PhunWallet

Users

PhunWallet had early investors who were familiar with crytocurrency and had followed the app’s launch, but based off of support ticket questions, there was also a growing number of people unfamiliar with crypto who had downloaded the app. Those who were new to crypto were often confused over the extensive security set-up for the app’s onboarding. The team surmised that there were two type of users.

Who should we prioritize?

While we acknowledged those unfamiliar with crypto wallet apps would likely struggle with the specialized security requirements in the beginning, we weren’t sure if it was possible to make that process easier. Being seen as a legitimate wallet to crypto investors mattered on the business side, and that meant high security.

Competitors

When a wallet is created, a key which is a chronological list of words called the seed phrase, gets generated. PhunWallet users have to confirm that they have written down this 24-word seed phrase before they’re able to continue to the rest of the app. When looking at competitors, I found that other wallet apps allowed users to set up the the seed phrase later rather than during their onboarding.

Taking a Look at Onboarding

A complication

We discovered that unique impressions weren’t accurately tracked on the app. This made it difficult to understand where users dropped off while using Phunwallet. I knew user research would be needed.

Collaborative Audit

The team convened to review the onboarding flow for anything that was obviously problematic. Ideas for solutions were also discussed, including the possibility of allowing users to temporarily skip the seed phrase.

Possible Pain Points and Proposed Solutions

1) Value Props Bury CTA Button

When users first downloaded the app, they were required to go through all three value props before getting to the CTA button. We proposed that the CTA could stay on the screen and the value props would be an option for users to swipe through.

2) Can’t Skip Seed Phrase + Confusing Copy

The user needed to write down the 24-word seed phrase before they can use the rest of the app. We proposed adding a skip button to make the seed phrase set-up optional. The language was also adjusted to be easier to understand for those unfamiliar with crypto.

3) Pin Should be Optional

The original flow required the user to set up their pin. To shorten the onboarding flow, we proposed making the pin optional and relocate it to the feed for users to set up on their own time.

Research

User Interviews

In order to validate those proposed solutions and get better insight, I scheduled talk-out loud interviews with 6 people. I had each user walk through the onboarding process of the original flow, and then showed them the new flow by referring to it as another option. The majority of those who agreed to be interviewed were not familiar with crypto, which we suspected would be the majority of users who abandon the onboarding flow.

What We Got Right

• CTA button needed to be readily available rather than having the user swipe past multiple value props.

• People didn’t read and mostly scanned, so reducing the copy allowed users to pay attention to what was being communicated.

• SKIP button was useful for those who didn’t want to go through the seed phrase.

What We Noted

• Moving the pin set-up out of the onboarding flow didn’t make onboarding any less tedious.

• The seed phrase instructions weren’t clear.

A Glaring Discovery

It wasn’t clear to users that the seed phrase needed to be written down in chronological order. Instead, 50% of the users interviewed thought they would have to pick their own words. As a result, they either couldn’t get to the next screen because they failed to tap through every word, or they had them in the wrong order and couldn’t complete the confirmation question that had them identify one of the words based off of its placement.

Users also made the following comments about the seed phrase:

1. What if users don't have paper on them?

2. Not used to have to write something down.

3. Too long, why 24 words?

4. Other apps do not require users to do this.

   1. ie: Coinbase allows for cloud to store their seed phrase.

To summarize, the majority of users who were unfamiliar with the concept of a crypto wallet weren’t used to having to go through all this. While the changes we implemented helped, the biggest pain point was still the seed phrase.

Rethinking the seed phrase

There were a few things we had to consider:

1. We can’t actually control people and prevent them from being careless.

2. If growth and retention is a priority, then getting people in and using the app should come first.

3. We can always educate and market to our audience the importance of the seed phrase.

4. We should look into alternatives so that paper and pen are not required. (This is related to security and will take time to research and implement).

Solution

There were ultimately project constraints that prevented us from moving the seed phrase out of the onboarding flow for this particular release. For the time being, we went with the SKIP button that allowed users to skip it in the beginning and added reminders on the feed for users to complete the seed phrase set-up.

Revised Seed Phrase

We added numbers to the seed phrase to convey order and revised the language to explicitly state they needed to write the 24 words down.

Results

Those who never finish the onboarding flow and abandon the app would count against retention, but we didn’t know how often this occurred due to a lack of clear data. When we checked the retention percentage 1 month after the new release with the improvements, the retention was up 21%, a 162.5% increase from the initial 8%. There’s not clear enough data to say for certain that the onboarding process was the culprit for the initial retention percentage, but there was a difference after the release.

Future Desktop Considerations

While there were no plans to have Phunwallet on desktop yet, I did mock up a version to consider if it was accessible through a web browser. I wanted to see what the seed phrase experience would be like for users. In this case, the back button wouldn’t be needed because the browser has a back button.

Conclusion

What I Learned

Tracking data is important. I wasn’t involved with the original app’s launch, but I was much more aware moving forward that we had to let development know if we wanted anything tracked when design changes were make so that we could avoid that knowledge gap we had with Phunwallet.

What I Would've Done Differently

I wish I had quickly pulled in some co-workers who were unfamiliar with the app to test out the changes I made with the seed phrase, but I didn’t quite have the time. I did test it for the release that came after this one to make sure and was able to validate it then.

Final Thoughts

Data is crucial. There were aspects of the onboarding flow that made it difficult for users to start using the app, but I cannot say for certain that the specific changes we made contributed to that massive jump in retention because we didn’t have past data on those specific screens to compare.