Overview
PROBLEM
As a relatively new site, Iternal wanted to encourage users to sign up and return to the website in order to preserve their life's memories online. Users need to be able to easily pick up and understand the product from the home page, login
and be encouraged to both create and share memories without assistance.
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We were asked to explore the idea of allowing users to create a memory before they have to sign up.
SOLUTION
Screener surveys: 52
User Interviews: 15
Design Iterations: 6 (2 in each Fidelity)
Usability Tests: 22
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Showcasing the value proposition and simple 'how it works' guide on the homepage
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Hand holding the user to complete their first memory, guiding them at each step
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Redesigning the user dashboard to prioritise showing the key features of the timeline, family tree and message to the future
MY ROLE
This was a collaborative project, with 3 other UX/UI designers. We each conducted our own usability interviews, user testing and synthesised our results.
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I took the lead on all client communication, the project planning, customer journey mapping, the initial wireframes and took the ‘creating your memory’ onboarding from low fidelity all the way to the final high fidelity prototype.
DURATION
3 week design sprint
IMPACT
Iternal have seen the conversion rate from the homepage to the sign up page rise considerably, around a 4x increase.
We are awaiting further KPI results updates.
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TOOLS
Figma
Miro
Trello
Zoom
Slack
The Challenge
THE CLIENT
Iternal helps people capture their most personal memories and share them privately and securely with those they love.
Their key user demographic are women aged 45–65.
THE OPPORTUNITY
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Maximise homepage conversion
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Improve the onboarding process
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Improve the general UX of the platform
THE PROCESS
1
DISCOVER
2
DEFINE
3
DEVELOP
4
DELIVER
Website Evaluation
Heuristic Analysis
Usability Testing
Competitor Analysis
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Customer Journey Map
Persona
Problem Statement
User Flow
How Might We's
Design Studio
Feature Prioritisation
Digital Wireframes
Usability Testing
Iterations
Accessibility
Final Prototype
Next Steps
KPI Results
Discover
Website Evaluation | Competitor Analysis | User Interviews
WHERE ITERNAL CURRENTLY FALLS SHORT
Iternal's KPI's indicated that although they have a lot of visitors to the site, not many people decide to sign up - only 6% in January, and 26% in February, and 11% of users created their first memory in January.
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Our heuristic evaluation and usability testing highlighted:
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Homepage: Content is unclear, leaving the product offering undefined and value missed
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Onboarding: Overcomplicated process of creating your first memory, leaving users confused
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Dashboard: Often led to an empty dashboard, no clear prioritisation and the timeline feature is hidden in the menu
Existing Iternal Site
WHAT COMPETITORS ARE DOING WELL
Looking at both direct and indirect competitors our key findings were:
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The homepage showed a clear offering of the product
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There was a step-by-step guide of how to use the product
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Visual timelines were used often, showcasing information in interesting ways
WHAT USERS ARE SAYING
After surveying 52 participants and running 15 in depth interviews, our key findings about our potential users were:
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They love to see pictures and stories of the past
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They share pictures using their phones e.g. Whatsapp
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They struggle with organisation of the quantity of pictures they take themselves and receive from others
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Affinity map of key themes
Define
Customer Journey Map | Persona | Problem Statement | User Flow
UNDERSTANDING OUR USER
Creating a customer journey of how the current Iternal site works highlighted 2 areas of friction - the homepage and onboarding.
Our Persona, Sarah Winters, has just turned 50. Her mother, Grandma Maggie is in her 70s, and her son is 16. We focused on Sarah as our primary persona for this project.
SARAH'S PROBLEM STATEMENT
Sarah needs a way to organise all her family stories and pictures securely in one place in order for all her family to access easily.
Because her family is very important to her and she wants to preserve her family traditions, stories and pictures.
USER FLOW
Develop
How Might We's | Design Studio | Feature Prioritisation
DESIGN STUDIO
We ran a successful Design Studio, a space where people create and discuss ideas through sketching, with 3 client members, including the Iternal co-founder, Paul.
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As a group, we shared many interesting feature ideas which we took forward and developed.
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The client team loved the Design Studio experience so much that they are planning to run these sessions internally in the company.
Working remotely with the Iternal team
HOW MIGHT WE'S
1. How might we help Sarah document the past stories of her family?
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2. How might we show to Sarah the value of keeping family content online?
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3. How might we make it easier for the customer to create their first memory?
