The Dallas Morning News: Digital Subscription Checkout &
User Onboarding Experience

Part I: Digital Subscription Checkout

The Dallas Morning News used a multi-page digital subscription checkout flow for their users, which required users to click through 3 pages before their final purchase. Looking to increase subscriptions, the team looked at options for how to streamline this experience for users to increase conversions with a simplified process.

Original multi-page checkout flow for DallasNews.com subscriptions. Click image to enlarge.

Working with Product Managers, Engineers, and other designers, we began researching best practices (both inside and outside the industry) for optimal checkout experiences. This also included ongoing discussions with Engineers to uncover potential road blocks and edge cases, such as the implementation of invisible recapcha. Additionally, I also worked with Stakeholders and Engineers to gather neccessary acceptance criteria for credit card information, storing information, etc. in order to make sure we were legally compliant, but also reducing form fields where appropriate to speed up the user's input.

A few new key features here to make the checkout experience easier for users:

• Progress Bar: lets the user know how far along they are in the process, and how many steps are left
• Product Features box (right rail on desktop): reminds the user of the benefits they will have by purchasing this product, and builds more confidence in the user's purchasing decision
• Sales Tax detection: sales tax is "generated live" when the user provides their ZIP code in the field under Credit Card information.
• User-Friendly input fields: Adding more distinction to field labels, and also adding placeholder text within the fields to provide users with exampes of proper formatting for information.

Result: 14% increase in digital subscriptions

New single-page checkout flow desktop experience for DallasNews.com subscriptions. Click image to enlarge.

New single-page checkout flow mobile experience for DallasNews.com subscriptions. Click image to enlarge.

Part II: User Onboarding Experience

01 | The Overview

New subscribers completed checkout and were immediately dropped into the product without guidance. We introduced a 3-step onboarding flow to accelerate time-to-value, increase product adoption, and improve retention.

Goal: Help new subscribers discover value within their first session—when engagement impact is highest.

02 | The Problem(s)

For a news and media business built on recurring revenue, this represented a major missed opportunity. Early engagement within the first 24–72 hours is strongly correlated with long-term retention, yet we weren’t providing new subscribers any structured path to discover our most valuable features.

• No onboarding surfaced after subscription checkout
• New users lacked direction, leading to low early engagement
• Missed opportunity to drive newsletter adoption, app downloads, and cross-product discovery

Risk: Early inactivity is one of the strongest predictors of churn.

03 | Research & Insight

What we learned:

• Users weren’t aware of many high-value features (newsletters, events, puzzles, podcasts)
• App users had significantly higher engagement and retention
• Users engage more when they feel their experience is personalized immediately

I proposed to our Retention team that we introduce a lightweight but high-impact onboarding sequence immediately after checkout. The goal was twofold:

• Accelerate time-to-value for new subscribers
• Increase product adoption across newsletters, the mobile app, and our broader content ecosystem

04 | The Solution

We designed a modular, friction-light onboarding experience that launched the moment a user completed checkout:

Step 1 | Personalize With Newsletters
New subscribers saw up to six recommended newsletters, automatically filtered to exclude those they were already receiving.

• Reduced cognitive load through personalization
• Increased discoverability of high-engagement editorial verticals
• Provided an immediate way for users to “set their preferences,” strengthening early trust

Why this matters: Newsletter adoption is one of our strongest predictors of retention, and this step drove meaningful early opt-ins.

Step 2 | Encourage App Download
A top-level business goal was to migrate more subscribers to our mobile app, where engagement and retention rates are significantly higher.

• Added direct App Store / Google Play links
• Reinforced the benefits (breaking news alerts, offline reading, customized feed)
• Drove sustained habit formation through push notifications

Why this matters: App users show more frequent sessions, deeper scroll depth, and higher lifetime value.

Step 3 | Introduce “Choose Your Own Adventure” Discovery Paths
To broaden product awareness, we introduced a flexible exploration screen highlighting additional areas of value:

• Direct link to the website’s personalized homepage
• Newsletter catalog
• Local events database
• Podcasts
• Games & puzzles

Why this matters: Many subscribers were unaware we offered these products. This step boosted cross-product discovery and positioned our subscription as more than just “news”, it became an experience ecosystem.

05 | Experience Pillars 

• Time-to-Value: Help users discover value within minutes of subscribing
• Personalization: Tailored content increases trust and reduces drop-off
• Habit Formation: Mobile app usage drives multi-session engagement
• Exploration: Highlight breadth of product ecosystem to strengthen perceived value

06 | Early KPIs

• Increase in newsletter opt-ins within 24 hours of subscribing
• App downloads improved among new subscribers
• Higher engagement rates in week 1 (scroll depth, session count)
  

07 | What I Owned

• Opportunity analysis & problem framing
• Proposed onboarding strategy
• Feature scoping, Requirements, and Success Metrics
• Cross-functional alignment with Retention, Growth, and Engineering
• Sequencing decisions & MVP definition

08 | Final Reflection

This project reinforced a key principle:
Great onboarding does not overwhelm users. It guides, personalizes, and reveals value quickly.