Redesigned the way LocalVocal app onboards users, reducing onboarding time from 6 min to 2.9 min

My role
I identified the gap in the experience, took the initiative, and owned this project.
I led the research, design, and
I collaborated with:
  • Project Manager
  • UI Designer
  • Visual Designer
  • UI Developer team
The Outcome
  • 33% increase in user adoption rate
  • 46% increase in signup rate
  • Reduced onboarding time from 6 mins to 2.9 mins
Product
LocalVocal is a marketing + e-commerce app that supports small and mid-size businesses and mom-and-pop stores in hyperlocal communities in India.


Problem
74%
74% of customers experience churn within 3 months following the app's launch
55%
User signup rate dropped by 55%
6 min
It takes 6 minutes to onboard a new user
Kickoff

How can we make users successful and faster?

LocalVocal, because of its bad user-onboarding flow was miserably failing to build trust and confidence among the users which in turn was costing them user adoption.

What are we aware of?

1) Cluttered and inconsistent UI
2) Bumpy user flow with a lot of friction points
3) Lengthy form fields

What we want to achieve?

Design a user onboarding experience to help users get up to speed and running right from the beginning, focusing on increasing user adoption rates by 30%.

Research

What exactly is user onboarding?

As this was my first time designing a user onboarding journey, I started with understanding what user onboarding means. I made this well-received presentation that helped my team understand the importance of a great user onboarding experience.

I then moved on to understanding how successful products onboard users. Here are a few methods brands employ:

1. Tooltips /Hotspots /Coach marks

2. Instructional Overlays

3. Product tours with slides

4. Blank slate tips

5. Video

6. Deck of cards

7. Checklists

8. Interactive Walkthroughs

Identifying ideal strategy while working with constraints

While brainstorming, I visualize all of the above methods in the context of the existing app and the user personas. Then I presented my understanding to the extended team and we decided to go with the interactive walkthrough method.

Design experiments

Key objectives to strategize the onboarding flow

My key objectives were:
1. To contextually gather user information
2. Eliminating manual efforts wherever possible
3. Create an Aha! moment as early in the process as possible

"Aha moment is the pivotal moment in which new users first realize the value of your product."

Usability testing using Psyche Framework

The design I created with the above objectives failed to produce a crisp aha moment that converts an evaluating user into an activated user.
‍
I incorporated the psyche framework in my research to understand where the design failed.

How can we bring Aha-moment sooner?

Design Principles

For my next iteration, I used guiding principles by a usability expert, Louis-Xavier Lavallee

1. Avoid unnecessary friction to save Psych

2. Build up Psych before your “big-ask”

3. Delay optional (or hard) tasks

4. Start from user’s initial needs

5. Here is how I implemented them:

Final Design
The Impact

Even though I only scratched the surface of the vast user onboarding design in this project, I now deeply understand its impact on businesses and users. All of the efforts brought us the following results.

User Adoption
+33%
Signup rate
+46%
Avg Onboarding time
2.9 mins