which touted their new app’s walkthrough. I do have a MailChimp account but I haven’t used it in ages so I decided to check it out. What follows is a little bit of an Alice-in-Wonderland experience.
The good bits:
MailChimp is well known for polished copy and visual design, and this app is no exception. As far as product tours go it was concise with a good balance between illustration and text. It is limited to 3 steps and each step is accompanied by high-quality animations, including a tutorial-like animation of the editing interface.
The first time view of the “Edit Email Campaign” screen was also nicely done. It used a sample email layout with instructions in the body of the email as to how to edit text, add an image, and drag elements from the library sidebar.
As usual, the copy and instructional text (when present) was helpful and human, which helped me maintain sanity through some of the sign-up issues I encountered.
To be improved:
As well designed as the product tour was, it was quickly diminished by the convoluted sign-in process I had to go through and lack of contextual help afterwards.
At the end of the product tour my only option was to “Connect to MailChimp”, which opened up a modal sheet with a sign in form. There was no way to dismiss it and no link to create an account or retrieve a forgotten username/password. I believe that MailChimp targeted this app to existing, perhaps powerhouse, users, but it still should have some “Help me out!” options on this screen. The following is what I proceeded to go through:
- Typed in what I remembered my old account username/password to be
- The app displayed an error telling me my account was lapsed and to email their billing department if I had questions
- I tried to enter a new username/password to see if I could start creating a new account
- I received an error message with a link offering to recover my password
- I tapped the password recovery link (just hoping to go anywhere else) and was taken to a confirmation screen that also warned me I had cookies disabled (yet, a quick check in my Settings showed cookies were enabled)
- Decided this was fruitless, so I tapped the “Return to login” link
- This time I was directed to a different login screen which had a link to “Create an account.” Yipee!
- Filled out the simple information on the create account screen
- Checked my email and tapped “Activate account”
- Immediately returned to MailChimp’s app and was redirected to the “Confirm Humanity” screen
- Confirmed my new credentials
- I was directed to a “Get Started” screen that had a few more fields for me to fill out
- I made the mistake of tapping the privacy policy link and a page from their website loaded into the modal sheet with absolutely no way to go back
- I force-quit the app and relaunched it
- I was immediately taken to the home screen of the app in a blank slate state (force quitting bypassed the rest of the sign-up form, apparently)
- When I tapped the “Create Campaign” area it displayed a modal “Recipients” screen. It was blank, presumably because I’d never created a mailing list before.
- At this point I gave up with the app and went to their website, which provided a really nice set of inline instructions for creating lists and campaigns. Using the website was the only way I created a list so that I could go ahead and create a campaign in the app.
In summary, the sign in/up experience was incredibly convoluted so that by the time I entered the “meat” of this app I had long forgotten the initial walkthrough. Key issues with sign in/up are related to the use of a modal web view without any back or cancel actions, and no ability to retrieve passwords.
Once I did make it to the “meat”, there was no contextual help to assist me in creating a campaign or a list like the great inline instructions they have on their website. There were nicely designed inline instructions on the edit email screen but it was inconsistent with the lack of contextual help in the other key areas. While the initial walkthrough is available via the “About Editor” link in the app’s menu, it is still out of context.
Not all users will have a convoluted sign in/up experience But asking for someone to log in too early is dangerous because you may not be able to predict how much work these actions will put between your users and the real content that will sell them on your product. I would suggest MailChimp allow users to create or view a sample campaign in the context of the app, with sign in being prompted only after someone tries to activate account-necessary functionality.