OpenSponsorship is the leading sports marketing platform used by brands to connect with athlete influencers all around the world. A look at their analytics showed that abandonment rates were high during the registration process for new athlete sign-ups. To improve conversion they wanted to enhance the registration process and make it quick and easy for athletes to sign up and get started.
OpenSponsorhip’s registration for new athletes is complex and lengthy. It requires new athletes to walk through a series of steps and fill in more than a dozen fields before they have access to the platform. This friction contributes to high abandonment rates and low conversion. A number of goals were set to address these issues.
Our team conducted three forms of research to help gain a better understanding of the problem and identify additional issues that needed to be addressed.
We evaluated the current registration flow and used Nielson’s 10 Heuristics to flag detailed issues that would cause usability problems. We documented our findings and offered solutions that would come into play later on when we started to redesign the flow.
“OAUTH” could be considered jargon that common users might not understand. Replacing it with a word that is more widely understood would help with comprehension.
Asterisks are used in various ways: to list instructions, draw emphasis, show mandatory input, etc. Inconsistency of use can cause confusion.
“OAUTH” could be considered jargon that common users might not understand. Replacing it with a word that is more widely understood would help with comprehension.
Asterisks are used in various ways: to list instructions, draw emphasis, show mandatory input, etc. Inconsistency of use can cause confusion.
We chose three companies and analyzed their registration process to gain insight into possible solutions for our redesign. Direct and indirect competitors were chosen to give us a diverse and comprehensive picture of the different ways registration could be implemented. In addition, a list of pros & cons was compiled to serve as a reference during our ideation phase.
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The last phase of our research was the most important. We wanted to see how new users currently navigated OpenSponsorship’s registration and what areas of friction occurred during the process. To observe this situation we conducted a round of moderated usability studies with five participants. The studies helped us uncover a number of insights as well as areas for potential improvement.
Multiple participants were initially confused with the “I am a professional...” radio button. Text isn’t descriptive enough unless you click on the button to see more information.
Descriptions of each skill level are only accessible after clicking on a category. Providing a high level description would help users quickly comprehend which category to select.
There’s no context or explanation of why the platform is asking for personal information such as a phone number. The lack of transparency doesn’t help build trust with new users.
There’s no explanation of why this information is being requested and why there are only four available categories. The asterisk also implies that the field is mandatory when it is in fact optional.
Multiple participants were initially confused with the “I am a professional...” radio button. Text isn’t descriptive enough unless you click on the button to see more information.
Descriptions of each skill level are only accessible after clicking on a category. Providing a high level description would help users quickly comprehend which category to select.
There’s no context or explanation of why the platform is asking for personal information such as a phone number. The lack of transparency doesn’t help build trust with new users.
There’s no explanation of why this information is being requested and why there are only four available categories. The asterisk also implies that the field is mandatory when it is in fact optional.
Armed with research and insight from our stakeholders we moved into the ideation phase.
Sketches of potential solutions were quickly converted into wireflows. We then ran through several iterations until we arrived at a solution that was in line with the goals we had previously set.
Our wireflows contained a lot of the same elements from one screen to the next so we decided to streamline the design process by constructing a components library. This way we could quickly adjust details and make iterations without having to redesign every screen.
With a components library in place, we converted our wireflows into a high-fidelity prototype. This would allow us to test the functionality, identify issues and obtain detailed feedback about the specifics of our design.
Now that we had a functioning prototype that felt like the final product we needed to test it to see what issues users would encounter while progressing through the flow. We accomplished this by conducting another round of usability testing. The participant’s feedback from the test as well as stakeholder input prompted us to make adjustments to our design that would minimize friction and encourage higher conversion rates.
We enlarged the icons to increase visibility and transformed them into buttons the user could press to navigate to their associated input field. Once an account was added the icon would change colors and a checkmark would appear below the icon.
Participants expressed they would like additional help completing the pricing section. We added a link that would auto-complete the section when users input the number of followers from their most popular social media channel.
We removed the icons associated with each type of user and adjusted the layout to display the text in a dropdown list. This improves the user’s ability to read and scan the information.
We changed each categories’ chart to a different color to attract the attention of the user and emphasize the importance of each one. The charts act as a guide for users who might need help.
We enlarged the icons to increase visibility and transformed them into buttons the user could press to navigate to their associated input field. Once an account was added the icon would change colors and a checkmark would appear below the icon.
Participants expressed they would like additional help completing the pricing section. We added a link that would auto-complete the section when users input the number of followers from their most popular social media channel.
We removed the icons associated with each type of user and adjusted the layout to display the text in a dropdown list. This improves the user’s ability to read and scan the information.
We changed each categories’ chart to a different color to attract the attention of the user and emphasize the importance of each one. The charts act as a guide for users who might need help.
