GetMotivatedBuddies

Get Motivated Buddies

Onboarding

Timeline: 3 weeks

Platform: Desktop

Team: Alex, Molly, Howard

My Roles: Product Owner, Feature Research, UX/UI Design, Prototyping, Branding.

Our Client

No matter how driven a person claims to be, there are always several crucial things they struggle to keep consistent habit of and integrating them into long-term behaviors. GetMotivatedBuddies.com is a platform that can empower anyone to pick up a habit. This might be anything from studying or working productively, or maintaining a diet and an exercise, or simply taking routine breaks and sleeping on time.

GetMotivatedBuddies.com checks in on individuals’s customizable routines, matches accountability buddies, host group activities, and offers cohort-based challenges. However GMB aims to turn users motivations into intrinsic incentives rather than becoming yet another productivity platform. They do so by building feature around the three core user-success metrics: Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness.

Stakeholder Interview

GMB's User Acquisition

GMB acquires three categories of new users.

Behavioral influencers can gather new users or existing users to test out their proposed routines using GMB’s tools.
GMB can also adapt popular behavioral routines into challenges as well.
Thirdly, organically generated new users are being introduced into GMB through a variety of channels.

An Onboarding Flow

GMB incentivize intrinsic motivations using a combination of their features and tools. However each category of new users joins the platform seeking a specific feature to accomplish their individual goals. These users may not be aware of the other features unless they are informed somehow.

How should we explain the GMB methods so they would understand it is worth their time to use this platform?

Subscription Paywall

GMB currently offers new users with 7-day free trials. However, prior researches discovered users who are signing on the influencer’s challenges are ready to subscribe immediately. The issue then becomes how to streamline the onboarding process for both ready-to-pay users and organic users who wish to learn more about the platform first.

Gamification

Games tend to offer the highest engagement and retention rates across all app categories. By properly utilizing game design concepts, other apps can achieve the similar results.

A game is successful when the user enters into a “state of flow”, where they no longer need reminders or lose track of time in it. It is the point at which extrinsic motivations become intrinsic. This mindset correlates well with GMB’s three guiding principles: Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness.

Games contain:	➠ ➠ achieving State of Flow
1. Goals	A clear goal users work toward
2. Attainable Rules	Clear knowledge of progress & status
3. Challenges	Perfect balance of challenge vs skills
4. Encouraging Feedbacks	Clear and dynamic feedback of your effort

In short, our client wishes to create an onboarding experience which yields platform engagement and prompt payment options at the best moment.

Competitive & Comparative Analysis

We began by conducting thorough researches on other apps that had partially similarities to GMB’s features. We also researched on the various onboarding flows, either through individual apps or using App Fuel. We amassed a high quantity of screens and digested them together among the team.

Other Apps

User Interviews & Task Analysis

In parallel, we conducted a number of interviews to learn more about users’ perspectives as they move through onboarding flows. Both the GMB’s current onboarding flow and Noom’s lengthy flow were tested for task analysis. We listened in on how they felt throughout the process and watched to see whether they were prepared to subscribe when it came time.

We categorized our learnings on an affinity map, and synthesized down to several items:

Since GMB can support anything such as studying, working, daily routines, and other activities, the onboarding flow must include a spectrum of personal inquiries. Unless a valid cause is explained, any question may cost distaste.
While the users enjoyed answering questions and learning about the app in the process, there may still be some triggers causing fatigue. One possible catalyst might be when unrelated questions were asked one after another.
The different new user categories showed different sentiments over their willingness to subscribe and pricing options:
- The influencer-directed new users were ready to subscribe immediately and begin the challenges.
- New organic users wanted to learn more about GMB before spending. Yet even if they learned about it, many still asked for free-trial periods over immediate subscriptions.

Personas

Converging our insights we created two personas for whom we wish to create the onboarding flow around. Their needs and goals were vastly different coming to GetMotivatedBuddies.com. Meet Ronnie and Katy:

How Might We...?

