Beryl
UX
Visual design
Beryl is the UK's leading micromobility platform, helping thousands of people zip around cities on bikes and scooters every day. As head of the design function (and bike enthusiast), I took on an exciting challenge to completely transform our user onboarding process and make getting on a Beryl bike as quick and fun as possible.
Huw Martin (Development)
Matt Newhall (Development)
Asfand Effandi (Product Management)
Giulia Bavagnoli (Illustration)
At its inception, it was a different landscape. Bike and scooter sharing was in its infancy. Beryl as a business has since become more complex. We've grown from a couple of Beryl-branded schemes with 3 vehicle models to over 7 models across 20+ schemes with 5 different branding variations and a diverse range of commercial and operational models.
While surveys and focus groups are great, if you really want to understand what makes a great hiring experience, nothing compares to getting out on the street, riding bikes, talking to riders, and getting to know the towns where we operate.
We identified several key user challenges and balanced these with the commercial and operational needs of the business. These included, but were not limited to:
1. Information overload, with no way to skip content
2. Long download times due to app bundle size
3. Ride passes are confusing
4. Automated customer service message misfires
5. Login/sign-up call to action is passive
6. Zones and parking is confusing
We took an aggressive approach to reducing bloat, both from design and technical performance perspectives. This included reducing the app's bundle size and switching from NFC to QR codes on vehicles in some schemes.
Landing on the login screen versus the map, and pushed Apple/Google login up the hierarchy.
Shared mobility is now more widely understood. Skip or defer "how it works" and other authentication steps to get you riding sooner.
People seem to hate reading stuff but hate fines even more. Animations to communicate zone restrictions.
Moving content from the onboarding flow to the loading screen to engage users while waiting for their vehicle to unlock.
“The work Eddy undertook to enhance our onboarding flow was remarkably effective. His thoughtful design and user-centric approach directly contributed to a significant increase in our conversion rate from install to first-time ride, a key achievement for Beryl.”
Jamie Curtis
Head of Marketing, Beryl
Over the 6 months since launch, the conversion rate rose from 20.02% to 36.23% (and continues to rise), with over 440,000 new users onboarded onto Beryl's platform during that period. We define a successful conversion as 'app download' to 'first ride'.
