We joined 20 big websites and went through their onboarding experience. Here’s what we found.
Everyone seems to be an expert on user onboarding. Do this, don’t do that, do this twice. I decided to see what the big-name players were doing to onboard precious cargo, their users.
This piece of writing goes hand in hand with this article written by Ross Simmonds back in March of this year. However, we go past the step of landing on the website, and we onboard ourselves. Here we will uncover trends, what is most likely to be asked in onboarding, and how long it will typically take you to go from landing on the website to using the product.
I also used Microsoft Edge to join these sites (vomits), this was so my Google Chrome didn’t try to autocomplete all of my current information.
We went through the onboarding process of the below websites, and we wrote a short summary of each;
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit, Amazon, Google (Gmail), eBay, Pinterest, Paypal, Medium, LinkIn, Evernote, Canva, Etsy, Netflix, Quora, Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify.
Without further ado, here’s what we found;
Facebooks onboarding is right there on its home screen. You don’t need to click a sign-up button or navigate anywhere to get started with the onboarding process. Once you hit sign up, a unique code will be sent to your email. After you put this code into the pop-up, you’ll land on your Facebook home page for the first time!
Twitter’s homepage gives you a choice of log-in or sign-up, before redirecting you to their onboarding page. Their onboarding is a pop-up screen that has five steps. Name and email, customize your experience, confirm your name and email. Twitter also asks you to personalize your account in its onboarding by suggesting people for you to follow, what topics interest you, and whether you want to turn on notifications. Twitter’s onboarding was a long one with 12 different screens to get through before you hit your Twitter timeline for the first time.
As with most of Google’s software, devices, and systems, the account creation is simple, elegant, and easy to get through.
Similar to Facebook, a simple sign-up form on the home page and email confirmation and your good to go. I had errors onboarding here, where it would keep telling me that this email was already in use, but when I went to retrieve my password, the email didn’t exist.
Twitch
After clicking the sign-up button on the top right of the screen, you’re greeted with an elegant pop-up with a username, email, password, and birthday. Like many others, you are then asked to insert a unique code that is sent to your email. The code updates in real-time in the pop-up, so you don’t have to click anything. Once the correct code is in, Twitch instantly accepts it. You are then forced to choose three interests (games, streamers, categories). You cant click out of it, and you can’t start your twitch experience until you have selected them.
Reddit displays a 3 step process after clicking the sign-up option on the home page. You give your email, you choose your interests (this is skippable), and then you select a username and password. There is also a captcha which shows you two different pictures and asks you to click the squares in a 4x5 grid that displays a specific item (mine was a generic picture of an intersection, and I had to highlight the squares that had traffic lights in them). Interestingly, the button to finalize your sign up says “submit” rather than the generic “sign up” text displayed on most big-name websites. Reddit also does not prompt you to verify your email address immediately; once you click submit, you’re ready to go. You will still receive an email confirmation, and you’ll get a little pop-up in your Reddit account until you have verified it.
Amazon
Upon landing on the Amazon home page, you are greeted with a small pop-up in the navigation bar, prompting new customers to “start here”, and current users to sign in. You’re greeted with a standard sign up form and a human test in the form of typing distorted letters into an input. After the email verification, you’re on the homepage and ready to go.
eBay
As I landed on the eBay home page, my eyes naturally darted to the top right of the screen to find the new user sign up. However, it took me a couple of seconds to find it on the top left of the navigation bar. eBay offers Facebook and Google as sign-up options, as well as four quick inputs to get you going as soon as possible. After you have hit register, you are back on the homepage and ready to start shopping. Unlike the other sign-ups so far, there was no email sent instantly upon sign up, asking you to confirm or verify your email. After a short delay, I received an email saying that I’m all signed up and ready to go and that a generic username has been assigned to me, which I can customize later. It is clear with eBays onboarding process that they want you to get shopping as quick as you can with little friction.
Pinterest home page forces a sign up to access their website. An email, password, and age are required to get your account going and hit the homepage. You are then met with an in-page pop-up that asks you for your location, gender, and asks you to pick five or more interests. While you are filling out their onboarding, you are guided by red dots that show where you are up to in the onboarding process. Once you have picked your interests, you’re on the homepage and ready to go. You can use Pinterest without confirming your email, however an email confirmation will be sent.
Paypal
The Paypal homepage is simple. The navigation bar loaded first, so my eyes darted to the top right where I found the sign-up button. The options below the navigation bar make your choice simple if you aren’t sure. Paypal’s onboarding is in-depth, and rightfully so. We put a stop to our onboarding experience once we needed to put in bank details. The process was smooth, considering how much information Paypal wants from you in order to onboard you.
Medium
One could argue from a fresh user perspective that “Become a member” and “Get started” could mean the same thing. In my unprofessional point of view, I would suggest showing the “Become a member” option after onboarding. But I’m just a guy writing about companies more successful than mine, so I digress. After we “Get started”, we are greeted with a Facebook and Google sign up option, with no organic sign up option, a first so far. After choosing our previously created bogus Facebook account, we’re in and on the homepage as a user. I have assumed that the first name, last name, and email have been pulled from my Facebook profile to create my Medium account.
