LingQ classical version onboarding analysis from a student’s point of view
As you probably know, I am one of the lucky students participating in an academy program at the LingQ Headquarters. Last week’s topic was onboarding and, since I love the psychological and strategical aspects if it, I really enjoyed undertaking an unbiased analysis on the onboarding of the application.
LingQ BETA version is coming soon!
First of all I would like to state that in order to deliver an unbiased review I disposed of all my previous experiences with the page, all my successes with the page and all the conversations with anyone related to LingQ. I wanted to have an absolutely unbiased, fresh look at the page. I wanted to look at the page from a very critical but language enthusiastic perspective. I also devoted particular attention to my initial first impressions of the page and to the main onboarding factors. My main goal was to review and rate the efficiency of the onboarding and the likelihood of the successful useronboarding of users.
All of my observations-whether they are negative or positive- were written with good intent.
Please note that my knowledge in the onboarding field is limited but my impressions are honest and maybe representative.
The definition of onboarding according to the Huffington Post:
The goal of user onboarding is to get the users to understand the key principles at the heart of the product and to show them how it will improve their lives. If it can make the point of the product clear and easy to understand the first time a user tries it, have a better chance of gaining excited and engaged customers.
The main factors that contribute to the accomplishment of this goal:
Help users quickly understand the benefits of the product.
Generate and build enthusiasm throughout the user’s experience.
Convey how the product uniquely helps users accomplish their objectives.
These are the basic principles I took into consideration while testing the page.
In my private opinion, LingQ is a unique and revolutionary tool to learn and practice languages. It does not support the conventional methods of language learning but comes out with a great all-in-one approach that is worth a try for all language learners. I also think that it can be a unique and new weapon to any language learner`s arsenal. But this article is not about whether LingQ provides great value or not, but rather about whether it can convey this supposed value or not.
Keeping this approach in mind, the real question is: can the page REALLY and EFFECTIVELY convey the value?
Do the first few steps help new users understand the benefits of the product?
Can the initial impression generated in the new users build enthusiasm?
Do we new users experience our first success easily and does the the page serve an easily followable walkthrough of how to achieve this?
There are various ways to achieve great onboarding, such as timed welcome emails, notifications, but I focus on the page first in this section.
Let’s jump into the page`s classical version and see what the answers are to these intriguing questions.
Home page: I am not sure if this page is traditionally referred to as part of onboarding but I believe that everything that contributes to obtain the above explained goals should be part of the onboarding. So I included the home page as well.
The first things we see are the top bar with the most important features, a guy sharing his Spanish-learning experience, the slogan “Language Learning, Simply”, a big ”get started for free” button. Oh, and a sideways triangle. I believe that the regular-sized screen cannot contain all the information that should exist on a home page. The visitors should definitely scroll down to get more, easily digestible information about the page. So the home page`s first screen should contain something that urges the visitor to scroll down and find out more about the service.
There are several reasons why scrolling down is mutually beneficial for both LingQ and the visitor. The design is well organised, clear and informative down there. It explains why a visitor should choose LingQ and it also shows customer reviews. These are factors that show the value and the credibility of the service. It should be the first thing to show to the audience. I did not get the feeling of curiosity to scroll down when I saw the homepage.
The other thing I noticed is that I simply overlooked the sideways triange. This feature is supposed to show you around the application and give you an overview. I simply overlooked it. Altough my attention span is that of a goldfish, a webpage simply cannot afford any visitor failing to notice such an important thing. The worst thing is that the video is great and gives a perfect overview of the page.
My suggestion would to reframe the homepage to give emphasis to the “Why LingQ?” section because it explains why LingQ is different and unique. Redesigning the video player is also crucial. I think that the homepage has much more potential.
If we find the page to be worth a try, then our next destination is the registration page.
Registration page: I think that this page is very well designed. It does not require any unnecessary information that the visitor would be reluctant to provide. The prefilled boxes help orient the visitor. The bullets on the right hand side sum up important features of LingQ and that builds excitement. Great page overall.
When you put in your details, your real language-learning journey begins. Let’s see how effectively LingQ walks you through the basics.
First page inside: a strange little creature welcomes us as we step in suggesting to “click “+New Course” to begin learning our craved language”. The background is white and there is a sidebar on the right side and a top bar. The invitation is clear and straightforward but I have two problems onboardingwise. There is no clear reference point to show me where I am at the moment and how to get back here later on. There is page title that I can refer to. I feel lost and insecure. It would be great to see that this is the MAIN PAGE for instance and I can get back here any time later on. It gives me a structural frame that helps me to orient on the page in the future.
The other issue is that I look for a little introduction and welcome message. An application`s main page reminds me of a new friend. A short but warm welcome message and some encouragement is highly appreciated in both cases and sets the tone of the future relationship.
Overall, the message is straightforward, but the style needs to improve.
New course page: as we proceed, the next page is the “New Course” page. Here I found a huge problem. If I signed in as a beginner English speaker, the first, LingQ 101 course appeared as the first course here. This course attempts to show you around and give you everything you need about the usage of LingQ, the ins and outs of this learning method ( I will go into details about this course below). BUT if you signed in as intermediate or advanced in your foreign language, you will see only the intermediate or advanced content. Since the display “LingQ 101” course is available only to beginner level users, you, as an intermediate or advanced student, won’t see this course under the “New Course” page preview.
This is a very misleading issue. Aside from the beginners, the application provides very little instructions. It definitely obstructs the users in gaining their first success using the service.
In the actual lessons only a few small speech bubbles help the user understand the philosophy of the page. It is simply not sufficient and the risk of user churning is critically high here.
Guidance course: going back to the LingQ 101 course, it is a great tool to show all the features of the application. The content and the attached videos are both great ideas to introduce the service. The only problem is that, though the idea is perfect, the implementation is less so. If you create a Lingq or just click on a word, the video disappears and it is not easy to access it again since only a very small icon directs the users to the video. Nevertheless, in the video, Steve Kaufmann uses a different interface so 50 percent of the design in the video does not apply to the actual design we use.
Again, the idea is perfect, but not easily applicable actually. And according to my personal view, if the understanding of the application requires mental and physical effort in the initial onbording phase, then it is not a well-thought-over design.
If our enthusiasm still drives us and we manage to go through a lesson. The next two pages we face are a pair of popup pages that sum up our improvement. In these pages a little more reward would be appreciated because after all, this is the first success we achieve along the way. The next two buttons we can choose from are the new lessons button and the close button. If we click on the close button, we get redirected back to the same lesson, without instructions, without any clue what to do next. So many options around us. The top bar is full of interesting features but there is no direction at all. We are by ourselves and it is up to us to figure out the way out.
I might overdramatize this problem but the users have limited time and patience. If the page does not support them along the way, the likelihood of successful retention is aggravatingly low.
If a user has problems understanding the operation of the site, the next thing he can do is figure it out by himself and turn to ”the “help”.
I think that no user should have to resort to this option, except if he is looking for overly technical or deeply detailed solutions. The onboarding should cover all the important features of the application and give the first success to the user as well as the motivation and reason to continue using in the future.
The videos and frequently asked question anwers provide all the information one needs to succeed in the application but this is not the best way to deliver this information. It should have happened in the onboarding phase because the percentage of users who are willing to dig into this information overload is lower than of users who simply run out of patience and tolerance.
If the required effort is higher than the proposed reward, the onboarding fails.
In summary, the onboarding of LingQ has much more potential than it takes advantage of at the moment. The actual value is much greater than it currently seems to convey, but this is easily curable.
Thanks for your attention and if you have any experience or struggle with onboarding or you have any advice or opinion, do not hesitate to share with us!
