CONTEXT

Product Snapshot

Allo is a social networking app that connects families through shared interests and needs. The founders came to us to address their problem with high churn and low engagement.

I led a team through the redesign of the onboarding flow, the implementation of a trigger loop to drive engagement and the design of a new grouping feature.

Results

Over 6 weeks and multiple iterations, we designed four new features, decreased cognitive load during onboarding by decreasing inputs by 70% and created a series of trigger hooks. Below is a preview of our final screens. Continue reading to dig deeper into our design process.

DESIGN PROCESS

Planning our Sprint

Because Allo already had a functioning app, we used the Double Diamond process for our 6 week sprint. Given our tight deadline and the nature of our role as contractors, we kicked things off with a scoping session to clarify expectations with the client.

Understanding Pain Points

To delve deeper into our persona’s pain points, we recruited subjects for a round of interviews to understand:

1. How they are currently asking for favors in their community

2. The frequency of their requests

3. The motivators behind offering favors to others

4. The pain points associated with requesting help.

The following insights emerged:

1. New mothers typically have less than three friends they can request favors from.

2. Parents with young children have a hard time making new friends and report feelings of isolation.

3. Mothers with young children feel more comfortable requesting favors from other mothers who can empathize with their challenges.

4. Trust is the most important factor when assessing childcare options.

Testing the Existing Product

To identify issues with the current version, we ran an audit and a set of usability tests. We were testing for areas of high friction, high cognitive load and alternative paths.

We organized the insights according to the section of the app they were concerned with.

Because Allo was looking for rapid iterations, we mapped our insights to prioritize feature redesigns according to ease of implementation and the impact each would have on the business.

We kept Allo’s business objectives in focus as we assessed user feedback and decided which section of the app could be redesigned to improve usability and drive Allo’s metrics.

I focused on the redesign of the onboarding experience, the redesign of the village including the design of a new grouping feature and the redesign of the feed. Continue reading to see how we tackled each of these challenges.

DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION

Focusing the Onboarding Experience

The original onboarding flow was lengthy and lacked relevancy. In our initial tests,

• 1/7 users were comfortable sharing all of the information requested in onboarding

• 1/7 users understood Allo’s UVP after completing onboarding.

As the lead of the onboarding team, I suggested we map out the task flow and revisit Allo’s value proposition to refocus the onboarding experience and collect only the data most pertinent to deliver on Allo’s UVP. We relocated the other inputs to the “Profile” and “Post Creation” sections. We would use any incomplete information to create triggers and increase engagement through lifecycle emails and push notifications.

The redesigned flow focuses on Allo’s promise to connect users with other members of their community by offering help and requesting favors. Through our competitive analysis, we learned that it’s common to require a social login. By requiring a social login, we were able to autofill basic profile inputs and collect only a short bio from the user. By connecting social accounts, we were able to offer more relevant recommended connections immediately upon login. Our redesigned flow decreased cognitive load by eliminating or relocating 70% of required onboarding steps while still collecting the information necessary to provide relevant friend suggestions.

Redirecting the Welcome Screen

Before our redesign, users were welcomed on a blank state screen with the “Create Post” CTA. However, if a user’s first action was to create a post, it fell on blind eyes because they hadn’t populated their village with new contacts.

After refining the task flow, we decided the most appropriate place for users to land after onboarding would be the connect tab, prompting them to begin populating their village with friends and recommended connections. We included additional data points to connected users based on location, mutual connections and most importantly - common offers/requests.

Organizing Connections

Before our redesign, the village was a static page offering few interaction opportunities. Most users attempted to navigate to their contact list to connect with friends, however, they had difficulty finding this section.

• Only 2/6 users were able to easily locate their village (friend list).

We redesigned the village to include more information about each user and the opportunity to group contacts according to traits. For example, a user might not send a post about pet sitting to a group of mothers she usually meets up with for playdates.

I led a small team through a sprint to design the grouping feature and tested the interactions with 7 subjects on each iteration.

Redesigning the Feed

The Feed is Allo’s central communication channel. This is where users discover and respond to posts, manage their own posts and browse activity in their immediate and extended circles. Unfortunately, during our tests, we found that users were having a hard time finding relevant information, leading to high churn and low engagement.

• 1/6 users successfully located confirmed plans.

• 3/6 users felt the feed was easy to scan and personally relevant.

Increasing Engagement

After simplifying the onboarding flow, we needed to create hooks to increase engagement and avoid incomplete user profiles. In our inital tests,

• 5/7 users attempted to skip adding interests in onboarding.

• 6/7 users were overwhelmed by the amount of information requested during onboarding.

I decided to relocate adding interests to the profile section and use it as a trigger to gain more relevant recommended connections and increase engagement. We also decided to add more interests to increase the number of data points users can connect through.

VALIDATION TESTING

Testing the Redesign

After wrapping up our iterations, we ran usability tests with 7 new subjects, testing the onboarding flow and navigation throughout the app.

After reviewing our results, we were happy to find our redesign performed much better than previous versions:

REFLECTION

Feature Recommendations

Allo is working on implementing our redesign for Q4 2018.

Based on our tests, there were two features that were out of scope for this proposal that we suggested Allo revisit when possible.

1. A redesign of the map feature in the connect tab to further enhance user growth and engagement.

2. The design and implementation of a meetup or events feature so families can host get-togethers, allowing for further development of their network and increased trust among members.

Closing Thoughts

Playing a central role on this redesign allowed me to take a wide view of Allo’s objectives and prioritize the most important pain points users were experiencing. Designing for acquisition and retention at such an early stage is critical. It was exciting to deploy some behavioral change strategies and to draw from my background in marketing and growth. I look forward to watching Allo’s engagement metrics increase as new users find value in the platform.

I learned the importance of focusing product features based on business objectives. It’s critical to start narrow when defining a target market. If you try to solve everybody’s problem, you end up solving nobody’s problem.