As Design Lead for the Echo Show out-of-box experience, I owned the full onboarding journey from unboxing to first-use activation. Getting a variety of stakeholders to converge on one seamless experience was the core challenge, requiring constant facilitation and design iteration across every screen and asset in the setup experience. The result was a streamlined out-of-box experience that successfully onboarded over 3 million Echo Show 15 customers.
The Challenge
I designed the setup experience for the Echo Show 15, Amazon's flagship smart home device built around shared, communal use. The challenge was to create a seamless onboarding flow that extended the existing Echo Show out-of-box framework while addressing the unique needs of a device intended for multiple users in a household.
The design was guided by principles tailored to communal devices: success mattered more than brevity, meaning a fully functional device took priority over minimizing steps. Education was woven throughout setup to help users understand capabilities as they configured them, and the flow prioritized actions that would reduce friction for day-to-day shared use down the road.
The Approach
I started with the baseline setup experience across Echo Show devices and identified where communal-specific features needed to be introduced to the Echo Show 15. This meant incorporating Visual ID and Voice ID enrollment so the device could recognize individual household members, a widget selection step for personalized content display, and a wall mounting screen to help users place the device in a location accessible to everyone.
Research revealed that users needed to understand the benefits of features like Visual ID and Voice ID before they'd commit to enrolling — they wanted to know not just why these features mattered, but that the process would be quick and easy. This insight shaped how I framed each step, leading with clear value and emphasizing simplicity to keep users motivated to complete the full setup rather than skipping features they'd need later.
The Outcome
The result was a new end-to-end out-of-box experience that shipped with the launch of the Echo Show 15, meaning these communal features were part of the product from day one rather than arriving through a later software update. The setup enabled customers to better personalize their devices while supporting multiple users in the household. This streamlined experience successfully onboarded over 3 million Echo Show 15 customers.
