Cufflink - Onboarding UX overhaul
A case study detailing the overhaul of the onboarding experience for the Cufflink mobile application to improve user engagement and retention.
A case study detailing the overhaul of the onboarding experience for the Cufflink mobile application to improve user engagement and retention.
This project was centred around improving the Cufflink onboarding experience for users after initial analytical data displayed that overall user engagement and retention were lower than we expected resulting in users being unable to experience many areas of the app due to not fully completing onboarding tasks and as a result stunted the apps overall growth.
To tackle this issue, we carried out a series of interviews to empathise with our users to better define the current onboarding issues. From this I researched, ideated, prototyped, and tested the new proposed onboarding process.
We then implemented this change and rolled it out to all our users after receiving favourable feedback on the proposal. As a result, we saw a large improvement in overall user satisfaction with more users linking up and sharing data with one another.
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To tackle this issue, we first needed to empathise with our users to better understand why they were not completing all the on boarding steps.
Our initial assumptions during this stage were that users potentially may have not understood some of the tasks and were in fact apprehensive to continue with the app.
We first started our research by going through the onboarding experience again from scratch. While doing this we generated a series of user journey maps so we could gain a better understanding of what users go through.
Once we had a firm understanding of the user’s current process, we thought that the best approach to qualify our initial assumptions and discover exactly what was affecting our users was to carry out a series of task-oriented usability interviews with 20 Cufflink users that were apart of our 5 primary target audience groups.
To record the results of the interview with the participants permission we recorded the session live in person or over screen share to capture how the user interacted with the app we also provided a questionnaire where users could write their answers if they preferred.
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Based on the findings from the interviews it was clear that a potential overhaul and slim down of the onboarding process was needed to enable users to get achieve their goals in the app and trim off some of the excess tasks that logically weren’t required as a primary task for new users.
The feedback provided by the users was invaluable and from this we were able to clearly define the scope of the problem and get to work on potential solutions.
The initial concept was to streamline the onboarding process by removing any tasks that were deemed unnecessary for first-time users and that these could be presented to the user later in their journey depending on the interactions carried out.
From this process of task elimination, we were able to take out 5 of the main tasks previously required by users.
We decided that only the essential tasks that allow users to get to the stage where they can share information should feature as a part of the onboarding as we believe that this would help the growth of the app with users gaining more utility from the app at an earlier stage in their journey.
To address these issues, we went ahead and redesigned the flow from the ground up.
We started by acting upon some early findings from our study that showed users were ignoring the 3 app explanation screens as they first entered the app. To fix this, We decided that in the new flow we would remove these screens and add them to a sub-menu on a new welcome screen where first-time users could learn more about the app if they wanted.
From the welcome screen, the next option was to start the onboarding. This kicked off into the first task where the user was asked for their first and last name. This is the same as before however in the back-end system we used this information to generate a Cufflink account handle.
Given that we are a privacy-enhancing app we decided it would be best to add tool tips within all onboarding slides to reassure users of how their data is being used at each point.
On the next screen we asked users to give a contact email or phone number, again this information was used but this time to create a persona on the users' behalf this would eliminate the need for users to do this on their own at a later stage.
We also offered users the option of verifying their contact details here by sending them a verification code. After this was done all that was left for the user was to set a PIN and away they go!
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1. Account Creation
2. Contact Syncing
3. Persona Creation
4. Master password
5. Account Back up
1. Account Creation
2. Contact Syncing
3. Persona Creation
4. Master password
5. Account Back up
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However, we soon realised that we would need to develop a new dashboard as the previous one was comprised of the old onboarding tasks.
The initial design idea was to take the functionality a step further and give people a dashboard where they could do the following:
View number of linked contacts
View number of contacts to invite
View / Edit Cufflink handle
Contacts that can be linked
Have their QR code scanned
Ability to scan QR codes
Once we had built the high-fidelity mock-up it was time to re-test with our users, for this we carried out another similar study to the one before carrying out 30 minutes in-person interviews where we take users through the initial stage of the app.
From this, we discovered that users were happier than we first expected to part ways with their personal information when understanding what it was being used for.
We also Identified that the users’ key motivations, were to be able to link up with their friends and had received favorable feedback on the process as users were able to do this now without jumping through as many hoops and getting side tracked with tasks that were less important when it came to meeting their main goals.
This was bolstered with the new dashboard where the user could carry out all key interactions from one central location and received good feedback.
Furthermore, users expressed the benefits of introducing privacy-centric tasks later once the user had spent a bit more time on the app to be beneficial and said that they were less overwhelmed in the introductory stages.
Based on the feedback we pushed this new design to production and worked closely with the developers during the implementation phase to ensure it was the same experience
seen in testing.
"I can now get straight to linking and sharing information"
"I'm glad I can carry out the tasks at a later stage"
"I like that I can change my account name"
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I'm always eager to hear from new people regarding their projects and love discussing new ideas so if you fancy a chat drop me a line.
