Onboarding is a critical point for an app — it’s a limited window to show users how your app can improve their life. The Outcomes4Me app for breast cancer patients needed a redesign here. Looking at the analytics, there was too much dropoff before users registered an account and started using the app.

Before…

… & After

As the company’s designer, it was my responsibility to conduct the user research and testing, craft all of the visual UI design and UX prototypes, and create the design system and user flow documentation.

There were two goals for the redesign:

1. Increase the number of people who successfully complete account registration and begin using the app

2. Increase the number of people who authorize the release of their medical records (because this enables the app to deliver the most personalized value)

   
   

Research

I started with talking to some of our users to get insight on what questions and concerns they might have when evaluating a new resource for cancer patients.

In interviews, patients told us what their concerns were when they opened our app:

1. Some patients mentioned not fully grasping what specific features the app offered.

2. Many patients told us they had concerns about security and data privacy.

3. They were also skeptical about whether Outcomes4Me could actually deliver on the main benefit promised of a personalized cancer management experience. Specifically, they consistently mentioned that they were skeptical because the app didn’t ask them where they were in the cancer experience (e.g. in treatment, in remission, etc.).

From these surveys, interviews, and user analytics, a few consistent priorities emerged:

1. The photos used in the previous app iteration looked nice, but still didn’t say clearly enough what the app did.

2. Patients are really concerned with security and data privacy — they want this addressed prominently and early and they notice when it’s not.

3. A few patients also mentioned that they wanted the app to specifically ask them about where they were in the treatment process. Because our overarching promise is delivering personalized information, they said this question would give them more confidence in the app.

UX Research

After talking to users, I took a look at well-executed onboarding experiences in other apps. I focused on apps that were able to clearly show the value of the app and also allay user concerns about security and this lead me primarily to medical apps and financial apps like Robinhood and Simple.

Overall, these were some of my takeaways from the many apps I looked at:

1. Screenshots instead of photography can be helpful to give a more concrete visual of what the app offers

2. Allow the option to skip the onboarding slideshow for users that want to go straight to account creation

3. More prominent emphasis on privacy and security

4. Ask questions to give users a more personalized experience

New Design

To iterate toward a final design, I created an interactive prototype and conducted several more rounds of interviews with patients where I got their feedback, improved the design, and went back for more feedback. The result is the above design.