4. How might we make sure all generations in Sarah’s family have easy access to the family photo albums?
Design Studio sketches
"We loved it, it was such a cool session...we will be doing it again in the future"
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- Paul, Iternal Co-Founder
FEATURE PRIORITISATION
The key features that came out of the Design Studio's were:
Deliver
Wireframes | Testing | Iterations | Accessibility | Prototype
DESIGNING BASED ON USER TESTING, ITERATIONS AND USER INSIGHT
Starting with paper sketches, we iterated to mid-fidelity wireframes and ended with our high-fidelity prototype. This involved user testing on existing and new users of Iternal, and was followed by lots of iterations based on feedback and user insights. Four examples of iterations can be seen below.
ONBOARDING
In the brief, Iternal asked us to explore the concept of users creating their first memory before they sign up. Effectively giving users a 'try before you buy' incentive. However, this was not received well with our testers.
Our key findings from each iteration are below:
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Sign up after first memory: frustrated users, being forced to sign up after investing time.
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3 onboarding screens between homepage and sign up: users found information repeated from homepage.
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'How it works' information clearly stated on homepage: users liked to see 'behind the curtain' on the homepage, to know what and how the product worked.
HOMEPAGE CLARITY
Our research showed it was important that users understood the product offering from the homepage.
Our findings from iterations were:
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Key features with minimal text was not enough information for users.
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Next iteration included iconography and detailed guidance, which worked better but was not emotional enough.
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In hi-fi we iterated to clear custom made illustrations and easy to understand copy, which users responded well to.
'PHOTO FIRST' MEMORIES
In our user interviews and testing, it became clear that there was a trend towards ‘photo-first’ memories. Meaning that users wanted to organise their memories through pictures, and add stories to compliment them.
In order to make this step easier for our users, we iterated to have clear iconography at the top of your ‘create your memory’ page, to prompt users to upload their media first.
DASHBOARD
Key features such as the timeline, family tree and message to the future are now easily accessible to the user, with visual representation of each.
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Our iterations were mainly around the call to action buttons:
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Creating a new memory was the primary call to action at the top of the dashboard in the low and mid-fi
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In the hi-fi prototype, this was reprioritised to match other call to action buttons for all other features, which made more sense to users.
VISUAL DESIGN AND ACCESSIBILITY
With an older user base, we needed to ensure accessibility to users with visual and/or physical impairments which can worsen with age. Iternal’s current visual design did not meet usability standards. I have a great interest in inclusive design, so I wanted the solution to be usable by all, regardless of age, abilities or circumstances. This was reflected in the changes to colour, typography and clickable areas. We also created a design system largely based on Iternal’s current branding, but also reflecting these new accessibility guidelines.
Changes to meet accessibility standards
Style Guide
FINAL DESIGN
Our final designs can be seen in the Figma Prototype here. Or see the video demo below!
SO, HOW DOES THE PROTOTYPE TACKLE THE BRIEF?
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By redesigning the homepage, we focused on ensuring the product offering was clear. Showing how it worked, ensured users understand the value and steps to achieve their goal. This also established trust, which was important to encourage users to share their precious memories. Through this we were able to maximise homepage conversion, as seen in the results graph below.
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We were able to improve the onboarding process by ensuring the user was guided through a step-by-step journey of creating their first memory, effectively hand-holding the user through the process.
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We improved the general UX of the platform by working on the full user journey through to the dashboard. Users would now be able to have a seamless journey from homepage, sign up, creating their first memory and using the dashboard to build out their memories with Iternal. This would improve the user experience for both new and existing users.
Final Thoughts
It was a great learning to test the client requirements, as they may not actually be what works best for the user. Iternal wanted us to explore how to make the user create their first memory without signing up, but this frustrated users, and left them feeling unsure about the security of their pictures and videos. I learnt the value of advocating for the user in this instance, and when to challenge business requirements.
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We had great feedback from the client team after our final presentation:
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“I am blown away…you guys have fully understood what we are doing, who we want to talk to and what we want to achieve…Your designs are approachable, professional and friendly, with clear rationale and a lot of attention to detail…Thank you, it’s incredible!” 
- Paul, Iternal Co-Founder
Iternal implemented changes to the homepage within a week, and plan to make the additional changes in the future. This was a fantastic outcome for my first live UX project.
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You can see our designs here on their shiny new website.
THE RESULTS
Iternal have seen the conversion rate from the homepage to the sign up page rise considerably from launch in the 1st week of March, around a 4x increase.
Here's traffic to the sign up page over the month after implementation. An awesome achievement! The client mentioned "results are awesome with Sunday just gone (21st March 2021) being our best day ever for sign ups."