Disclaimer — I was working in Vahak as a UI/UX designer and to redesign the onboarding flow was one of my major projects since I was the sole designer who worked on this.
About Vahak
Vahak is an online transport marketplace that provides a platform to help users who are looking for loads and lorries. The company offers features that make it easier for users to book loads & lorries, grow their network and establish an online brand presence.
Vahak caters to an audience who are not comfortable with digital technologies. Additionally, the users of Vahak do not have fixed roles and their responsibilities often overlap. For instance, a person who transports goods can also act as a broker while finding a truck for someone else, and can also become a shipper while arranging for the transportation of goods.
Understanding the problem space
Around 40% of the users drop after installing the app. Moreover, a major portion of the users that move forward also drop before completing the onboarding process. I identified a few significant problems with the current onboarding flow —
- The “Skip OTP Verification” CTA given in the OTP verification screen broke the onboarding flow.
- User had to go through 5 content heavy carousels to complete the walkthrough.
- User had to choose from two service type options, out of which one option further expands into 3 more options. This creates confusion and makes the decision making process difficult.
- After registering, users were asked to post load or lorry based on the service selection without providing any value proposition. Moreover, the skip option given there was not visible enough.
The goal was to improve two key business metrics through onboarding:
- Increase the conversion rate from installation to registration
- Decrease the average time taken to complete the onboarding process.
My role
I was responsible for conducting user interviews, analysing user behaviour and feedback, and creating design solutions that are intuitive, efficient and easy to use.
Final Design
Design process and challenges
- I conducted user interviews which were quite challenging, since the audience of Vahak are impatient, they were not ready to give their time.
- I conducted competitive analysis, some of which were direct competitors and some were indirect. This helped me to come up with solutions to some extent.
- I had given lot of iterations and did usability testing to evaluate their performance in order to identify the version that was most effective.
Competitive analysis
I downloaded and analysed three apps. I compared the onboarding experience of each of the competitor’s app as a new and returning user.
Response of qualitative and quantitative research
From the data team, I got to know there were major drops in “language” screen, “service type” screen and in “Create password” field.
I have followed two research methods; qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative analysis, I took interviews of 25 users based on the data which I got from the data team. Conducting user interviews helped me find their pain-points and challenges they were facing.
The gap between the product and the on-ground reality was a major concern in Vahak’s case. For example: The service providers had different nomenclatures as per their region. Moreover, agents & brokers identify as transporters(Status driven society). This led to confusion on service selection and made it difficult for user to take action.
Based on the user pain-points and insights, I prepared questions and surveyed 20 users to validate it.
Actionable Insights
- The complexity of the “service type” screen was a major issue.
- Users were not sure what to write in the “company name” field.
- Creating password and remembering it was a huge pain for users.
After conducting research and analysis, I was able to visualise the solution.
High-fidelity prototypes
Walkthrough: It is an additional distraction for our users as they are impatient and do not want to spend time on this process.
Hence, I removed walkthrough and instead designed “Mobile Number” entry field in the same screen, reducing one extra step to make their sign-up process faster.
Earlier, users had to select the language. But in the new flow we capture the users existing language on the keyboard and phone. This helped in skipping a step completely, also users can change language at any point of time during the process.
OTP verification screen: “Skip OTP Verification” CTA had allowed users to skip the onboarding process which broke the flow. Vahak being a marketplace that caters to both demand and supply side of the users, this flow was difficult to provide a personalised experience, since there was no information on the users skipping the onboarding process.
Hence, I removed the skip option, allowing them to complete the onboarding process which helps them to get personalised experience.
Service type screen: Users had to choose from two service type options, out of which one option further expands into 3 more options. The more options available to the users, the more difficult it is for them to make a decision. If we overwhelm new users with various options and a barrage of information all at once then they are likely to struggle with decision making, losing sight of the bigger picture, and stop using the app.
Simple language is what matters the most especially for less tech savvy users. Therefore, I kept it short and concise and removed the option for multiple selection. This simplified the process and made it more intuitive
Company registration screen: “Create password” field hinders the user’s experience as users tend to forget password leading to drop-offs and less retention. Too many fields in the registration form create friction, for example; entering the location manually.
I removed “Create password” field to make the company registration process smoother (This also increases the chance of retention). Moreover, the previous flow required the user to manually enter the location. However, in the new flow we capture the user’s location with just a click.
Welcome screen: In this screen users can either start posting or skip posting and land on the marketplace. Right after completing the onboarding, users were asked to post without giving them any value, also the skip option is not visible enough.
I added congratulatory screen post registration and also created a free business card for our users. This is a milestone moment to inform users that they’re done with their setup. Now they can share their business card, giving them the motivation they need to engage with the rest of the product.
Impact
Redesigning the onboarding had a positive impact on the user experience. New onboarding flow had more conversion from installation to company registration.
- Average time taken to complete the onboarding process has decreased as I eliminated few steps in the new flow that simplified the process and made it more intuitive.
- Average time taken on the “service type” screen also decreased since users were able to take quick decisions in selecting their roles.
Conclusion
It is essential to ensure that onboarding is designed to provide value to the user and encourage them to continue using the product.
The main challenges faced were:
- Conducting user interviews, since our target users were mostly impatient and did not want to give their time for such interviews.
- Creating variations of certain screens to conduct usability testing to see which drives the goals up.
- Reducing complexity of the “Service type” screen.
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