After discussing our findings with our stakeholder, we targeted our onboarding design in attempt to address the following HMW questions.

How might we empathize with and help users find trust in our platform?
How might we best inform new users the major features without overwhelming them?
How might we show the subscription screen to any user without putting them off?

Ideation Overview

Our design ideations consisted of two major parts:

Part 1: An onboarding user flow before accessing the GetMotivatedBuddies platform. We would also introduce the subscription price plans somewhere along the path.

Part 2: Once entering the GMB platform, there will be a new user tutorial using a new checklist feature.

First, let’s look at the onboarding user flow…

Part I: Onboarding Flow Components

Every onboarding flow starts with the landing page and the account creation pop-ups. The main onboarding contents are then shown, and the flow concludes with transfers to the GMB platform. We identified three key modules in the main contents that the new users can walk through In our initial flows (Flow 1, 2, & 3). Every module includes some survey questions that gathers info for the user profiles in the account settings.

GMB Overview + Empathy Questions: This section gives users an overview of what GMB offers. It also ask empathetic questions to build trust and comfort with the users.
Accountability Buddy Match: Users can be connected with their first buddy after filling out information about their goals, levels of motivation, and mindsets.
Subscription Prompts: Eventually the subscription screens will be prompted for users to subscribe.

At this point, our hope was to create a singular solution fitting all personas. This onboarding flows were lengthy like Nooms, but we were flexible to trim down based on future test results.

Flow 1

Empathetic Questions required before subscription screens.

Pros: New users can learn more and warm up to GMB prior to the subscription paywall.

Cons: Maybe some users may still want to pay and start the challenges without the patience to answer extra screens of questions.

Flow 2

Users may choose which of the three modules they would like to take on next. For example, they can directly go to subscription screens or choose to learn more about GMB.

Pros: Users is in control of the length of the flow. They can pay quickly and leave or postpone until they are more comfortable.

Cons: Organic users, those who are not here for the influencer challenges, might stumble into the paywall too early and get turned off by it.

Flow 3

In contrast to Flow 1, this flow moved the subscription screen to the beginning. We also converted the account creation pop-ups into onboarding screens, such that the subscription screens would not be the very first screens. Following subscription, users can then choose to walk through the other two modules.

Pros: For influencer-led new users, who are ready to work on the challenges, this is more efficient.

Cons: The early subscription screens can once again put off the organic users, who want to learn more first. Second, email confirmation typically redirect users away to their inbox. With these screens already being a part of the onboarding flow, pausing to go to the inbox can cause the experience to be less fluid.

Design Breakdowns & Demos

Here is how every modules and screens actually looks like. We will also zoom in on various features in each of these modules.

Improve on Appearance

Having a history as a game artist, I was able to produce a large amount of visuals at higher fidelity in a short period of time. The original GMB onboarding flow looks a little too plain, I gave it a makeover using GMB’s colors. However, GMB’s color combinations being equiluminant, looks rather muted and lacks a center of focus. I took the liberty to modify the color intensities and the aesthetics on the onboarding screens, making them looks more positive and welcoming.

Before

After

Empathetic Questions + Interactive GMB Overview

We can view all three modules through the Flow 1 demo as each module are relatively the same in each of the three flows.

Purposes of Questionnaires

The questionnaires achieves several goals:

They contribute to the user profile in their account.
They build trust and confidence with the users.
Perhaps most importantly, they build up to an epic calling for the users on a new journey. This is one of the first and crucial gamified technique increasing engagements.

User Testimonials

There are several “check-points” throughout the questions. These screens provides empathetic feedback to inject more confidence into the users. Inserting real testimonials are always the first welcoming way to introduce the users to a like-minded community and recognizing their successes.

Visual Statistics

The second checkpoint is data visualization, showing the habit consistency rate for users who also answered the same things and how they transform over the next 12 months. This too is an gamification technique, which empowers the users through recognizing them and showing them a hopeful outcome.

Interactive GMB Overview

The latter part of this module attempts to communicate that GMB focuses on intrinsic motivations by enhancing the three principles: Competitiveness, Autonomy, and Relatedness.

