Joshua Garcia
Joshua Garcia

The Disco Network

Splitting brand setup into two clear paths.

We refined Disco's brand setup. Brands could now choose how to use the network: advertise to grow their reach, publish to monetize post-purchase pages, or both. Every brand finished setup on their own, without 1:1 support.

Role:

Led systems design, product strategy, and end-to-end design

Date:

Oct ’24–Feb ’25

Desktop onboarding flow for Disco showing redesigned brand setup screens. Demonstrates a simplified, two-phase onboarding experience that helps brands create profiles, define categories, and launch offers. Highlights scalable UX patterns for faster setup, clearer navigation, and flexible brand participation across advertising and publishing.

Disco outgrew its setup

As Disco grew, brand setup couldn't keep up. It assumed every brand wanted to advertise and publish. Many only wanted one.

That mismatch meant every launch needed hands-on help.

Diagram showing the original Disco brand setup and onboarding flow. Highlights UX friction points such as unclear paths, off-platform steps, and support-heavy actions. Used to identify system-level pain points and guide the redesign toward a scalable, self-serve onboarding experience for brands.

Stuck at every step

The old onboarding asked questions that no longer mattered. It forced every brand through the same flow. Then it ended.

Brands couldn't get through alone.

Screens illustrating the outdated Disco onboarding flow before redesign. Highlights issues like redundant pages, outdated inputs, and unclear guidance across setup steps. Used during the audit phase to identify friction points and inform the streamlined onboarding experience that reduced setup time and support needs.

Refined, not rebuilt

We didn't rebuild the platform. We refined what worked and cut what didn't.

The new setup adapts to each brand's goal: advertise, publish, or both.

Redesigned Disco brand setup flow showing separate onboarding, advertising, and publishing paths. Demonstrates a simplified, scalable system that removed outdated inputs, reduced manual support, and added platform-specific guidance. Highlights UX improvements for faster setup, clearer navigation, and stronger self-serve onboarding across ecommerce brand experiences.

Four clear steps

The new onboarding asks only what matters.

Brands pick a platform, build a profile, and choose categories. The welcome screen tells them what's next.

Platform selection

Choose your commerce platform
Platform selection screen from Disco’s redesigned onboarding flow showing Shopify chosen as the commerce platform. Demonstrates a simplified setup step that guides brands to connect their store quickly, reducing friction and improving clarity in the ecommerce onboarding experience.

Brand profile setup

Add your logo and details
Brand profile screen from Disco’s redesigned onboarding flow showing how brands upload a logo and description. Demonstrates a clearer, more personalized setup experience that helps brands establish identity early and streamline ecommerce onboarding within the Disco platform

Category selection

Select your product categories
Category selection screen from Disco’s redesigned onboarding flow where brands choose main and subcategories. Demonstrates a clearer setup process that powers more accurate targeting, discovery, and partner recommendations within the ecommerce onboarding experience.

Welcome screen

Setup complete and ready to grow
Welcome screen from Disco’s redesigned onboarding flow confirming setup completion. Demonstrates a clearer transition into the next step, guiding brands to configure their DiscoFeed for growth while reinforcing confidence and progress through visual storytelling and ecommerce UX design.

One button, two jobs

After setup, brands hit a new problem. They thought clicking Publish launched their ads too. But Publish only handled their page. Advertising had its own toggle, which many missed.

Going live took five clicks instead of one.

Advertising and Publishing control

Shows how one button managed both actions
DiscoFeed management interface showing controls for enabling the feed, editing shop details, and previewing the mobile offer experience. Demonstrates dashboard UX, merchant tooling, and a unified ad and publishing workflow designed to improve clarity and control for brands.
Publishing controls showing confirmation states for enabling DiscoFeed and submitting products for review. Demonstrates clear system feedback and activation flow design that helps merchants understand the status of their feed and when their products go live.
Published state in the DiscoFeed dashboard showing an active feed and mobile preview of live shopper offers. Demonstrates system feedback, activation status, and merchant-facing controls that help brands understand when their feed is successfully published.

System logic breakdown

Highlights overlapping roles causing confusion
System diagram mapping the original advertising and publishing flow in Disco. Shows how one toggle triggered multiple conflicting paths and unclear states. Highlights UX issues that caused false activations, manual workarounds, and a five-step publish process that slowed setup and reduced trust.

Two buttons, one job each

Brands now choose their goal at the start: advertising, publishing, or both. Each goal gets its own button, dashboard, and setup. The two paths run separately.

Going live takes one click.

Advertising flow

Helping brands grow their reach

Publishing flow

Helping brands monetize their post-purchase pages

Feedback at every step

Brands often didn't know where they stood. No feedback when something worked, no warning when something needed attention.

Toasts, banners, and confirmation modals now give clear signals throughout setup.

Advertising overview

Defines where advertising begins
Advertising overview screen showing where brands begin creating offers to grow reach and conversions. Demonstrates improved ecommerce UX clarity with a cleaner layout, guided actions, and a preview of how offers appear in the DiscoFeed experience.

Publishing overview

Creates a dedicated publishing path
Publishing overview screen showing a redesigned management view where brands control exclusions and readiness before publishing. Demonstrates improved ecommerce UX clarity, with simplified options and guided feedback to help brands prepare their DiscoFeed setup independently and with confidence.

System feedback & UX infrastructure

Provides clearer in-product feedback
UI specification for a toast notification system showing single-line and two-line variants with actions, close controls, and status states. Demonstrates component design, interaction patterns, and system consistency for a scalable design system.
Banner component variants showing default, close, supporting text, and action patterns. Demonstrates scalable design system architecture, clear hierarchy, and reusable UI components used to communicate important updates across the product
Confirmation modals showing success states for advertising and publishing actions within Disco’s ad network. Demonstrates clear messaging, visual feedback, and system alignment to help brands understand activation status and next steps.

What we cut

We cut what was slowing brands down. Anything that didn't help brands go live faster came out: upsells, customer surveys, partner brand selection.

What was left focused on getting brands live.

Platform audit visuals showing removed and updated features across the Disco interface. Highlights a UX simplification process that reduced clutter, improved clarity, and aligned the product around faster setup and more focused ecommerce workflows for brands.

Beyond our lanes

We mapped the problem space with customer success: confusion points, friction, success criteria. The session shaped what we'd build and how we'd measure it.

When engineering ran short, I shipped UI directly. The Integrations page handled three states: Shopify, non-Shopify, or already integrated. Each component got its own setup guide.

Mapping problems, challenges, and goals

Whiteboard session with Customer Success
Workshop diagram mapping customer pain points, business goals, and success metrics for Disco’s setup flow. Shows how the team defined friction areas like confusion and delayed setup, clarified what success looked like, and aligned design priorities with customer success insights to guide the redesign.

Integration component states

Dynamic UI shipped to bridge technical setup gaps
Integration setup screen for Disco showing how different platform types, including Shopify and non-Shopify stores, connect to publish or advertise. Highlights a redesigned integration flow with clearer system feedback, step-by-step guidance, and developer tools to support flexible ecommerce setup and reduce onboarding friction.

What changed

Going live no longer needed 1:1 support. Brands had clear paths for advertising and publishing. Setup adjusted to each brand's goals.

Brands could launch on their own.

Comparison table showing the old and new onboarding systems for Disco. Highlights how the redesigned setup removed blockers, clarified advertiser and publisher roles, added in-product guidance, and aligned visuals to the design system to create a faster, more scalable, and self-serve onboarding experience.

Credits