As remote work reshaped how teams collaborated, Atlassian saw an opening to make Confluence Mobile more than a read-only companion to the desktop. The problem was getting anyone to use it. Most people saw their phones as a way to step away from work, not dive back in. New users would download the app and quietly disappear.
The Problem
Two things were breaking down. Users weren't finishing the onboarding flow, and even when they did, they weren't coming back. The app wasn't giving them a reason to stay.
The goal was clear: get users to do four core actions, comment on a page, post a page, star a page, and edit a page. These behaviors correlated with long-term retention. We needed to guide users there without being pushy or breaking their flow.
Exploration
We explored three directions.
1
Guided delighter with confetti
A subtle element that blinks to point users toward the next action, then celebrates with a confetti animation when they complete it. Low cost, minimal disruption.
2
Achievement medals
Inspired by Apple Watch fitness rings. Users would collect medals over time. More engaging in the long run, but it required a significant expansion of the component library and more engineering time.
3
Full screen celebration
The dramatic option. We tested half-screen and full-screen takeovers. Both covered too much of the page and felt intrusive.
Road to MVP
The final MVP paired a floating card with a confetti background to celebrate user progress without breaking flow. The card kept the celebration subtle. The confetti brought the delight. Together they rewarded users for the four core actions, creating, starring, editing, and returning, without pulling them out of the product.
Solution
We shipped the confetti. It was the most cost-effective, it celebrated the behavior without blocking the user's flow, and it disappeared on its own so there was nothing to dismiss.
Outcome
The redesigned onboarding flow led to a 2x increase in mobile retention and a 20% rise in user activity in the first two weeks, with a measurable drop in onboarding drop-off.