Imagine you’re doing something detail oriented on your phone, like creating a shopping list or signing up for a new gym membership. Now imagine you’re trying to do that while meeting new peers in your professional field, networking with them, and having a drink. And it’s in a busy conference room with low lighting. Seems like a challenge to say the least! Streamlining this experience was the scenario I was tasked with tackling on this project.
The Client
Founded in 1965, Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is one of the oldest and largest industrial design associations in the US.
The Problem
Volunteers at IDSA events expressed that participants were interested in purchasing an IDSA membership on their mobile devices, but there was little evidence of conversion while at events. This was due to a difficult and time-consuming sign-up process on their mobile website. IDSA depends on capturing memberships to fund their organization and to pay for the events that its members enjoy, so missing this opportunity to get new members was very important to their business.
Simplifying the Process
Remember that scenario I asked you to think about? My goal on this project was to simplify the process by breaking the sign-up down into a series of yes/no questions with large, clear buttons. This was to facilitate easy sign up on mobile while socializing. I also kept the user informed with a progress bar and divided the demographic section of the membership sign-up into a separate process completed at a later time.
My Role
UX Design
Wireframing
Lo-Medium fidelity prototyping
I worked closely with my partner in conducting initial user interviews & usability testing
Tools
Figma
Photoshop
Illustrator
Canva
Timeframe
10 weeks from first client meeting to presentation and deliverables
Sign Up Struggles
Current State Usability Flow
The image above was the user flow when we began the project. Each step represents a drop-down menu and an option selection. Imagine chatting with new colleagues while trying to go through this flow. It’s no wonder membership sign-up was suffering and hurting IDSA’s bottom line.
Current State Usability Study
To start, we got to know the current mobile login and account creation experience. We conducted user interviews, monitored users as they went through the purchase flow, and talked to some IDSA volunteers who had witnessed users struggling with membership creation at events. We narrowed down some common pain points:
To remedy these issues, we took several approaches to simplifying account creation:
Creation
We first determined that we needed to simplify the account creation and purchase flow. We created a ‘tap to answer’ format, where each page contained one simple yes/no question, with large, easy to see and tap buttons.
This image accomplishes the same account creation as the original user flow in far fewer steps/taps
We also implemented some easy payment functionality that is common in smartphones, like allowing payment apps, using Paypal, and utilizing phone cameras to snap a picture of credit cards.
The sign up process became much easier to complete, especially if the user is preoccupied with socializing, holding a drink, and networking. More on that later.
Progress
We included a progress bar at the bottom of the page, so users were aware of their place in the sign-up process.
Transparency
After completing the account creation and membership flow, users were automatically assigned a membership type. Users weren’t given information about their account benefits, or about the other account types. By adding membership details and comparison drop down menus, we were able to further promote user autonomy through comparison and discoverability. Users were more likely to purchase a membership if they were given all the options. This allowed us to reinforce the benefits of joining IDSA and build trust with the users through transparency.
Save Some for Later
We divided the membership creation and demographic surveys into two different sections. The demo survey can be completed at a later time when the user is finalizing their profile to receive the benefits that an IDSA membership offers. We kept the same intuitive button and card interactions that worked so well with the membership flow. We gave the users the ability to make multiple selections, input custom responses, and we recommended more inclusive options and language for IDSA’s UX writing.
Secondary Testing
We followed up with the participants of our original user interviews for some secondary testing using our new account creation prototype. We compared the time to create an account and number of taps in the original account creation with our new method.
Success!
The new purchase flow took the membership and account creation from 17-24 taps down to 4-7 taps. It also took around one minute compared to the 6-7 minutes of the original membership sign up. Using this large card format, we made it very easy to sign up in a social setting, with easy to understand, large buttons and minimal scrolling.
More Time to Network
IDSA responded very positively to our re-design. They were enthusiastic about the idea of separating the membership creation and demographic info into two sections and understood how our simplified design facilitated easy sign up in a social or conference environment. On our recommendation they have simplified their user flow and eliminated several of the demographic sections.
Our changes to the IDSA mobile site reduced account creation time and ease of use. It also created user confidence by featuring visible progression with more transparent information and inclusive language. Users were able to complete sign up in much less time, and were less engaged in the sign-up process, allowing for more networking and socializing opportunities.
