How to improve onboarding from 6% to 35%
WORK IN PROGRESS
Some tips and tricks I learnt to make a long, complicated onboarding bearable- from handling Niyo's onboarding for 4 years straight.
Client
Niyo
Service
Product Design
Timeline
2021-2025
Teams
Design, Product, Tech, Illustration, Content
Problem Statement
Users new to Niyo were getting intimidated by the long onboarding process, which included a rigid flow controlled by bank requirements, disjointed steps and various redundant verifications and KYCs. Users were dropping like flies from the funnel, and there was an urgent need of a revamp.
Goals and KPIs
Design goal: Users should be able to create their Niyo accounts seamlessly, and not get confused by the countless documents and details required to create the account.
Business goal: There should be an improvement in the onboarding funnel, and less user queries to customer support regarding onboarding.
The improvements followed 3 simple objectives: make onboarding safe, inviting and easy.
The legacy flow
Niyo’s onboarding was quite basic and functional. There were a lot of issues to be addressed. A heuristics evaluation showed that the screens largely lacked proper communication and reassurance.
Hey! I've listed down some of my learnings below, but till I finish this page, you can always get on a call with me to know more.
My Learnings
Explain to the users what they will encounter in the next screens and how much time it will take. Set expectations right at the start, so that no one is disappointed down the line.
Have a progress indicator - Watching the bar rush forward after finishing a task, and knowing how many steps are left can keep users motivated for the next steps of onboarding.
Keep form factors consistent for steps in the flow. Even if a step like email verification has smaller sub tasks, a single form factor can make it feel like one big step in the user's mind, and not like three individual steps.
Why use two pages if one page can the do the trick? Why use full pages if a bottom sheet can do the trick? - Make sure you are using the right form factor for your design.
Use the right types of loaders in the right place - Full screen spinner loaders might be a staple of web design, but using them for sub-second pauses makes the onboarding seem laggy and slow. Opt for a smaller, integrated loader which will not break the user's experience.
Ask for information only when it will be used. Try to collect only the essential data first. Any non-essential data can be taken later, there's plenty of time for that after the user has onboarded.
