Reducing friction in Pets Club onboarding
To remain leaders in the pet care market, Pet's at Home underwent a drastic digital transformation which involved replatforming, rebranding and redesigning the UI to keep up to date with modern trends.
- Contributions
- UI & UX (App & Web)
- Analytics
- Prototypes
- User flows
- Stakeholder workshops
- Team
The team comprised:- 6 Engineers
- 2 Brand Managers
- 1 Product Manager
- 1 UX Designer
- Outcomes
- 30% Decrease in completion speed
- 11% Increase in completion rates
The Problem
During a company wide digital transformation, Pets Club onboarding emerged as a key friction point: it failed to communicate value, align with the new brand, and accommodate real world usage contexts (in store, mobile). This created a high-abandonment funnel, limiting customer acquisition and long term retention.
Understanding the opportunity
Objective: To understand why users were dropping out of the onboarding flow and to uncover what motivates users to join Pets Club and what their expectations are.
Approach: We suspected that the onboarding flow wasn’t just outdated, but actively creating friction that prevented users from completing sign-up and realising the value of Pets Club. To validate this, we analysed funnel performance and session data, identifying major drop-offs during pet profile creation and a completion time of over 9 minutes. I then interviewed 12 pet owners (a mix of new, active, and abandoned users) to understand their expectations and perceived value during onboarding. Interview questions focused on clarity of value, emotional tone, and cognitive effort.
Approach: We suspected that the onboarding flow wasn’t just outdated, but actively creating friction that prevented users from completing sign-up and realising the value of Pets Club. To validate this, we analysed funnel performance and session data, identifying major drop-offs during pet profile creation and a completion time of over 9 minutes. I then interviewed 12 pet owners (a mix of new, active, and abandoned users) to understand their expectations and perceived value during onboarding. Interview questions focused on clarity of value, emotional tone, and cognitive effort.
Key insights:
Impact: These findings confirmed that the onboarding experience lacked clarity, emotional resonance, and contextual value. We found a missed opportunity to create trust, increase conversion, and lay the foundation for deeper engagement.
- 67% of participants couldn’t articulate what they were joining or why it mattered
- 58% said the process felt “like filling out a long form"
- 75% didn’t understand why pet data was being collected or how it would be used
- 83% of users admitted to starting their onboarding process whilst in store
Impact: These findings confirmed that the onboarding experience lacked clarity, emotional resonance, and contextual value. We found a missed opportunity to create trust, increase conversion, and lay the foundation for deeper engagement.
Framing the opportunity
The data and interviews highlighted multiple issues such as UX and branding. Users didn’t know the benefits of joining, didn’t feel emotionally engaged and many were starting the process in store, often mid-task or on the move.
This reframed our challenge: How might we make onboarding feel rewarding, lightweight, and purposeful, especially for users in high-distraction environments like physical stores?
I organised a workshop with our squad and Brand where we prioritised insights and collaborated closely to define key design principles to guide the solution:
This cross-functional collaboration gave us confidence to proceed with flow redesign and low-fidelity ideation, with a clear focus on user needs and business goals.
This reframed our challenge: How might we make onboarding feel rewarding, lightweight, and purposeful, especially for users in high-distraction environments like physical stores?
I organised a workshop with our squad and Brand where we prioritised insights and collaborated closely to define key design principles to guide the solution:
- Communicate value early: Be clear about what Pets Club is and why it matters
- Design for context: Recognise that many users are on mobile and in-store when signing up
- Build momentum: Make onboarding feel fast, personal, and progress-driven
This cross-functional collaboration gave us confidence to proceed with flow redesign and low-fidelity ideation, with a clear focus on user needs and business goals.
Mapping a faster, more valuable experience
I began translating insights into a restructured flow that balanced business priorities with user context. Our goal was to reduce friction and reimagine onboarding as a quick, intuitive, and value-led entry point into the Pets Club.
Key structural changes included:
Key structural changes included:
- Delaying non-essential pet data until after account creation to reduce drop-off
- Introducing a value-focused intro screen that explained what Pets Club is and why it’s worth joining
- Chunking onboarding into digestible steps with progress indicators to maintain momentum
- Rewriting all microcopy to reflect a more personal, helpful tone in line with brand direction
Designing for momentum and clarity
To validate direction early, I built prototypes and ran in-person tests with 5 customers in store, the same context in which most users began their journey. These unmoderated sessions helped surface real time behaviour and friction points, particularly around clarity of value and pace of progression.
Key takeaways from testing:
Key takeaways from testing:
- Users responded positively to an upfront benefits summary, it gave purpose to the journey.
- Progress indicators and more manageable steps made the process feel lighter and more manageable.
- Users liked the branding shift and said it felt clean and modern
What we shipped
The original onboarding flow was flat, form-heavy, and out of sync with both the brand and user context. Our redesign transformed onboarding into a purpose-led, mobile-first journey optimised for speed, clarity, and in-store environments.
Key improvements:
Key improvements:
- A new and simple value-first intro screen that clearly set expectations and benefits upfront
- A progressive step-by-step structure, replacing the overwhelming accordion layout
- Delayed additional pet info until post-sign-up, reducing early friction
- Refined microcopy with a more human, brand-aligned tone
- A cleaner, more organised hierarchy UI designed for use during busy in store experiences
Trade offs and constraints
Working within a live rebrand and an active replatform created some tension between ideal and achievable. Rather than delay the project, I partnered closely with engineering to design within existing layout and component constraints, and with Brand to apply forward-compatible visual direction without waiting on finalised design systems.
We also consciously deferred deeper personalisation features to focus on speed, clarity, and conversion, getting the core experience right first.
We also consciously deferred deeper personalisation features to focus on speed, clarity, and conversion, getting the core experience right first.
The results
30% reduction in average onboarding time
Onboarding time decreased from 9 minutes to 6 minutes on average.
11% increase in completion rate
Resulting in 6000 extra sign ups per month
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