This sequence is fun and interactive. It also included some gamified technique such as showcasing unpredictable visual rewards upon task completions.

Be Identified as a Buddy

It is a popular feature where every user gets to turn themselves into a customizable Buddy. On GMB platform, each user is a simplistic buddy in a large community, ready to be accountable toward one another. This screen helps the users associate themselves as one of the many buddies going through the same motivation struggles.

Breaking the Ice

New users might not immediately feel capable of motivating or holding other buddies accountable. Based on user’s word choice, this screen enacts a fun conversation between the buddies. This helps users set expectations that the buddy experience will be an uncomplicated and pleasant one.

Subscriptions & Match a Buddy Flow

In Flow 1, the latter modules are the Subscription screens and the Match-a-Buddy-Now features.

One difficult decision was with the pricing plan. The willing to spend is very different between the different new user categories mentioned above. More tests are needed to find the best conclusion.
The Buddy-Matching features provides more fields to fill out for the user profile, which are used to match the suitable buddies. This sequence continues encourage the users on the buddy benefits.

Part II: New User Checklist Tutorials

Once the onboarding flow ends, the users will spawn on the GMB platform, given access to many features, such as creating individual plans, check in and confirm, joining interest groups and their routines, or participating cohort-based challenges. New Users may at first find themself lost in this vast space without a north star. The checklist tutorials is designed to be ready right at the start to help new users experience every feature one at a time.

The Checklist itself is a further gamified technique useful for ramping up in complex environments. It offers achievable and rewarding “quests”, which motivates users to learn about, explore, and get involved on the GMB platform.

Checklist UI and Navigation Makeover

The best place to incorporate the checklist UI would be to add it on the slide-in chat widget. However, this panel itself has some affordance issues where the buttons and tabs were unclear and close button changes location. Therefore, I gave this panel a new appearance and layout before incorporating the checklist contents.

Before

After

Checklist Tutorial Prototype

Here is the prototype demo of the Checklist Tutorial. This demo speedily walks through a number of new user’s tasks, such as filling out user profiles, learning to create personal behavioral plans, encouraging to chat and post, etc. And there are also tool-tip tours, visual feedback rewards, and more!

Tool Tips... and Tails

Some of the tasks takes the users on a tour using tool tips. When it requires scrolling to find the tool tip, we implemented dotted trail lines to find it. Tool tips may also cause eye strain when snapping from one to another, but having leading trail lines alleviates that and helps maintaining user’s train of thoughts. Lastly it looks playful and on brand with GMB’s themes.

Gamified: Empowering Feedbacks

To build user engagements, it is absolutely essential to provide timely, appreciative, and empowering feedbacks to each of their incremental efforts. The feedback contents can be empathetic, soft or loud, or can be progressive and story-based. Its strength can matching the task effort, but sometimes it can be over the top.

When it is done right, it increase the intrinsic motivation, far more lasting than the extrinsic or materialistic rewards.

Gamified: Unpredictable Rewards

Extrinsic rewards like badges or material exchanges do not effectively convert people’s habits in a real sense. While we should still provide various visual rewards to raise morale, their occurrence should remain inconsistent and unpredictable. This makes each appearance forever rewarding, more so, users would not need to rely on them as motivations.

One of a popular example are the unicorns in Asana. They come and go quickly, and are never predictable.

First Step Toward Relatedness

Users may be determined to find an accountability buddies when they first joined, but it can be difficult to initiate contact with a buddy or communicate within a community. We offer optional tasks that gently encourage to say a word or post a greet. Users have the options of sending their own messages or pre-made copies. Either way, they are given a welcoming and safe space to find relatedness on this platform.

Other Users Might Also Like...

Thus far we have used paginated gallery pop-ups to provide feature explanations or empowering feedbacks. And occasionally, we will also use these opportunities to promote other similar group-based plans or cohort-based challenges. This reminds users that there are other GMB features and opportunities to get motivated with a larger, like-minded community.

