Problem

The Washington Post’s existing onboarding experience for newly registered users had lackluster engagement and conversion rates. We saw an opportunity to increase those metrics — and improve the user experience — by connecting readers with better personalized content in the flow.

Goals

Improve onboarding completion rates, as well as conversion and engagement metrics, among newly registered users.

Process

Partnering on this project with a product designer, I started with a competitive content audit and a review of our own existing subscriber and app onboarding processes. I identified what to keep and what to improve.

Next, I made a few key recommendations, including to:

Nix an intro screen — we combined intro copy with the first screen instead to shorten the flow.
Use “Step X of X” to show progress, based on accessibility best practices for users with cognitive disabilities.
Keep the language natural, conversational, and flowing.
Clearly explain to users why we’re asking for their personal information.

Where I learned something: I was skeptical when a product manager suggested an A/B test of another version that flipped our first and second screens — in my mind, it didn’t flow as well. I was wrong! It turns out, asking a super-easy question on the first screen increases engagement and completion rates. We’ve continued to use this insight in other experiences with similarly successful results.

Outcome

The updated onboarding experience provides more meaningful recommendations, which has helped readers build habits, resulting in more engagement and conversions: