Onboarding Like a Boss: How to Build User Happiness through the Landing Page
Many products, a new or a redesigned one, fail at the first launch. Some fail to solve users’ actual problems and others simply fail to win users’ heart despite meeting users’ needs.
Being a UX researcher means being able to talk directly to users to justify their delighters and frustrations when interacting with our products. However, as a former product manager who used to think of the bigger picture as well as details between UX, business, and tech, I could not help thinking why users do not want to adopt certain products.
My first project as a UX Researcher at Tokopedia was understanding the user segments of OVO Pay Later (OPL) that, from what the name suggests, allows users to buy products or pay bills while paying later. OPL had been launched for a month and the business team needed to increase the penetration by exploring what could be improved from the product itself.
To reach that objective of understanding the segments of OPL based on their behavior when using the product, I started breaking down each stage in the user journey: starting from the landing page down to the payment confirmation page. I then collected a list of users to interview by phone and asked them questions to understand their habits, motivation, behavior towards the product, as well as their delighters and frustrations. It turned out that one of the things users still expected from OPL is clearer information throughout the onboarding process, including information on how to register.
To respond to users’ expectation (as well as their pain points), I discussed my research findings to the business and product design team. Later on, they took an initiative to improve the landing page by elaborating the benefits of the OPL in a friendly language. This is to help prospective users to immediately obtain product knowledge from the beginning. In other words, we made the onboarding process more informative and captivating. After making this improvement, we achieved an approximately 67% increase in new users who completed OPL registration.
I also found a similar issue when running a project on Tokopedia Tukar Tambah, a unique feature that enables users to trade-in or upgrade their smartphone on Tokopedia. When conducting a Usability Testing (UT), most users finished the tasks I gave with some challenges. For example, some users had a few difficulties doing the trade-in and wondered how it actually worked.
“This is a very interesting feature but how does it really work online? Will a courier come to take my old phone and bring me a new one? Or will there be two different couriers?” (User 1 in a UT session)
“As a new user, this looks very confusing.” (User 2)
Two different products share a similar improvement area: entry point or, as we often call it, onboarding.
There is a phenomenon called the curse of knowledge, in which a person tends to assume that other people that they communicate with have the same knowledge to understand the context. When defining a product, we sometimes assume that our solution is the best and the easiest one for users. Steve Krug, the author of the iconic UX Design book “Don’t Make Me Think”, says that users are lazy. If you introduce a product they are unfamiliar with, they will not bother thinking or trying it and thus, your opportunity to sell becomes lesser.
No matter how useful and valuable we think our product is, if users could not understand how to make use of it, they most likely would just leave and find an alternative. In the fast-growing tech industry, baby startups are born every month with the same mission: to solve users’ problems. When a new disruptor is coming, our chance of declining revenue slowly increases. Therefore, one way to keep users happy is by continuing on improving their experience; and onboarding is a crucial step that stakeholders have to take into account.
By creating intuitive onboarding experiences, whether for new or redesigned products, the probability for new users to continue exploring the product will be higher. When we successfully convert them from the discovery (entry point) to the payment phase effortlessly, the conversion rate will increase too. Additionally, when the conversion rate increases, the revenue will eventually increase as well. Ultimately, happy users (because they get their problems solved) means a happy business.
Even though we keep helping users accomplish their goals, we acknowledge that humans are resistant to changes. Therefore, how we communicate the changes to them also matters so that they could see the changes as positive improvement. There are three ways of doing this:
First, gather information and feedback from our users. Research through interviews or UT can help explore their habits, motivation, and behavior towards a product. Only after understanding these matters could we grasp their mental model and find the truth about their aspirations.
Collecting feedback early would minimize the risk of product failure upon launching. One thing to remember is that every product we create or redesign has to be evidence-based, and evidence could be collected from research.
Second, prepare a solid onboarding because it matters how we design the onboarding to guide users to the changes we have made. Ideally, a good onboarding should provide a clear overview of how the product works and its post-improvement impact.
Last but not least, speak to users again to collect feedback after the new release. This would allow them to express their likes and dislikes for the improvement we have made and whether or not they find it helpful. In conclusion, users need to be convinced that every change we made for them will bring benefit.
