5 min read
How I used a journey map to improve first-time experience and increase new user engagement by 40%
I was the sole UX Researcher at Jetson responsible for user research, getting feedback and building prototypes.
Results
Increased new user engagement
Increased retention
Jetson launched a new learning experience but new user engagement dropped abruptly.
Jetson is a mobile education platform that helps new entrepreneurs learn how to start a business through multiple topics including product development, marketing, fundraising, leadership, and legal formation. The education tab on Jetson offers a core experience and features 3 different types of content, definition-style quizzes, founder case studies, and simulated SMS-style conversations. The content is taken in sequential order before reaching the next level. We had just launched a new interface but engagement from new users dropped by 39%.
Jetson Home Page
Current users were raving about the updated learning content but new users weren't returning.
Despite high praise from active users, new users weren’t coming back to the platform, and retention dropped by 30%. As I looked into the issue, I also noticed that the rate at which new users were completing the first lesson had dropped by 39%.
User Feedback
When we interviewed new users and asked them why they didn’t complete the first lesson, we were surprised to hear them say that there was a sense of analysis paralysis. Further discovery revealed that many users weren’t even interacting with aspects of the app because they didn’t know how it worked. There seemed to be too many buttons to press and there was confusion about what the user could expect from the platform.
Here's my journey map for new users
New user experience
How can we encourage new user engagement and enhance feature discovery on Jetson?
Measuring engagement
At Jetson, we measured user engagement based on how many quizzes a user completed. The more quizzes a user completed in their first session, the more likely they were to return to the app.
Two methods that could achieve this objective are:
Automatically trigger the first quiz after onboarding
Guide the user through a tutorial
Option 1: Automatically trigger content
Option 2: New User Tutorial
I mocked up user flows for both options and after some competitor research and feedback from the team I selected the tutorial as the better option. I then drafted a concept for a tutorial and tested it internally and externally. The feedback was promising but it also noted room for improvement.
Tutorial concept. Tap through to see flow.
A tutorial is helpful but 95% of users will click through without paying attention.
Feedback and observation noted that a majority of users will skip tutorials when they're solely information-based, it would be necessary to keep users engaged during the tutorial. I went back to revise the initial concept to make some updates. Instead of a one-time tutorial that might challenge the user to memorize everything, the tutorial should act as a step-by-step guide, allowing the user to complete the task before triggering the next tutorial screen.
Combining a tutorial with user action creates a balanced experience.
Following the qualitative analysis from internal and external reviews, we introduced a “Tap to start” OR “Tap anywhere else to exit” solution that solved our challenge. If a user completed the first lesson, they would be prompted to take the next. However, if a user decided to exit out of the tutorial before completing the task, we wouldn’t prompt them with the next tutorial until the task was completed, thus creating a just-in-time tutorial.
Tutorial concept. Tap through to see flow.
New user engagement skyrocketed to new heights.
The tutorial yielded impressive results. Not only did we see an increase in new user engagement during their first session, as measured by the increase in new users taking the first lesson, but the average number of lessons taken by those users increased. And the rate of new users returning to the app the following day also saw a significant increase.
New user engagement
40% increase
Number of lessons taken by new users
15% increase
Day 1 retention
68% increase
First impressions count.
Just as you might give a guest a tour of your home instead of letting them wander unsupervised, guiding new users through their first app experience is crucial. This project underscored the importance of the initial app experience on engagement and retention. We achieved substantial gains in user satisfaction and app usage by simplifying the process and addressing user confusion.