Checklist after Tutorials

The checklist can still remain useful in many ways when users finished the tutorial tasks and completing the big progress bar. The checklist will continue to serve as a hub where users pick up their side quests for added motivations. Periodically there can be time-limited, generic or thematic missions to take on. Perhaps something as simple as 15 check-ins, score 10 points, send 5 messages, create 3 plans, and so on.

Usability Tests

Our timeframe was quite limited. I made sure our prototype turn-around times stagger nicely with our usability test cycles by keep a live communication and advising the questions and test plans to the researchers ahead of time. This maximized the iterations we could produce having a fluid feedback loop between the designers, researchers, and the client. In the time given we were able to have 18 usability tests (go researchers!) with 5 iterations in two weeks.

Test Findings:

Below were the larger findings from the tests that yielded more iterations and changes.

We received divided reactions on where the subscription paywall was presented. The new organic users and the new users who were joining for the challenges favored paywall locations differently. The “Choose-your-adventure” Flow 2 received better responses, but not quite to the satisfaction of either groups yet.
- Responses: Since GMB has different landing pages for different categories of users, we ended up creating unique onboarding flows for each user categories.
Users found most of the interactive screens in the GMB overview segment a pleasant experience. Only a couple screens looked a little confusing. Overall the sentiments were to shorten this segment.
- Responses: Our future iterations removed the Find-Buddy moment, but kept the profile questions, and shortened the GMB overview segment.
Other smaller changes included: Fewer sentences, more buddy graphics on the side, one testimonial is sufficient, and improvements on grammar and a couple visuals.
The Checklist Tutorial was well-received! Users enjoyed taking on “quests” and learning what the platform offers in the process.

Last Few Iterations

After splitting up the onboarding flows for the various types of users, we decided to focus our last few onboarding flows on the new users who are subscribing for the influencer-led challenges. Our new challenge in these iterations were to create a short and succinct version with the subscription screens at the beginning of the onboarding flow. Below was one of the last iterations.

Learnings & Takeaways

This project provided very good learning opportunities. After experimenting with numerous onboarding techniques, I have a better understanding of the lengths or methods that are appropriate for different situations as well as the tolerance levels of users working through them. I am also more confident regarding spenders’ mentalities interfacing payment plans.
My background as a game artist enabled me to swiftly produce a large volume of high-fidelity visual as first pass, and we were able to continue iterate off of that. Because of a very limited timeframe, it worked out this time, but ideally it would be preferable to run some mid-fi passes, so we have more flexibilities and not miss other design options.

Next Steps 🚴‍♀️

Our client and stakeholder had a solid design mentality and was very open-minded. Throughout the course of the three weeks we discussed over a wide range of UX topics far beyond the initial onboarding flows. I’ve learned from him, and I am sure he was happy to exchange ideas with designers and seeing new and creative solutions added to his platform. Within the short period of time, we’ve provided a multitude of design possibilities and artifacts for him to take over and implement, and we look forward to seeing how the various flows and the checklist tutorials will affect the user experience on the GMB platform once his team can A/B test them.

If there are more time to help with GetMotivatedBuddies, here are some crucial tasks to be considered:

Rebranding Colors, Adjusting Layout & Affordances

On GMB, it is not clear how each tool in each tab works, and how one tool correlate with the others. There is a need to redesign its layout and affordance, and adopt primary and secondary colors to lead users’ eyes. Once there is contrast and value in the color schemes, the entire experience would be different.

One Onboarding Flow that Rules them all!

If given more time, I truly wish to derive on a singular onboarding flow that caters to all categories of new users. And I think that answer is out there; it just need a little more thought. Most likely it will look more simplistic, short, and experiment with a different approach.

Pricing Plans

Most of the organic new users prefer to have free trials, but the challenge-sourced new users do not have that option in their onboarding. How then do we balance out the trial period access for the free-trial users? One idea might be to set influencer challenges premium during free trial. Finding out the right balance would be an interesting design challenge.