⏰ Routinery is a routine app with 2M users based on behavioral science so that users can construct a better routinized life.
Problem space:
Routinery spotted a low engagement rate throughout the onboarding flow (which we defined as from the first page to the end page of setting routines.)
The highest bounce rate (19.3%) is found in completion of creating routines compared to other funnels.
The stakeholders wanted to know what is preventing the first time users to proceed using the app and successfully adopting the feature.
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Objectives
1. Discover friction points that users would encounter while onboarding and what specific points are precluding them from experiencing the 'Aha!' moment.
2. Serve research findings and suggest new design recommendations to increase the feature adoption rate
Research Question
"How do first time users perceive onboarding flow and what is their thought process while encountering the flow?"
“Why do they perceive specific friction points as challenges?”
"What are users' needs, pain points, and motivations in having a routinized life?"
Research Timeline
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Research Methods
1. Stakeholder Interview
An 1-hour focus group interview involving our UX research team and stakeholders (1 UX designer and 1 PM)
Goal:
Align goals with stakeholders what they expect from this research and minimize any confusion before conducting research
Outcome:
Defined the problem space and research questions
2. Qualitative Usability testing & in-depth interview (Hybrid)
Goal:
1. Identify major friction points of the current onboarding flow
2. Understand users' thought process while encountering challenges and why they perceive them as friction points
3. Understand users' needs, pain points, and motivations in having a routinized life, and how these factors can affect the use of this service
Study design:
60 minutes of qualitative remotely-moderated combined usability test with user interview
The onboarding experience is not only affected by the UX flow but also possibly influenced by external factors such as their needs, pain points, and motivations that could lead to using this app (i.e., the desire to have a routinized life).
(Due to the limited timeframe and budget we were given, we decided to conduct it virtually, which is more cost-effective and faster.)
User Interview (30 min):
1. Before conducting the usability test, study participants were asked to describe their daily routines and how well they perform the planned routines.
2. Further asked how much and why they value having a routinized life and what they want to do better with the status quo (user needs, pain points, and motivations)
Usability Testing (20 min):
1. After the interview session ended, participants went through the onboarding section with their phone screen being shared. They were encouraged to talk aloud when they perceived a certain point as a challenge in real-time.
2. Participants were given a task which is to create routines they described during the interview.
3. Moderators marked the sections that participants perceived as friction points in the onboarding flow.
4. After completing the usability test, moderators and participants revisited the onboarding flow to discuss why each friction point was perceived as a challenge.
Study demographics:
1. Total of 7 participants
2. Age between 20-30 (average age range of the Routinery users)
3. No experience in using Routinery
(the current users will not have clear memories of their onboarding experiences as of now)
4. Interested in forming a routined life
(Confirmed that all 7 participants share these conditions via survey screening to ensure that they are the best matches with the current users)
Outcome:
1. Discovered 4 major friction points that over 4 - 5 out of 7 participants had troubles with
2. Understood how the study participants perceived each friction point as a challenge and the reasoning behind it.
Research Findings
All study participants met the conditions indicating that they are highly likely to use the app because:
1. All study participants were in need of having a routinized life but answered they are not living up to their expectation.
2. They are currently using diaries, alarms, and calendars to establish their routines but feel they need additional assistance to maintain them.
After conducting interviews and usability tests, we identified 4 major friction points that were commonly mentioned by most users:
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Research Impact
Based on the research findings, our team could provide design recommendations for optimizing the onboarding flow, and the new design has been implemented as follows:
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Limitations & Challenges:
1. Since we conducted usability testing online via Zoom (due to budget constraints), it was not the ideal setting to observe participants and their interaction with the product. However, fortunately, the friction points were still easily observable in our research setting.
2. Since the UX research assistant opportunity lasted only one month, it was unable to track differences in metrics and further emphasize the research impact.
🤔 Lessons & Reflections:
1. I learned it is very important to engage with stakeholders consistently and frequently. As I worked on the project, having consistent meetings helped us out with preventing miscommunications and also kept the stakeholders engaged throughout the project.
2. It was great speaking to the participants from different backgrounds. The biggest reason why I love user research is that I get to speak with people and it allows me to understand the problem from their perspectives.
