Activation

Smart-home owners were stalling at activation. I audited a 17-step flow down to the moments that still need a human—confirmation and permission—and automated the rest. Result: ~80% fewer steps, fewer pairing mistakes, clearer path to a working device.

ClientPura
RoleUser Experience Designer
TeamProduct Manager, Engineering Manager, Product Designer, UX Manager

Person in a kitchen holding a phone and a small red device, with a wall diffuser plugged in.

Find the friction

Pura smart-home device owners often failed to activate their devices, and research pointed to friction in onboarding. The existing flow asked people to work through 17+ manual steps before a device would work.

Research for effective patterns

I studied low-friction pairing, like AirPods, and other consumer onboarding that gets out of the way.

Audit of the current solution

I questioned every screen: if the app already had the data, why ask the user to re-enter it?

Audit of the current onboarding solution and the screens presented to the user.

Keep only what needs a human

The answer was automation: identify the new device and pair it with the app, so activation feels seamless instead of a long manual gauntlet.

Focus area

I kept only confirmation and permission as human steps, and automated the rest with credentials and data already in the app.

Audit diagram with the focused area marked in red. Confirmation and permission were the user actions kept.

Outcome

The flow went from 17+ steps to three screens. After review with engineering and product, we added one screen for code limits and clearer user understanding.

~80% fewer steps
Reduced onboarding steps by about 80%.
Fewer errors
Eliminated human input error in three key areas: model ID, Bluetooth pairing, and Wi‑Fi onboarding.
Better sentiment
Increased positive sentiment in user testing.

Outcome: the onboarding flow reduced to three screens, with the other functions handled in the app.