Why Adding Friction Improved Built for Mars' Conversion Rate by 25%

Typically, designers want to remove as much friction as possible.

In plenty of case studies, I've counted clicks as a proxy for effort.

So if people are abandoning your sign-up flow, you should make it shorter, right?

Even more interestingly, the two "obvious" fixes that I attempted at first, did nothing.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look. Warts and all.

The first question I ask in this new flow, is what the user is working on.

I could have made this mandatory. 

If I did, more people would have answered it, and very few would have immediately given up.

So why didn't I?

I didn't, because forcing a behaviour carries the risk of 😤 Reactance—the instinct that people have to push back when they feel like their freedom is being taken away from them.

This could mean churn, or more likely just a lot of bad data, which poisons future personalisation strategies.

In that vein then, why did I not let people skip the entire flow altogether?

Okay, that’s slightly more nuanced.

It reframes the process as a data collection exercise, not an important part of the experience.

Because I was asking these questions before the checkout, a good chunk of people would have opted to skip it. They’re not yet invested in the product.

This would unintentionally hurt their first few sessions (and create churn), because I’d be unable to show them relevant content right away.

Note: I will test this though. You should always test these assumptions.

At the end of the account creation flow, users can save the content suggestions to their library.

But, I haven’t allowed them to unselect items individually—which would arguably be a better experience.

Why don’t I give people more flexibility?

When you sign up to Spotify, they’ll ask you to select artists that you like. They give you the freedom to be specific. But, this works because you’re choosing things that you already know. 

You don’t need to think; “will I like Oasis?”.

On Built for Mars, you’re choosing from things you’ve never seen. Things that you don't have an existing preference for.

And, by giving users that freedom, I’d be implying that they should be curating the list.

i.e., “here are 10 items, select the ones you want to read”. 

It may even feel slightly reckless for a user to allow all 10, so they'll deselect items just to satisfy their desire to do some curation.

And because this happens before the user has paid, I’d be increasing the required effort at the worst possible time.