Revamping StashAway’s Onboarding Experience
Design for mobile · User testing · Research
Overview
About the company
StashAway, one of Singapore’s leading wealth management start-ups, empowers users to grow their wealth through consistent, long-term investments, while promoting dollar-cost averaging and offering carefully curated portfolio selections. With a broad reach spanning Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE, the platform caters to over 100,000 investors through native mobile app and web app.
My role
Responsible for in-depth research and user testing, end-to-end design of the onboarding experience on native mobile app
The team
+ Myself
+ Head of Product Design
+ UX Writer
+ Senior Product Designer
+ Product Manager
+ Product Engineers
The timeline
January - November 2023. Launched in Singapore.
Problem statement
Our app attracts users interested in investing in globally diversified portfolios to build wealth with minimised risk. However, onboarding still presents friction that impedes converting sign-ups to approved investors. Challenges include unclear upfront benefits, inadequate guidance during portfolio creation, lengthy sign-up forms, and more, leading to increased drop-off pre-account activation. How might we empower users to complete onboarding?
Success metrics
Acquisition rate
Percentage increase in onboarding conversion rates (sign-up to investor)
Indicates effectiveness of redesign through A/B testing
User satisfaction rate
Improvement in UPS score obtained through in-app survey
Reflects users’ perception of the improved flow
Drop-off rate in conversion funnel
Reduction in drop-offs between onboarding stages within conversion funnel
Analysed with BI data by comparing the number of users progressing each stage before and after the redesign
Problem breakdown
🧐 Users struggled to see benefits upfront
There are too few benefits presented during pre-sign-up and onboarding. E.g. investment products offered, low fees, educational content
⏳ Felt onboarding was too time-consuming
Users felt the flow had too many steps, and long form-filling lacked clear progress indicators. There were unclear expectations of the time required for onboarding.
⛓ Expected some visible benefit after providing financial details
Although the user fills in their financial info details, they do not receive their portfolio risk recommendation (unlike post-onboarding). Based on user testing feedback, they expected some visible benefit after providing their details.
Unclear expectations of the time required for onboarding
Felt process was too complex / lacked clarity, causing more friction
Design goals
The design audit helped us to pinpoint the specific areas to prioritise for the redesign.
💨 Build trust fast
Uphold trust by clearly presenting what we offer, how we offer it, and how we safeguard user privacy, interests, and data
Showcase app benefits early during account setup
Allow users to explore portfolios/apps upfront for a clear understanding of the value
🔮 Personalisation
Personalising users’ portfolio recommendation based on their personal details improves their retention.
😌 Simple and guided
Streamline sequence and UI and remove clutter
Facilitate a guided experience for users to complete tasks effortlessly.
Focus areas of this redesign
CLICK TO SEE MORE DETAILS
PERSONALISATION
1. Optimising onboarding sequence for personalisation
The original onboarding sequence gathered the users’ Suitability results at the end, limiting personalisation during portfolio selection.
We decided to reposition Suitability to the start, allowing the app to recommend suitable portfolios based on the user’s risk tolerance and financial background.
BUILDING TRUST EARLY
2. Welcome screen highlighting app’s core features through a visually engaging carousel
We know from research (user interviews, research data) that users frequently sign up for StashAway seeking specific investment products like the newly launched Fixed Deposit product.
Therefore, we redesigned the Welcome screen to show an engaging carousel showcasing our core features and most popular products, providing a preview of the app’s capabilities and helping users learn what they can achieve from signing-up.
BUILDING USER TRUST & TRANSPARENCY
3. Introduce transition screens between onboarding sub-sections
Users were concerned when answering in personal and financial background questions due to data safety concerns and unclear time expectations of onboarding.
To address this, we implemented simple transitions screens that help maintain a sense of flow, while emphasising the user benefits of sharing this information with us, and establishing clear time commitments for each step.
SIMPLE & GUIDED FLOW
4. Lighter UI and more logical form-filling
Densely packed form-filling screens created friction for users during onboarding.
Thus, we redesigned the forms with a clear typographic hierarchy, contextual tooltips and logical reorganisation of form fields. This approach reduces cognitive load, enhances ease of navigation, and improves user engagement during onboarding.
Learnings
Be prepared to adapt → Insights uncovered during user testing present unforeseen challenges, highlighting the importance of adapting throughout the project.
Let user interviews flow naturally, and avoid leading questions → The best open-ended questions are concise without leading the participant. Asking organic questions rather than following a rigidly structured plan creates hidden opportunities to know more of the "why" of our quantitative results.