SEND Onboarding
End-to-end UX/UI design for SEND onboarding. The goal was to increase digital contact adoption and so reduce analog mail costs. I turned complex technical constraints into a package-based flow that is easy to follow.
Problem
The business goal was clear: get citizens to add their digital contacts on SEND. Digital delivery of notifications would sharply reduce the operational and financial cost of analog mail (traditional paper registered letters).
The user insights
Our qualitative research, carried out by the service design team, gave a clear picture.
- Mail is a stressor. People found physical mail exhausting and unreliable, and it made them anxious about delivery mishaps or difficulty collecting it.
- Awareness is low. Most users prefer digital convenience, yet they only discovered SEND after receiving a physical notification.
The design challenge
The challenge was a strategic onboarding flow that intercepted users on their first web access and guided them through configuring their contacts. It came with one crucial technical and user-experience constraint: onboarding could never become a blocker. If a user arrived through a quick link (email/SMS) or had urgent notifications to read, the flow had to step aside and give immediate access to the document.
Execution
We began by mapping several logical flows. In the first iterations we separated an informational phase from a configuration phase. The Content Design team handled the informational phase, which built trust and explained why sharing personal data was worth it, to overcome initial skepticism. The UX team owned the configuration phase, a step-by-step guide to entering and verifying contact information.
We developed several variants of the configuration flow, each driven by a different North Star strategy.
Priority on Digital Domicile: our core business goal was to reduce the volume of physical registered mail, so this hypothesis made setting up a Digital Domicile on SEND the first step. Validating the email straight away also made it easier to activate courtesy alerts afterwards.
Priority on App IO: parallel service design research showed that users see App IO as a more secure and trustworthy channel. Unlike email or SMS, App IO is a closed ecosystem limited to verified entities, so it is free from spam and phishing.
In design reviews it became clear that both linear hypotheses made the process too long and raised the risk of drop-off. We moved to a non-linear model we called the "Central Hub".
After the informational introduction, users land on a dashboard-style screen that shows which contacts are already configured and which are missing. Each card opens a short, focused wizard for one contact type (for example email or PEC) and returns the user to the hub when it is done.
This made onboarding self-paced and customizable. Users decided how much they wanted to configure at that moment, with no rigid, forced sequence, and the business goal of collecting contacts still held.
With the Hub concept, we built high-fidelity prototypes for desktop and mobile for an internal design review. The team liked the freedom the hub gave, but the experience felt fragmented and clunky.
The review raised three main points:
- Mental models: senior UX designers pointed out that users might not realize the options were cumulative. They could read them as either/or choices instead of parts of one complete profile.
- User flow: returning to the central hub after every sub-wizard felt disjointed and broke the momentum of the onboarding.
- Hierarchy: content designers saw no distinction between Courtesy Alerts and Digital Domicile. They sat on the same level, yet they change SEND's legal behavior in fundamentally different ways.
Solution
Back at the drawing board, we looked for a layout that would simplify these choices. Our strongest argument for conversion was cost saving (digital versus expensive physical mail), so we looked at SaaS pricing tables for inspiration.
We replaced the custom hub with a three-tier package structure. We had considered keeping a fully customizable third option from the hub, but it added too much technical and cognitive complexity, so we went with speed and convenience.
The final three tiers
- The Best of SEND: the most comprehensive option, activating both the Digital Domicile and courtesy alerts. We highlighted it as the suggested choice because it saves the most money for the user while giving the most efficient service.
- Only Courtesy Alerts: a middle ground for users who want prompt notifications by email and SMS. The configuration stays light and no exclusive digital domicile is formally elected.
- Only App IO: for users who want to skip a lengthy setup wizard. We positioned it as the quickest alternative for three reasons.
- It is the most widely adopted SEND digital contact method among the Italian population.
- User research showed very high trust in the app's messages, which people see as a secure environment.
- And since the app asks for a strong biometric/PIN login when opened, users can unlock legal notifications and read documents directly in-app with no further friction.
The tiered approach cut the flow's complexity and gave a clear hierarchy that matched user benefits to business goals.
Results
The new onboarding flow went live on May 19, 2026. The Mixpanel telemetry we defined during handoff let us track the real impact of the packaged flow right away. The first data (May 19-29) supported our design strategy:
- The flow intercepted 30% of all active SEND sessions.
- 30% of users went from the initial engagement screen all the way to the Thank You Page.
- The baseline was tough: roughly 50% of intercepted users had only the IO app active, and the other 50% had no contact method configured. By the end of the flow, 53% of completing users had activated the full package (Email, IO app and Digital Domicile).
- About 70% of users who completed the flow activated Digital Domicile. Since this option digitalizes legal notifications, the figure confirms the project solved the initial problem.