LitGo
audiobook service
+
player
user research | personas | user flows | designing sketches | wireframes | prototypes | user testing | branding
Background
LitGo is a mock audiobook subscription service with a bold, hip, and smart personality, specifically targeting the 18-24 age demographic.
Its freemium model has been well-received over the past two years and has gained a healthy user base of free users.
Problem
While the number of users continued to grow, LitGo needed to generate more profit by offering a premium membership.
They developed a premium model but needed to redesign their mobile app to incentivize users to upgrade to their premium service and pay a monthly subscription fee.
LitGo needed to design a user experience that:
created incentive and opportunity for new users to subscribe to the premium product upon registration
created incentive and opportunity for returning freemium users to upgrade to premium during log-in
created incentive and opportunity for returning freemium users to subscribe within the app
Research
When starting any new design projects, I like to study industry leaders first.
As my first step, I wanted to get a better understanding of how other media subscription services that offer a premium plan incorporate upgrading into their user flows. In addition to the top two audiobook competitors, Audible and Scribd, I also studied Pandora, a music streaming subscription service.
This gave me a great starting point and questions to integrate into my user interviews.
User Interviews
During my initial interviews I wanted to pinpoint exactly what features users were looking for in an audiobook service subscription and app. What was important to them? What incentivizes them to upgrade from freemium to premium?
Key takeaways included:
Certain features are expected when paying for a monthly fee, including:
no ads
immediate access to a large catalog of books
ability to download content
a nice user interface/user experience that allows for adjusting the playback speed
“If I’m paying for it, I want all the features...”
Additional insights included:
Access to an immediate expanded selection was the top incentive for subscribing to a premium plan
5 out of 6 users stated they would be willing to pay a monthly subscription fee of $9.99 with one user saying that the cut-off point would be $15/month, which is Audible’s monthly subscription fee.
4 out of 6 stated that ads are incentive enough to upgrade to a paid subscription; however, all users felt that more should be provided in a premium plan than just removing the ads.
5 out of 6 users prefer a flat monthly rate for unlimited content over a credit-based monthly plan
Design Goals
Setting out, my design goals were:
Make the sign-up and log-in process quick, easy and efficient + motivate users to upgrade to premium during each process.
Incorporate features and perks users desire in order to incentivize monthly audiobook subscriptions to premium service.
Design incentives to upgrade to LitGo Premium within the app for existing freemium users.
And to do all the above while providing seamless and smooth user experience.
Sketches
I decided to combine the sign-up/log-in user flows into one promotional series of steps. I begin the process with engaging splash screens describing LitGo Premium before allowing users to sign up or log in.
For the in-app, I streamlined the process so that upgrading can take around a minute to complete (or less if users had their credit card information set up for auto-fill).
User Flows
In the beginning, I decided to only focus on what essential steps were needed to incentivize users to upgrade to premium. From there, user flows helped me establish the series of steps new and freemium users would need to take from the app’s home screen.
Wireframes
Sketches were a good starting point for organizing the series of steps for new users and existing freemium users to upgrade to LitGo Premium. From there I was able to create wireframes for the critical screens that better captured the look and feel of the app.
Early Testing
Key insights were discovered as a result of user feedback.
reordering screens in the user flow needed
redesigning sign-in and payment screens to support iPhone users
user preferences for incentivizing the upgrade process
Suggestions were also made for how to better guide users about premium features in-app after upgrading.
Branding
For the logo, I decided on fusing the image of a traditional book with audio waves so that the logo clearly expressed what LitGo offered and selected colors that felt young, fresh, and hip.
High Fidelity
My goal was to keep the overall application very minimalist by including only the features that are most important to audiobook users and eliminating anything determined to be unnecessary. Secondly, I included many opportunities for upgrading to LitGo premium for both new and existing users.
I made sure to change the order of the screens during the sign-up flow for new users and to cater this round of design specifically for iPhone users.
Lastly, I decided to work in three separate upgrade incentives within the high-fidelity designs in order to test which users preferred in my next round of testing.
In-App Upgrade Incentives
To promote upgrading within the app, I integrated ads triggered when users hit the play button or attempt to adjust playback speed.
This standard strategy motivates users to upgrade to a paid subscription through the use of ads and is used by industry leaders such as YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify. By interrupting the user experience with an ad, users will eventually upgrade to avoid the inconvenience.
In addition to ad-based calls-to-action to upgrade during playback, freemium users have the option to upgrade to LitGo Premium by clicking the “Upgrade” link in the upper left corner of the home screen.
More testing
Insights
Using my high-fidelity prototype, I set up another round of user testing via Zoom with 5 new users to validate my design choices integrated from previous wireframe prototype tests.
Overall, this round of user testing revealed that:
Users are more likely to upgrade when they have a personalized, positive experience with an app that incentivizes them based on their individual preferences (i.e. personalizing book recommendations).
Gimmicky use of ads or being too overt with upgrade options deters users from wanting to upgrade. They must see how upgrading adds value to their lives in order to commit to a monthly subscription.
Community/social features can increase attachment to the app for some users
The design should consider colorblind users and blind users. For those with colorblindness, colors can create a negative user experience even if the app functions well.
Iterations
For my final steps in this project, I selected to make a few major adjustments to my design.
I decided that while ads are expected with freemium apps, they can lead to users resenting the app. Instead, users should have a positive bonding experience with the app first, which will incentivize them to pay for a monthly subscription in the near future. Therefore, I removed the ad placement during playback, as it was the single method that received negative feedback from all users.
I decided to replace incentive upgrades by personalizing the LitGo freemium experience through book recommendations. In order to discern user preferences, I added a brief questionnaire upon opening the app for existing freemium users, as well as those who decided to subscribe to LitGo Premium.
While over 8% of males are colorblind (and because one of my test users was colorblind and hated the logo), I considered changing my color palette. In the end, however, I decided to stick with my original color scheme for this particular project.
Conclusion
The mock LitGo Premium project was an invigorating challenge to learn and understand what motivates users to upgrade from a free service to a paid premium subscription. Users are different for each type of app, so it is crucial to gather as much information from target users upfront as possible.
In the case of audiobook users, there were distinct patterns in:
what they desire out of an audiobook service and app (and were willing to pay for)
what design flaws and ad usage they are willing to tolerate
the existing flaws in other audiobook providers that deter them from using the apps.
Through user testing, it became very clear that the way to truly incentivize free users to upgrade to LitGo Premium was by making them fall in love with the app itself—and the way to do that was by personalizing the LitGo experience for each user from the very start!
Once freemium LitGo users trusted the app and clearly understood the value that upgrading to LitGo Premium could bring them, then paying a $9.99 monthly subscription fee felt like a natural thing to do. No annoying in-app ads or “in your face” gimmicks required! Delivering honest information and pricing up front coupled with a pleasant, personalized user experience incentivized users to upgrade.