500px Onboarding for iOS

With declining engagement and user sentiment, a change to how 500px engaged with new community members was needed. Fast.

A whole bunch of problems

Upon joining 500px, the company had recently unveiled an updated version of its iOS app. This release was focused on enhancements such as a more seamless browsing experience and improved community features, which garnered positive feedback from existing users. However, despite these improvements, we encountered difficulties in engaging with newcomers to the platform. The new app experienced a significant 60% drop-off rate at the sign-up stage, with a mere 10% retention rate after 30 days, and minimal engagement from new users. Additionally, user sentiment across all community platforms, regardless of account age, was on a continuous downward trend.

A community doesn't build itself

Engagement loops are the lifeblood of every social platform, relying on ongoing interactions with content and fellow users. However, these interactions don't occur spontaneously. Once users enter the platform, it becomes our responsibility to facilitate connections and guide them towards relevant content. We developed several theories to understand why the app was underperforming.

The latest version of the app launched without a user-friendly onboarding experience. Without a proper onboarding flow, new users found themselves landing on an empty home screen upon entry, devoid of content or engagement opportunities.
The absence of profile customization or the option to choose a username during sign-up resulted in a lack of individual identity within the community. Unlike the web platform, where usernames could be customized, the iOS application automatically generated usernames consisting of a string based on the users' email, followed by a random set of numbers. This led to the perception of an influx of bot and spam activity on the platform, generating complaints from both new and existing users on both web and mobile experiences.
The sign-up process relied solely on email and password authentication, which we recognized as a potential barrier to entry at a time when utilizing social sign-ups was quickly becoming the most popular method of authenticating users.

Goal

Create a first time experience for our mobile users that enables community and platform growth.

Eliminate user perceptions of bot-like platform behaviour

Prioritize social signups over email signups

Match new users with content that is relevant to their interests

✨ The Design ✨

At the time, Facebook was the most popular way to authenticate with a third-party. We chose to make this the first sign up option to provide a quick method of entry to the platform.

Users could now add a profile picture, choose a username, and customize some of their profile information to create their identity. If Facebook was used to signup, some of this was done automatically.

New users are then asked to select their photography interests from a list of categories. Being a growth project, each category was manually mapped to a set of community members.

After gathering info on their interests, new community members were presented with a list of photographers matching their interests.

User inputs are then used to populate the home screen with content that interests them.

The results

Our metrics reached a stage where we felt content with the progress but remained keen on areas for enhancement. The drop-off rate during sign up decreased from 60% to 40%, while 30-day retention rose from 10% to 18%. Additionally, initial engagement with content now typically occurred within the first session. This initiative effectively addressed the bulk of complaints associated with bot-like behavior.