Built a product adoption platform from the ground up: transforming decision-heavy workflows into a seamless experience
Cueston enables product teams to launch tours, checklists, tooltips, and banners directly inside their product, target users at the right moment, and measure engagement — all without relying on engineering.
- Company
- Cueston
- Role
- Founding Designer
- Scope
- Product strategy & IAEnd-to-end UX/UI designDesign system architecture
- Year
- 2025-2026
/01
Objectives
- Create a simple information architecture for the entire platform to reduce cognitive load for users and keep the app as lightweight as possible.
- Design a unified web application for creating and managing all product guidance (tours, checklists, tooltips, banners) through a consistent interface.
- Streamline login and onboarding to minimize friction and get users to core product value as fast as possible.
- Simplify the core product tour builder to make the most complex, high-effort user flow feel straightforward.
- Build a scalable design system from day one to speed up future development and support product growth.
/02
Challenges
- Balancing advanced capabilities with simplicity proved difficult without making the interface feel overwhelming.
- Compressing the onboarding flow was critical to prevent trial users from losing interest and dropping off early.
- Unifying the creation flows was a major hurdle since launching a complex product tour is vastly different from setting up a simple tooltip.
- Defining a complete visual and interaction system from scratch was challenging because of the variety of elements, flows, and patterns that needed to be built in a short period of time.
/03
Approach & Solution
a short statement about reserch and overall conclusions
/03.2
Job-based personas
Based on the market analysis, I identified two primary user groups with two complementary goals. First: creating and deploying guidance fast and independently; second: measuring and optimizing guidance’s impact.
/03.3
Information architecture
The information architecture was designed to minimize cognitive load for product teams, and focuses on their main goal: promoting new features quickly and easily.
To keep the platform lightweight and intuitive, it was separated into two core parts: analytical and functional.
/03.4
Sign up flow
The objective was to design a frictionless onboarding experience that minimizes drop-offs. The final flow balances necessary data collection with simplicity, showcasing immediate product value while providing clear progress tracking.
By eliminating unnecessary steps and optimizing form fields, users can complete onboarding in under 45 seconds.
/03.5
Onboarding
The information architecture was designed to minimize cognitive load for product teams, and focuses on their main goal: promoting new features quickly and easily.
To keep the platform lightweight and intuitive, it was separated into two core parts: analytical and functional.
/03.6
Dashboard
The information architecture was designed to minimize cognitive load for product teams, and focuses on their main goal: promoting new features quickly and easily.
To keep the platform lightweight and intuitive, it was separated into two core parts: analytical and functional.
/03.7
Create a custom tour flow
The information architecture was designed to minimize cognitive load for product teams, and focuses on their main goal: promoting new features quickly and easily.
To keep the platform lightweight and intuitive, it was separated into two core parts: analytical and functional.
Scroll sideways · pinch or ⌘/Ctrl + scroll to zoom · drag to panSwipe sideways · use − and + to zoom
Internal info
Logic
Add step
Card
Image
Video
Text
Button
Languages
Settings
Languages
General settings
Tour steps
Appearance
Localization
Targeting & Lifecycle
Review
Heading
Body
Button
- Internal use only. Hidden from end-users.
- Supports dynamic URL matching via wildcards (*).
- Wait time after page load before tour starts.
- Defines the specific UI element that triggers the tour when clicked.
- Controls whether the tour is mandatory or optional.
- Defines the display order when multiple tours are active on the same page.
- Defines the display aspect ratio for media (horizontal [3:2], square [1:1], or vertical [2:3]).
- Determines the layout of media relative to text within the card (above/below).
- Defines the modal’s screen position (centered or anchored to corners/edges).
- Determines the tooltip’s position relative to the target element (top/bottom/left/right).
- Allows for adding multiple steps in a row.
- Defines a destination URL to land users on after they finish the tour.
/03.8
Create a custom tour
The information architecture was designed to minimize cognitive load for product teams, and focuses on their main goal: promoting new features quickly and easily.
To keep the platform lightweight and intuitive, it was separated into two core parts: analytical and functional.
/04
Takeaways
- Speed requires pragmatic design: When timelines are tight, prioritizing scalable foundational patterns matters more than perfecting every edge case.
- Simplifying user flows by sacrificing non-essential functionality and postponing advanced settings is the only way to reduce drop-offs, maximize time-to-value, and boost conversion.
- Designing for the product's future: Success meant looking past the immediate feature request and building an architecture capable of supporting long-term product scaling.
- Consistency builds user mastery: Unifying diverse interaction patterns into a single, familiar logic allows users to master complex features without a steep learning curve.
This project highlights my strength as an end-to-end designer who can take highly complex technical requirements, build a foundational system from scratch, and deliver a seamless user experience to support business growth.
Senior product and brand designfor complex digital products from discovery to delivery
Available for project-based and long-term roles.