Developing an app account feature
Highspeedinternet.com wanted to build an owned app audience by adding the ability to create an account to their speed test app.
I designed a prototype in Figma and ran unmoderated user tests through Maze to see if this feature would be successful for business initiatives, desirable and easy for users to navigate.
Following Heuristics
Allowing users to create an account started with placing the experience in an intuitive spot within the app. Placing this experience in the settings followed common app heuristics, but the layout needed to assure users that this was not required for them to continue using the app.
I leveraged language, layout hierarchy and symbols users commonly see when creating an account for a digital product throughout the experience. 83% of users didn't think the experience was unexpected for creating an account, and of the users who completed the task, 100% had no issue logging out of their account or back into it once the account was created.
Requirements
The team asked to include three pieces of information for the account creation experience: email, password, zip code. I anticipated users may be hesitant to enter their zip code as uncommon account creation information, I utilized microcopy to be transparent about how the information would be used and build confidence in users.
User States
Creating the account creation and login experience needed to account for multiple user states including:
A user didn’t have an account yet and wanted to create one
A user didn’t have an account and didn’t want to create one
A user removed the app or got a new phone and wanted to re-download the app and log back into their account.
A user forgot their password (web-based experience)
A user wanted to update information in their profile
An optional experience
Since an account was not required to use the app, there needed to be multiple ways for users to get out of the experience if they chose not to complete an account. Back buttons were crucial so users could backtrack, but they also had the ability to navigate to other screens in the app to get out of the experience if that was more intuitive for them. Once testing was completed 67% of users felt the experience was average to easy to find what they were looking for within the app and had a positive overall impression of the app.
User Task List:
Users were walked through a series of tasks to complete to determine the effectiveness of the design, and uncover any barriers there may be to managing their profile if they chose to create one. The tasks included the following:
Create an account
Complete your profile
Sign out of the account
Log back into the account
Results
After testing the prototype with users, it was determined that the design aligned with what majority of users expected for an app login flow to be. Negative feedback resulted from the speed test itself not functioning for the test, which they felt took away from the overall test experience. The team felt that the prototype met all requirements, and moved forward with the existing design. The design is currently in development.