ANIMALL ONBOARDING REDSIGN

Reducing the churn rate during onboarding

COMPANY

Animall

ROLE

Product Design

EXPERTISE

Research, Interaction, Visual

YEAR

2021

ANIMALL ONBOARDING REDSIGN

Reducing the churn rate during onboarding

COMPANY

Animall

ROLE

Product Design

EXPERTISE

Research, Interaction, Visual

YEAR

2021

Problem Statement

About Animall
A mobile first platform connecting cattle buyers and sellers across India.

India has the world’s largest cattle population. Animall empowers rural farmers to trade easily and profitably through its Hindi-first app.

Problem Statement

About Animall
A mobile first platform connecting cattle buyers and sellers across India.

India has the world’s largest cattle population. Animall empowers rural farmers to trade easily and profitably through its Hindi-first app.

Despite high download rates, over 40% of users dropped off during onboarding. Many never saw the value the app promised.

  • High bounce rate after install
    Users downloaded the app but uninstalled it without signing up.

  • Unclear permission requests
    Users didn’t understand why Animall needed access to location, leading to denial of key permissions.

  • No system feedback or progress indicators
    The onboarding flow didn’t inform users how many steps remained, or what was happening when an OTP failed.

Problem Statement

About Animall
A mobile first platform connecting cattle buyers and sellers across India.

India has the world’s largest cattle population. Animall empowers rural farmers to trade easily and profitably through its Hindi-first app.

Despite high download rates, over 40% of users dropped off during onboarding. Many never saw the value the app promised.

  • High bounce rate after install
    Users downloaded the app but uninstalled it without signing up.

  • Unclear permission requests
    Users didn’t understand why Animall needed access to location, leading to denial of key permissions.

  • No system feedback or progress indicators
    The onboarding flow didn’t inform users how many steps remained, or what was happening when an OTP failed.

Process

I started with the audit of the current onboarding flow. After which worked with the PM to identify areas of major drop offs along the funnel.

From the insights gotten I also conducted a survey to verify the results.


The insights, user pain-points and needs, shaped how onboarding the flow should be, what information should it contain, what emotions did it need to invoke.

Process

I started with the audit of the current onboarding flow. After which worked with the PM to identify areas of major drop offs along the funnel.

From the insights gotten I also conducted a survey to verify the results.


The insights, user pain-points and needs, shaped how onboarding the flow should be, what information should it contain, what emotions did it need to invoke.

UX Audit

  • ❌ Users didn’t know how many steps remained

  • ⚠️ No way to re-request OTP if missed

  • 🙅 Hindi-first users misunderstood Android system dialogs

  • 👎 Entering name after OTP felt unnecessary

  • 📍Users were not informed why location was needed

Quantitative Analysis

I needed to know the scale of problem the issues identified in UX Audit were creating for the users. Therefore, I created a funnel on Amplitude, the data platform, to analyse where the users are dropping off the most.

20% drop-off at phone number input

  • 11% drop-off after location permission

  • 9.5% drop-off at name entry

  • 29.9% denied permission but still entered address manually

Survey

I conducted a survey to validate the hypothesis. The survey was done by our tele calling team over a 3 day period. We had over 340 responses for every question.

Why users dropped off and what they feared:

  • 🐄 68.8% downloaded the app to buy or sell cattle — they had a clear intent

  • 🔓 50% had no concerns sharing their location — the rest feared misuse:

    “What if someone steals my animal at night?” – rural user

  • 📲 36.4% had difficulty entering OTP, often due to network or lack of feedback

  • 👥 39.1% needed help understanding how to use the app

  • 💬 Many didn’t remember why they downloaded the app — hinting at weak onboarding messaging

Read more

Quantitative Analysis

I needed to know the scale of problem the issues identified in UX Audit were creating for the users. Therefore, I created a funnel on Amplitude, the data platform, to analyse where the users are dropping off the most.

20% drop-off at phone number input

  • 11% drop-off after location permission

  • 9.5% drop-off at name entry

  • 29.9% denied permission but still entered address manually

Survey

I conducted a survey to validate the hypothesis. The survey was done by our tele calling team over a 3 day period. We had over 340 responses for every question.

Why users dropped off and what they feared:

  • 🐄 68.8% downloaded the app to buy or sell cattle — they had a clear intent

  • 🔓 50% had no concerns sharing their location — the rest feared misuse:

    “What if someone steals my animal at night?” – rural user

  • 📲 36.4% had difficulty entering OTP, often due to network or lack of feedback

  • 👥 39.1% needed help understanding how to use the app

  • 💬 Many didn’t remember why they downloaded the app — hinting at weak onboarding messaging

Read more

Solution

The resulting redesigned Animall’s onboarding was faster, clearer, and more trustworthy for rural users. By introducing early value communication, reducing steps, supporting Hindi first navigation, and priming users before permission requests, we made onboarding feel seamless, not stressful.

❓How might we

  • Motivate users to start onboarding confidently?

  • Reduce friction in number & name input?

  • Ease privacy concerns around location sharing?

♟ Design Strategy

  • Invoke a sense of delight and trust in the users.

  • Provide feedback and delivery of impact

  • Less is better. Reduce steps as much as possible

  • Prime users before asking for location permission

🔠 1. Language Selector First

Added a language selection screen right at launch, so users understood every word, including system dialogs.

🔠 1. Language Selector First

Added a language selection screen right at launch, so users understood every word, including system dialogs.

After

After

After

🎥 2. Splash Screen with Value Props

Introduced a visual, animated splash screen to set expectations and communicate the benefit: “Buy & sell quality cattle from your home.”

Before

Before

Before

Redesigned 2-part Splash screen

Redesigned 2-part Splash screen

Redesigned 2-part Splash screen

📱 3. Combined Input Flow

Merged number and name input into a single, clean screen with a step indicator so users knew how far they had to go.

Before

Before

After

After

🔐 4. Primed Permission Request

Used visuals to show cattle listings before asking for location, making the reason for permission clear and persuasive.

Before

Before

After

After

5. Better System Feedback

Added loading animations, error recovery (like resend OTP), and a visual confirmation once each step succeeded.

Upon account creation

Upon account creation

Upon account creation

Upon giving location access

Upon giving location access

Upon giving location access

Impact

Designing onboarding for rural, multilingual users challenged common UX assumptions.
It wasn’t just about simplifying, it was about building trust, reducing fear, and delivering visible value fast.

  • 📉 Churn Reduction in Rajasthan
    Churn dropped from 18.6% to 13.6% — a 5% decrease after onboarding redesign.

  • 📍 Better Permission Opt-ins
    Priming users before location requests led to a 6–10% increase in permission acceptance.

  • 🚀 Faster Time to Value
    Core value (cattle listings) surfaced within 3 steps instead of 6, improving first-session engagement.

  • 📞 Fewer Complaints
    Clearer feedback for OTP, errors, and loading led to a 20–30% reduction in onboarding-related support issues.

5% reduction

in overall churn rate in Rajasthan.

10% increase

in seller posts over a period of 1 week

13% fewer

Onboarding support queries

~6-8% increase

in granting locationpermissions