Background
Bitnob is a digital asset exchange and payment platform operating out of Nigeria, with a growing presence in 7 countries across Africa as of 2023 and I’ve been a product designer on the team since 2021.
In early 2022, we noticed increasing drop-off rates during sign-up and with help from my teammates we set out to learn more about the cause and eventually fix it.
Team
Bitnob
Period
Aug 2022 - Oct 2022
Platform
iOS, Andriod
Product design, User research, Research synthesis, Project management
Contributions
Results and metrics
As mentioned above, the goal of the project was very clear — increase completion rate from installation to registration by reducing the average time taken to complete the registration process. Within first quarter of 2023 we recorded a 31.61% reduction in drop-off rates, subsequently improving revenue growth.
88% of users are less likely to return after a bad user experience.
- Toptal (2018)
Registration analytics from Jun - Jul, 2022
Registration analytics Feb - Mar, 2023
Understanding the problem
Before I could dive into designing, it was important for me to understand the existing signup experience at scale. I started out by gathering data about our current users’ sign-up behaviour by going through our analytics dashboard on Mixpanel. I needed to find out what point users were dropping off, and the average number of users that were dropping off every month, to give me a better understanding of the problem.
To observe the real-time pain points of the users when signing up, I tested the existing Bitnob signup with 15 participants which comprises new users and existing users of the Bitnob app. I took down notes on their reactions, body language at every point, and verbal expressions or remarks. The participants also gave feedback on the experience they had with the product.
Some of these challenges are stated below;
1) During the test, I observed that some users found the term ‘last name’ to be confusing, and this caused a serious problem for them during KYC.
Old “sign-up” screen
“I initially thought my last name meant my middle name”
“As Nigerians, we are not a last name people so surname lingua sounds better”
2) I also observed that some users had difficulty spotting the optional beside the Referral ID, while others didn’t know the meaning of Referral ID, and this prevented them from moving forward or delayed them before moving to the next stage.
Old “sign-up” screen
“I’m sorry, I didn't see the optional beside the referral ID”
“Can this be called referral code instead of ID? Code sounds easier to understand.”
3) Other issues raised were the delay in receiving One-Time Passwords (OTPs) for phone number verification, and the fact that the registration process altogether was lengthy.
“Why does it take this long?”
“…the signup process is too long. I’m getting frustrated already.”
Solutions
Since users found the term ‘last name’ confusing, I opted for an alternative that they would easily understand. So instead of ‘last name’, I went with ‘surname’ as the replacement. This change was influenced by the fact that 'surname' is a commonly understood term among Nigerians and many other regions in Africa. By making this adjustment, users are less likely to confuse their last name with their middle name.
Use of familiar terms
In order to provide users with a clear way to distinguish between mandatory and optional fields, I designed the ‘create account’ button to remain inactive until all necessary fields are completed. To create a visual separation for users and also make the screen less clustered, I hid the referral ID input field with the use of a toggle button.
In addition to this, instead of going with the term referral ID, I used a simple and plain sentence asking them if they were referred by anyone. This adjustment aims to simplify the language and improve user comprehension.
Differentiate required fields and make use of clear copy
New “sign-up” screen
Old “sign-up” screen
During the research phase, I discovered a common issue encountered by users - the significant delay in receiving One-Time Passwords (OTPs) for phone number verification. To address this issue, we came up with an alternative method to verify users' phone numbers using WhatsApp.
Furthermore, as part of enhancing user experience, I designed a feature that allows users to modify their phone numbers. This feature proves especially useful in cases where the initially inputted phone number does not correspond to their WhatsApp number.
It's worth noting that our initial solution involved switching to a different OTP provider; however, this option did not align with certain essential business constraints.
Improve phone number verification
Old “phone number verification” screen
New “phone number verification” screen
Another area of concern was the number of steps users were required to navigate through in order to complete their registration. To streamline the registration process I chose to merge the three “onboarding walkthrough” screens into one. In addition to this, I added the phone number input field to the account creation screen. This adjustment enables users to conveniently input all their required information at once.
This approach effectively trims down the registration steps, reducing the journey from 8 screens down to 5 screens.
Reduce the sign-up screens
Old signup flow
Onboarding walkthrough screen 1
Onboarding walkthrough screen 2
Onboarding walkthrough screens 3
Verify phone number screen
Input phone number screen
Home screen
Verify email address screen
Sign-up screen
Create password screen
New sign-up flow
Onboarding walkthrough screen
Sign-up screen
Create password screen
Verify phone number screen
Verify email address screen
Home screen
Feedback and next steps
After the changes were made, I conducted another test and found that participants made fewer mistakes, were less confused and the time it took them to complete their registration was a lot shorter, the registration time was decreased from an approximate duration of 5 minutes to around 2 minutes. Months after we went live with the improved sign-up process, we observed a notable 31.61% reduction in user drop-offs and experienced a decrease in customer support complaints related to the registration process.
Our work is far from done, and there’s always room for more improvement. We will continuously strive to make the Bitnob user experience better and better. Till next time!