Landing on the LinkedIn homepage allows you to search for jobs and people, and view profiles from the homepage, all without signing up. After a simple first page, we are asked our location, previous jobs, and to input an email verification code. We’re then asked to import contacts, connect with similar people, add a profile photo, set up job alerts, and get the app, all of which we can choose to skip. We then finally land on the home page, ten onboarding pages later. This is our second most lengthy onboarding so far behind Twitter. But being a professional social network, users would likely spend the time to get this one right, rather than rushing through to get to the newsfeed.
Evernote
After hitting sign up, Evernote asks you for your email and a password, as well as offering an easy sign-up with Google. After an effortless onboarding, we are greeted with an option to complete our Evernote setup, or we can close that and jump straight in.
Canva
Landing on Canva.com shows a simple modern navigation bar with log-in and sign-up where you would expect them to be, but they also offer Facebook, Google, and email sign-ups on the home page. Further investigation has revealed that the sign-up button in the top right does nothing but reload the option to sign up with Facebook, Google, or email directly on the homepage. After inputting my name, email, and password, I’m directed to the Canva interface, where I’m greeted with a pop-up window asking me what I will be using the website for (not skippable). An email confirmation is sent in the background, but apart from that, I’m ready to start designing!
Etsy
Hitting the sign-up button on Etsy displays a simple form with an email, name, and password, with Google and Facebook options for ease of use. Then I was redirected back to the homepage, and that was it! A background email confirmation was sent, but I was ready to use Etsy within a minute of initially landing on the website.
Netflix
Netflix has always done things differently, whether it be their revolutionary culture deck, or indeed their onboarding. There is no sign-up or register button on the homepage, rather just a call to action giving you 30 days of Netflix for free. Before we are asked for any of our details, we are given the membership options for our subscription. Only then are we asked to create our account with an email and password. We were then asked for payment details, which is where we stopped our onboarding process.
Quora
The Quora homepage displays a sign-up form with the usual sign up suspects, and an email sign-up option as well. We get the opportunity to personalize our experience, which we cant skip. An email verification lands in my inbox in the background, otherwise we are ready to go.
Uber
Signing up to Uber gives us the option to sign up as a driver or rider. The sign-up page is sleek and outlines which fields are mandatory. After sign up, we are prompted to get the Uber app, which for those of you that have been living under a rock, is what the entirety of Uber is run on.
Airbnb
A simple homepage where we can search for places to stay without signing up. Click the sign-up button displays a pop-up where we can choose our sign up option from Facebook, Google, or email. After completing some standard onboarding inputs, the next page of the pop-up is dedicated to a community commitment and terms of service. We are then advised that there are four steps left of our onboarding, a profile picture, phone number, email confirmation, and the option to sync contacts, all of which are skippable.
Spotify
Probably the most minimalist of homepages of the lot, Spotify has the standard options in the top right, and a CTA in the middle of the screen offering Spotify for free. Clicking sign-up brings us to a simple sign up screen with some inputs and a human test. Finishing the create account page will trigger a download of the Spotify software.
Where websites asked for either an email OR phone number to sign up, we used an email address. We have noted every time a site has offered Facebook as a sign-up option, but have never used it. Where terms and conditions are agreed to, this is where you have had to manually check a box to agree to them. Many sites use a disclaimer of “If you join LinkedIn, you agree to the terms and conditions.” The number of screens you have to go through before using the product includes the home-screen or landing page and does include each individual pop-up screen.
We cut our onboarding short with Paypal and Netflix because their onboarding asks for payment details, we have assumed the number of screens with these websites. We also cut our onboarding short with Instagram, because we broke it.
What we found
- The average amount of screens you will see before you are using the product is 4.45. Twitter took the gold for most screens before use with 12 different screens to get through, while Evernote, eBay, Etsy, and Facebook all had the quickest onboarding with two screens.
- You will be asked for an average of six pieces of information about yourself in order to sign up for a website. Reddit and Netflix (Netflix had incomplete onboarding) asked for the least amount of data with three fields to fill out, and Airbnb asked for the most information with ten fields to complete.
- Someone forgot to tell the big companies that email is dead. Email is well and truly alive, and every website did not allow me to become a user of their product without an email address (with the exception of Gmail, where I created an email address).
- The days of confirming your email and password by typing them twice are all but over, with two of 20 wanting me to type my email twice, and three of 20 wanting me to repeat my password.
- Surprisingly, three out of the 20 websites joined did not ask me for a password to join.
- 4 out of 20 websites are still asking for a gender to join. Facebook, I can understand, but Spotify, Pinterest, and Google?
- “Sign up” is the most common button text when websites are wanting users to join, with 11 sites using the CTA. Amazon and Netflix were the most creative with “Create your Amazon account” and “Try 30 Days Free” respectively.
The dataset we used is available to view here.
