Pointer - Onboarding
Lofi onboarding evolution
To kick off designs, I started with paper wireframing of the onboarding flow - a refreshingly messy and productive process. It allowed for quick iterations of the flow without getting bogged down by the UI at this stage.
These were the goals for onboarding:
Collect user and dog information
Gather user and dog preferences
Educate users on app features
Create a playful first impression
High level flow
Detailed flow explorations
“Short & Sweet” - The idea here was to explore a quick and painless onboarding for the users. I was concerned if the app was asking too much information upfront.
“Spread it out” - Mentors informed me that users were already comfortable with long onboarding sessions. The goal here was to collect information spread out over more screens.
“Daring data” - The flow became more interactive for users with the utilization of drop downs and sliders.
Midfi evolution
The Onboarding flow began to take shape in medium fidelity using Figma.
Creating a more detailed user flow helped to reveal the bigger picture and consider where alternate flows might lead. It was important to serve different types of user groups (dog owners vs. venue owners) and if they already had an account (log in vs. sign up).
Ideas explored included:
Allowing users to skip sign up so they could just explore the app
When to surface location permissions
A personalized list of recommendations to introduce users to the app
How to introduce users to the rewards feature
Sample explorations
User testing
Before moving to the hifi stage, another round of user interviews was helpful in identifying potential areas for improvement. As with the generative interviews, the testing was conducted through Zoom screensharing sessions, digitally recorded, and transcribed through Otter.ai.
Main questions for midfi testing:
Was the onboarding flow the right length to keep the user engaged?
Did users find the Tricks feature rewarding and clear?
Were there any parts of the app that were distracting or unnecessary?
Summary of Onboarding feedback:
Spreadsheets were helpful in narrowing down which points of the onboarding flow confused users. This pointed towards the sticking points that needed to be addressed in the next iteration.
Some major takeaways were that:
Users wanted to utilize the app to connect with other dog owners
Building in messaging features between users, including the option of adding friends, and highlighting if friends were also attending events, helped to make the community feel more connected.
Dog owners really enjoyed the Tricks feature
Users also had great ideas for promoting further engagement like unlocking tricks in tiers - i.e. Apprentice, Trainee, Master Dog Trainer, or earning discounts from local dog businesses.
Information hierarchy needed to be simplified
On complex screens like search results where lots of information was presented at the same time, users were often overwhelmed. While some users said it was clear where they could navigate next, others found the amount of links, images, and buttons too overwhelming.
Armed with plenty of data, it was time to develop the hifi version of these flows.
Design system
In between midfi and hifi, a design system was created to maintain consistency and branding.
Hifi evolution
User flow
Changes between midfi and hifi user flow:
Built a more robust flow for dog venues - There are two main users on Pointer - dog owners and dog venues. These venues also deserved an enjoyable onboarding experience including break screens and encouraging copy. User testing also revealed that dog owners desired lots of information before they visited (like whether places were fenced-in, provided dog water bowls, or only allowed small dogs), so the onboarding process for venues required additional screens to ask all the right questions.
Clarified the Tricks feature - An educational rewards system could be very effective, but it was also a new concept for many users. During midfi user testing, users reported being interested in tricks and rewards, but wanted more details on the process of unlocking tricks. Adding value props for Tricks would help explain this unique feature.
Account setup explorations
Version A - One of the first iterations of this screen, featured a label to indicate where the user was in the sign up process.
Version B - Added some sections and the option to add another dog, the different fonts looked distracting though.
Version C - Taking away some color helped to simplify the screen. Tried the option to “add another dog” as a button. Added placeholder text.
Latest version - This screen was a lesson in “less is more.” After deciding to remove details like sections and placeholder texts, the screen was a lot easier to navigate.
Sign up and log in explorations
What I was thinking:
Version A - The idea was to lead with compelling copy and a playful image to build up excitement for the sign up process.
Version B - Switched the placement of image and copy to see if it would be more visually appealing. Some copy was changed to align with the dog theme.
Version C - Tried out the idea of icons/illustrations instead of photographs, but it looked more like an error screen. Added the option of creating a dog venue account.
Latest version - This screen was a challenge to design because of all the different ways users could log in (through Google, Facebook, or email) or sign up (as a dog owner or dog venue owner). To fit all these options into one screen would have been visually overwhelming. Ultimately, this screen became the point in which sign up and log in diverged into separate user flows.
Round 2 of user testing
Main questions for this hifi version:
Did the overall design encourage users to interact with the app (and continue to stay active)?
Did the app feel energetic and playful?
Were users overwhelmed on complicated screens like home and search?
Did it feel like a trustworthy app since onboarding asked for personal information?
Was there enough explanation of the Tricks feature?
Method:
5 user interviews with many of the same individuals from the first round of testing. All were current dog owners who lived in metropolitan cities.
Another spreadsheet helped to organize the feedback, but the main takeaways were:
Users enjoyed the overall look of the app and felt the colors were appropriate with the dog theme.
The tricks feature (reward system) encouraged users to stay active, and analytics could be a helpful guide here for future improvements. Also, the additional value props for tricks were helpful in explaining the feature.
Users felt comfortable providing this level of information during onboarding.
Next steps & lessons learned
While countless iterations were created for the Onboarding flow of Pointer (up to 20 iterations of a single screen), and there were multiple rounds of user testing, there will always be room for improvement.
Next steps:
Work with other departments - particularly marketing, sales, and engineering - to make sure all aspects of the app are feasible
Conduct user testing with dog venue owners
Maintain accessibility, including those individuals with different visual and hearing abilities
Update UI periodically to stay relevant, build out a design library
Refine existing features of the app such as the reward system, Tricks
Explore edge cases like this one
20+
iterations of a single screen
315
minutes of user testing
2
programs utilized
(Figma & Sketch)
Lessons learned:
There’s always room for improvement, no iteration is necessarily the final one.
Working within constraints can be frustrating and freeing at the same time.
User feedback is not only helpful, but also provides the framework for successful design.