Optimizing mobile onboarding to increase activation rates
Company
Kraken
Role
Senior Product Designer
Timeline
Q3-Q4 2024
Problem
Low activation rates on mobile apps
With the majority of users accessing our platform via mobile devices, our onboarding experience was not optimized for mobile interaction, resulting in high drop-off rates during the onboarding process. Users were abandoning onboarding due to lengthy input requirements, unclear instructions, and frustration with mobile-specific issues like excessive typing. This posed a significant barrier to growth, especially as user expectations for seamless mobile experiences continue to rise.
Our challenge was to create a mobile-first onboarding experience that was streamlined, engaging, and user-friendly, minimizing user effort while maximizing clarity. We aimed to reduce drop-off rates and ensure new users had a smooth introduction to the product, thereby increasing activation rates.
User research
Gathering insights and empathizing with users
We began with a user research phase to better understand the pain points in our current onboarding experience and identify mobile-specific needs. We conducted:
1. User testing sessions: observing real users as they navigated the onboarding flow on mobile devices, taking note of points where they hesitated, became confused, or experienced frustration.
2. Competitive analysis: analyzing mobile onboarding flows of fintech apps with high retention rates to identify best practices and trends in mobile-first design.
Insight #1
Users wanted a quick and intuitive onboarding process that was fast and provided clear guidance.
Insight #2
Many users abandoned the onboarding flow when faced with multi-step forms, ambiguous completion time, or redundant questions.
Insight #3
Many users wanted to understand why we were collecting their sensitive information.
Solution
Optimizing the experience and adding value
The design was crafted to be visually minimalistic yet engaging, leveraging mobile UI principles that emphasize clarity, transparency, and touch-friendly elements:
Optimized inputs and auto-completion
By optimizing inputs with responsive feedback and minimizing typing by using auto-complete, drop-downs, and pre-populated fields where possible, we were able to make the onboarding process around 10% quicker.
Guided verification
We optimized UX copy to make the onboarding process more clear, informative and actionable for users. We added information about why we were collecting specific pieces of information and prepped users for the next step.
Simplified forms
We simplified forms by working with Compliance and Legal to reduce the number of questions we asked users, making the experience quicker and faster.
Progress indicators
I added a step-by-step progress bar to help users track their position and remaining questions in the onboarding process. Due to the conditional nature of the flow, where steps vary based on user responses, the progress bar resets at each step, ensuring users always have a sense of progress.
Impact
The mobile-first onboarding experience is being tested in key geographies. So far, we’ve significantly improved key metrics and user feedback:
35% reduction in drop-off rates: streamlining the flow and minimizing manual input led to a significant reduction in users abandoning the onboarding process.
20% increase in mobile 7-day trailing activation rate: more users completed onboarding and began actively using the app, thanks to the simplified and faster registration process.
Positive user feedback: Surveys and app store reviews highlighted the onboarding flow as intuitive and quick, with specific mentions of the easy verification steps and the helpful progress indicators.