Introduction
Create an engaging experience that set the right expectations
The goal is to create an engaging first time experience that introduces the band to customers in a way where they can do what they wanted to as quick and easy as possible. From a business point of view, we do at the same time want users to log in and consent to data collection.
A three month internship
This project was completed during a three month internship for IKEA app team. After conducting a heuristic analysis of the app I was intrigued to work with the onboarding as I saw a lot of opportunity. We formulated a brief and thereafter I led the project end-to-end.
The onboarding isn’t reflecting the current sate of the app.
The onboarding screens have remained unchanged for three years, and it's time to revamp them to reflect the current state of the app, introduce new features and establish a consistent visual identity.
Research
What our goals are
DEFINING WHAT WE’RE WORKING TOWARDS
Create a more engaging onboarding experience
Introduce customers to the app and brand att quick and easy as possible
Get users to consent to data collection
Get users to log in
What are we currently doing to reach them
I began by diving into research on onboarding best practices, aiming to understand what makes a great onboarding. Using my findings I continued to analyze IKEAs current app onboarding to see what was working and what could use som care.
What we can do better
KEY TAKE AWAYS
Larger corporations tend to earn more trust due to perceived higher security measures.
Participants wouldn’t trust a brand solely based on reputation without prior interaction
Participants trust brands and their services initially but turn skeptical if the brand fails to meet their expectations
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Reduce time and effort by removing unnecessary action
Create more engagement with brand identity
Embrace the trust users already place in IKEA
Focus on what brings value for customers
Provide/explain value before asking for anything
How other apps are solving the same problems
To see who other apps where solving similar problems, I wanted to record my own onboarding experiences as a first time user of a couple of apps. I considered the overall experience and later deep dived into how each app dealt with three main problems I’m trying to solve for IKEA.
Working with trust
Trust was a subject that kept coming up as I did my research: Trusting IKEA’s services to do what’s expected, making sure the customers feel safe they’ve come to the right place to complete this task. Or trust in terms of sharing personal information or data.
I teamed up with two people from different teams that where asking similar questions - and together we planned and facilitated a workshop with three activities to enhance our comprehension of trust.
The process of assembling the new onboarding experience
How can we show who IKEA is while the user is already waiting?
The first screen of the onboarding serves as the initial interaction between the user and the application, setting the tone for all future engagements. I wanted to create a first impression that grabs the customer's attention right from the start. Utilizing IKEA colors, tone-of-voice and motion language to create a playful and interesting first impression.
“It really feels like IKEA… but there’s a lot going on”
After playing around with different options, a version was tested with six customers. The overall impression was good, but the choice of this specific video might have made it a bit to intense.
How can we reducing confusion with a different information structure?
Not being able to change language in most regions is a known problem, and the current interface design highlights this. The option still needs to be there, but I wanted to try to design a different structure that would decrease the actions users have to take while also redirecting the focus. Again, I wanted to focus on creating a positive experience with IKEAs brand identity.
“It makes me want to get in and get started!”
Including the buttons into the animations makes it more playful. The structure of the button makes it clear users don’t have to make any interactions. But the option is still clear. During testing users still said changing region felt intuitive.
How can we make sure users make informed decisions to share data?
Using trust as a base in this design, I wanted users to be able to make informed decisions without having to read a bunch of paragraphs. To ease decision making, my plan was to make the information more digestible by only revealing the most neccassery information on the first screen. If users wanted to make som changes, they would find more specified information. From a business perspective, getting users to consent to charing data is a goal. I wanted to see if this was achievable by flipping the focus from business benefits to customer benefits, and without nudging them to consent.
My original idea didn’t work out.
Users didn’t associate the cards with data consent and had a hard time understanding what this page was about. It was usually the buttons in the bottom that gave it away.
Users said they would have preferred to just have the second page.
How can we let users in on IKEA Family benefits right away?
Most customers downloads shopping apps for reasons like, preparing for store visits and getting discount and offers. And the app has all of these things - if you are logged in. So if the things customers get when they’re logged in, are the reasons for downloading the app in the first place - why not let them in on this right away? I used a card design in a carousel to reduce user actions.
“I would log in at this point because i know I can keep track of everything and sync between app and web”
During testing, users liked the colorful benefits cards. However, due to the visual hierarchy, some users missed the fact that you’d only get the benefits if you’re a member.
Final solution
Grabbing attention with delightful loading
— Vibrant colours to add personality and grab attention
— Keeping home furnishing in focus to make sure users feel safe they’re in the right place
— Animations are adding playfulness to create excitement in the very first seconds
Combining inspiration with settings
— Inspirational video to set the tone for the experience
— Positive copy nudging customers to get going
— Taking the focus off of language and region settings
Making your app feel like home, with consent
— Customers already place a lot of trust in IKEA, that means they will also have high expectations when it comes to data ethics. Let’s respect the trust they’ve placed in IKEA by letting them be fully in charge.
— Removing the extra steps to show that we trust the customers and have nothing to hide.
— Humanizing the language to be more inclusive and empower users.
Promoting IKEA Family benefits
— Letting users in on Family member benefits right away - since most customers downloads shopping apps for better functionality and promotions.
— Automatic carousel will draw attention while also not demanding any interactions from the user.
