User onboarding and retention experience

Interaction Design & Product Launch

Context

Metropolis was launching their new product offering called the Podarchy Explorer in 2022. It was building off of their core product of “Pods” which are specialized working groups commonly used by crypto organizations called DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations).

Problem

There was friction in the existing onboarding process of Pods and we didn’t have a path / flow that lead users to the new feature - Podarchy Explorer.

Goal

Create a seamless onboarding experience for new and existing users and ensure a frictionless process for the new product feature launch.

Timeframe

Feb - November 2022

My Role

User Research

Product Design

Platforms

Web & Mobile

Industry

Crypto

Outcomes & Results

Based on user testing sessions, we found that our new onboarding flow increased user adoption by 45%. Additionally, the new explore experience increased user engagement by 20% and a subsequent increase in traffic to

the new product offering – Podarchy Explorer. We saw an increase in engagement from both new and existing users with a significant increase in traffic from new users.

keep scrolling to see the design process

Understanding how to increase engagement and retention

We wanted to understand where in the process users were dropping off and why, what the onboarding flow was lacking, and how we could use our site architecture to drive traffic to new and existing features.

Methods

Usability Studies

Individual Interviews

Sample Size

20 participants

10 competitors

User Groups

Crypto Auditors

Technical Operators

Non Technical Operators

Retail DeFi Users

Tools Used

Google Analytics

Google Sheets

65%

Users couldn’t find their profile or their teams. Navigation wasn’t intuitive causing users to drop off.

Call for

Search-ability

51%

Users felt a lack of feedback or confirmation after an action was taken in the app. There was a lack of state updates.

Call for

In-app feedback

45%

When creating or importing a new team, users reported a significant amount of friction and error rates.

Call for

Less Friction

20%

Throughout the app, specifically in onboarding flows, users reported being deterred by technical jargon.

Call for

Accessible Language

Turning research insights into reality

How might we drive traffic to new and existing features?

We started by conducting an internal audit of the whole app, redesigned the site architecture, and evaluated where the new feature would fit into the application. We outlined quick wins along with heavy bandwidth initiatives, and collaborated with the development team to bring the app to life before launch.

Optimizing app navigation

Explore

Manage

Create

Search pods, wallets, and contracts

0x82F...fafe

Explore

Manage

Create

Search pods, wallets, and contracts

Connect Wallet

Action words for key user actions

Non-technical user friendly options

Allowing users to “Explore” pre-login to reduce friction

Pre login

Post login

Dedicated explore page highlighting the new feature

Search with list of featured and recent results of new feature

Reducing app functionality on mobile to reduce cognitive overhead (bad pattern to have these specific features on mobile)

Search optimized for mobile

Limited nesting for ease of use

Profile view (creating a personal connection to the new feature)

whale-global

whale-community

whale-support

whale

whale-publicgoods

Contract

whale-gov

whale-tooling

whale-grants

whale-merch

whale-public

Explore

Your Pods

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Metro-ecosyst...

Try our desktop app to create and manage your pods!

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

0x82F...fafe

whale-global

whale-community

whale-support

whale

whale-publicgoods

Contract

whale-gov

whale-tooling

whale-grants

whale-merch

whale-public

Explore

Your Pods

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Metro-ecosyst...

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Ens-metagov

Try our desktop app to create and manage your pods!

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

0x82F...fafe

Explore

ens-ecosystem

.pod.xyz

ens-metagov

.pod.xyz

redacted-treasury

.pod.xyz

redacted-community

.pod.xyz

metropolis-contract

.pod.xyz

jamis.eth

0x123...12345

nick.eth

0x123...12345

chappy.eth

0x123...12345

alisha.eth

0x123...12345

julz.eth

0x123...12345

samidefi.eth

0x123...12345

steward.coltr...

0x123...12345

defensible.eth

0x123...12345

Manage your DAO using pods

Pods are a wrapper around Gnosis Safe that help DAOs distribute control to groups of contributors on-chain.

Connect Wallet

Your on-chain source of truth

Turn DAOs into highly networked, legible organizations by connecting hubs of activity in organizations.

