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The Values Movement: Improving users' onboarding to a blockchain-based application

Design

Company

Arkius

Challenge

The Values Movement aims to create a global movement that gives every individual the freedom, the right, and the ability to project and empower their human values throughout the global economy. The web application which helps this happen – is based on web3.0 and blockchain technology, resulting in different complications and blockers for the user. My objective was to identify usability issues for users who are new to the application. 

  • User testing
  • User research
  • UX Design

Available materials

The Values Movement – at the time of this project period – was a digital concept for which the design team continuously researched and designed new features for.

At this time, all that was available to me was a developed introductory website of the Values Movement and high-fidelity mockups of the web application’s registering and sign-in flow. 

Arkius Onboarding test on different devices
The Values Movement Introductory page (left) and Web application (right)

Think-aloud testing

From the beginning I planned to investigate the full experience of what the future users will be experiencing. The main place where we could expect users to find the Values Movement (with the lack of Marketing efforts on different channels) were the introductory website, which would eventually lead interested users to the web-application.

Due to the lack of understanding of “Why” users have problems with the onboarding, qualitative research had to be conducted. 

For the qualitative results and deep understanding it provides, I chose to conduct Think-aloud tests.

The problem with Web3.0

The typical user flow of creating a blockchain-based account is mostly painstaking. This is partly, because all users have to create digital wallets and understand how to keep it safe and have access to it. Which is a lot to ask from a person who has never heard of blockchain technology.  

Web3.0 users are generally tech savvy, but not all target users were expected to be familiar with blockchain technology.

This separation of user groups that the Values Movement was targeting resulted in two different types of testers that I aimed to test on: users who are familiar with blockchain technology (hereafter referred to as “Group 1“) and users who are not (hereafter referred to as “Group 2“) . 

Objectives

  • Find out, if the sign-up and onboarding process is understandable and informative
  • Find out, if the sign-up and onboarding process is easy-to-do
  • Find out, if the user understands how the system works
  • Find out, whether users understand what digital wallets are used for

Steps for the user to take

Arrive on Introduction page

First, the user is left to explore the website that introduces the Values Movement and what its mission is. The user is asked to express their opinions and assumptions about the application that they will see. The user then goes on to joining the movement and creating an account.

Sign up to the platform

I expected users to have difficulties in creating a digital wallet, installing any extensions or understanding how to store their passwords safely. The user is helped with different informative carousels on their way and are onboarded to the application by setting up their own values, before entering the app.

Log onto the platform

Because the log-in process to the platform is unusual compared to an everyday social media platform, the user was asked to log out and try to log back in with the same credentials they set up in the sign-up process.

The test results

The series of tests were conducted on 7 people, 4 of them familiar with blockchain-based applications and 3 of them aren’t. 

All in all, the test participants had different experiences, but I still noticed patterns around what blocked them in their registration process. Even though 4 participants said that they would complete the registration process if they were interested in joining The Values Movement, 3 other participants said they would probably not complete it. 

I can’t say I have a clear idea of how digital wallets relate to The Values Movement…
Tester 5, 2021
I wasn’t ready if I freshly come in, to do that work. I still don’t know why I care about the Values Movement and I had to do work.
Tester 3, 2021

Key problems

Blockchain terminology is alienating users who are unfamiliar with it

The first problem that stood out of all is the fact that Group 2 users were not understanding the terminology used all over the registration process. Even though different popup-boxes were informing them about what is happening, they just simply did not understand and felt less trustful towards the app.

Users do not know what digital wallets will be useful for

Group 2 users were also unaware of the reason, why digital wallets were a necessity upon joining.

Wallet creation is not a good start of users' registration flow

Users expressed frustration in the beginning of the registration process and many of them mentioned that they did not think they would have to create digital wallets so early before joining.

Design improvements

Along with minor usability problems all around the onboarding process, the UI team took note of the findings and made a number of changes on the designs in the form of low-fidelity mockups.

The onboarding now focused on informing users of blockchain technology and its relevance in the Values Movement in a more simplistic language. The user was primarily engaged in the registration by adding their personal information and only after was asked to additionally create a digital wallet for themselves. 

Step 1: Introduction to Values movement
Step 1: Explain users' how they will be receiving rewards for their participation
Last step: Inform user about use of blockchain and the need for a digital wallet

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