Onboarding Improvement

Reshaping how users learn about the service

Role
Designer

Area
Research, Strategy, Design

Platform
iOS, Android

Background

With a daily average user base of 2 million, Rakuten Super Point Screen recently experienced a decline in its service rating, dropping from 4.0 to 3.8 across both iOS and Android platforms. This decrease was driven by a surge in negative reviews where users primarily cited confusion regarding the app's purpose, often perceiving it merely as a feed of advertisements, and expressed strong concern over the unexpected nature of the integrated lock screen, which many reviewers deemed "malicious."

Approach

Initial analysis focused on screen behavior tracking data to identify primary user exit points. The data revealed that one-third of users skipped the onboarding process to log in immediately. User testing and interviews corroborated this finding, showing that users generally swiped quickly through the tutorial pages and popups without reading the explanations. We theorized that users bypassed onboarding intending to learn the service through use, which led to subsequent frustration due to the service's unique nature and the unexpected appearance of the integrated lock screen, despite it being mentioned in the skipped tutorial.

Based on the behavioral analysis, we removed the 'Skip' button and implemented a redesigned, interactive onboarding tutorial. This new flow requires users to engage directly with the app's UI to become familiar with key interactions and understand the core function of the service. Crucially, the redesign now explicitly guides users through the lock screen integration, mitigating the previous issue of this feature appearing as an unexpected surprise.

Interacting with the app itself allows users to note that by tapping on the card, a webview browser opens, which will be difficult to explain to users.

Most users ignored the popup that informs them of the lock screen feature. By guiding users to it they can expect to see the lock screen and not become surprised.

Impact

Following the release of the updated onboarding redesign, the operations team reported a significant improvement in customer feedback and service ratings.

  • Negative feedback concerning service confusion and the unexpected lock screen feature was eliminated.

  • The overall service rating increased to 4.1.

  • During an offline event, staff observed that initial user confusion regarding the "Super Point Screen" concept was quickly resolved after users completed the new tutorial, demonstrating its effectiveness in conveying the app's purpose.