Learn More

Explore

Your Pods

You’re not associated with any pods

Try our desktop app to create and manage your pods!

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

0x82F...fafe

Desktop Navigation

Mobile Navigation

Encouraging users to explore and engage

Highlighting different offerings to inform users of what’s possible before any clicks

Creating social proof by highlighting well known crypto organizations that trust our product

Educating users on what’s possible while highlighting core functionality.

Highlighting recognizable users and crypto influencers to entice people to explore

Search and Discover

Organizations

ACL Manager

0x123...12345

redacted-emergency.pod.xyz

0x123...12345

index-delegates.pod.xyz

0x123...12345

ENS-DAO-Governor

0x123...12345

morpho.eth

0x123...12345

Users

monetsupply.eth

0x123...12345

nick.eth

0x123...12345

chappy.eth

0x123...12345

alisha.eth

0x123...12345

julz.eth

0x123...12345

samidefi.eth

0x123...12345

steward.coltr...

0x123...12345

defensible.eth

0x123...12345

Visualize your impact

The Podarchy aggregates all of your pod memberships into one visual interface, giving you a high-level view of your impact across organizations.

Your Podarchy

Manage your pods

As a pod member, you can add or remove members, assign a manager, and even modify pod settings – like changing approval thresholds or pod NFTs.

Learn More

Explore

Manage

Create

Search pods, wallets, and contracts

0x82F...fafe

Guiding tooltips for new users

Search pods, wallets, and contracts

Explore the ecosystem

You can search for DAOs, pods, wallets, safes, and contracts!

Visualize your impact

View all your pods, wallets, safes, and contract connections in one interface.

Manage

Create

Your Metropolis permit hasn’t been issued yet.

You need a Build Permit NFT to access pods. But don’t worry! We’re issuing new permits every week.

Learn More

How might we reduce friction in the existing onboarding process?

Based on user testing sessions and feedback we found that our existing onboarding flows to create a new team and to import an existing team were extremely time consuming and error ridden for our users. It wasn’t accessible to our non-technical audience and was resulting in a ton of support tickets.

Importing an existing team

Step 1

Learn about what it means to import a team

Step 2

Choose team to import

Step 3

Add team name and image

Step 4

Confirm and create

Creating a new team

Step 1

Set team name and profile photo

Step 2

Add team members

Step 3

Set team voting power i.e threshold

Step 4

Assign a team manager

Step 5

Confirm and create

Reduced time on task by 59%

Simplified member management

Improved copy and instructions

Progress bar to encourage users

Improved user feedback after actions

Reduced error rates by 38%

Improved error states

Confirmation page before creation

Improved member categorization

How might we generate awareness about our product launch?

As we were gearing up for launch, we partnered with the growth and strategy team to create marketing animations and static images for press releases and social posts. Our goal was to raise awareness and drive traffic to the app.

Key Learnings

Interaction design and stakeholder buy in

The biggest challenge with any project is getting stakeholder buy-in. To prevent interaction design (hover states, loading states etc) from getting overlooked, we worked closely with the developers early on in the design process to ensure successful implementation and buy-in.

Building trust using thoughtful onboarding

First impressions matter, after we added a dedicated onboarding flow with tooltips and accessible copy we noticed a significant increase in adoption. This helped the design team push for a global audit of copy across the board.

Copy and its affect on UX improvements

Accessible and understandable copy can make or break a UX flow yet they are the most difficult changes to get buy-in for. We leveraged research findings to push management to approve copy changes and it helped us reduce user error rates and increase engagement.

Outcomes & Results

Based on user testing sessions, we found that our new onboarding flow increased user adoption by 45%. Additionally, the new explore experience increased user engagement by 20% and a subsequent increase in traffic to

the new product offering – Podarchy Explorer. We saw an increase in engagement from both new and existing users with a significant increase in traffic from new users.

Where I lent a hand

Metropolis Rebrand - Tone of Voice

Metropolis Rebrand - Visual Explorations

Metropolis Rebrand - Illustrations

Metropolis Rebrand - Marketing Assets

View next project

Admin management and permissions

Interaction Design

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