alt.bit
How might we find a solution that will encourage users to upgrade to a Premium account?

Context

Business Goals
1. Create the opportunity for new users to subscribe to the premium product upon
registration in the signup flow.

2. Create the opportunity for returning free users to become paid subscribers in the
sign-in flow as well as within the product (once logged in).

Key Information
● The existing signup flow does not have a call to action upon registration that
gives the user the opportunity to subscribe.

● The existing flow does not have prominent calls to action throughout the free
experience that gives the user the opportunity — or a compelling reason — to
subscribe.

● By creating a paid product with better features than the free experience and
giving users the opportunity to upgrade to a better product, users will pay the
subscription fee. This will lead to a profitable revenue stream.

Target User
● 18 - 24 years old
● Very tech-savvy — they are on their phones for several hours a day
● Very budget-conscious
● Podcasts are a very important part of their lives

The alt.bit Brand Personality
Uniquely diverse, but somehow always familiar. This creates the need for the design to balance that tension.

Brand Attributes
Bold, Smart, and Hip

The Problem
How might we find a solution that will encourage Users to upgrade to a paid subscription, within a Freemium product?

Research

My quest for knowledge on the 'freemium' business model began with a wild goose chase through secondary sources. I wanted to figure out what makes companies tick when it comes to offering freebies and upgrades.

As it turns out, freemium is a really hot business model! You get a taste of the good stuff for free, but if you want to take it to the next level, you gotta pay up. It's a win-win situation for businesses because they can attract a fan base without shelling out for expensive ad campaigns or sales pitches. Plus, the steady stream of subscription fees keeps the revenue flowing like a chocolate fountain.

Now, with alt.bit, our mission is to create a premium product with extra bells and whistles that'll make users drool with delight. But, how do we convince them to upgrade? It's simple, really. There are three tricks:

First, we'll tease them by restricting access to the good stuff right when they're about to click. It's like dangling a carrot in front of a bunny. Sure, it might be annoying at first, but it'll build up their desire to upgrade like nobody's business.

Next, we'll be subtle, like a ninja in the shadows. We'll sprinkle reminders of the extra value throughout their experience so they don't forget what they're missing out on. It's like a gentle nudge in the right direction. Plus, if they're not ready to upgrade today, they'll know where to find us when they are!

Last but not least, we'll tempt them with our premium features like a platter of freshly baked cookies. They might not know they want them yet, but once we show them how delicious they are, they won't be able to resist. We'll showcase our advanced features in a way that makes them impossible to ignore.

So there you have it, folks! With these strategies, we'll have users flocking to our premium product like bees to honey. Let the upgrade frenzy begin!

User Flow

After synthesizing the research information, I began to ideate on how to deliver upgrade prompts to Users within the alt.bit application, but first I needed to understand the flow a User would take.

My thought was that instead of creating the User flow digitally, I wanted to step back from a screen and create the flow using paper and colored pencils. We can become so attached to our screens at times during the design process, so I wanted to use paper in case I wasn’t pleased and quickly needed to start over.

For alt.bit, upgrade options need to be in multiple places within the interface, so creating the flow in an analog manner would allow me to erase, move options around, or scrap an idea quickly and begin anew.

Ideation

When I began ideating on concepts for the alt.bit screens, two things came to mind - one, time was a constraint for this project, and two, for usability testing of the wireframes, I wanted it to feel as close to a real product since a feature was being tested. I felt using digital wireframes would help me get an idea of how the feature would sit within the layout, and if I were comfortable with the flow of the feature within the wireframes, I’d be ready to begin usability testing.

Drawing sketches for wireframes is always fun and eye-opening, but I didn’t feel paper sketches would illustrate the feature in a realistic manner for usability testing.

High-Fidelity

Before building alt.bit’s high fidelity screens, I created a color palette that I felt would align with the brand’s attributes - bold, smart, and hip.

I started with a shade of purple as my primary color, mainly because purple has been known to spark creativity. Then, for my secondary colors I chose shades of orange, in which orange is a color that conveys excitement, enthusiasm, and warmth. Orange is also a color that appeals to young people. Once I had my color palette dialed in, I moved on to building the alt.bit screens!

Above, left, is the splash screen for the application, with the home screen for a User who’s subscribed to a Premium plan on the right. A premium User of alt.bit will have many choices for content within the flow of the home screen, with horizontal scrolling used for content the User may want to continue listening to, podcast hosts the User may follow, as well as categories that resonate with the User. There’s also a section for suggested content, for the Premium User, located below the Categories section.

I initially planned to use purple as the splash screen color, then decided to use a shade of orange. I made this decision because I wanted the User to see a bright color as they opened the application. I feel like we see so many applications based around audio content (music, podcasts) that use somewhat of a ‘dark mode’ throughout the application, so I wanted to change that for alt.bit, giving the User a bright, energizing experience.

All of the screens that make up the alt.bit, upgrade experience are below:

Prototyping

From this point, it was time to string the screens together and prepare for usability testing.

Usability Testing

Five participants were asked to test alt.bit’s general flow, as well as the upgrade options that are presented to its Users throughout the app’s flow. They were asked to provide feedback on the following questions:

After the splash screen loads, please provide feedback on how you feel about the upgrade options panel loading before the login prompt.

Does the location of the upgrade options placement on the home panel bother your flow of the content?

How do you feel about the placement of the upgrade options in the Profile menu?

How do you feel about the amount of upgrade locations within the flow of the app?

Is there any specific content that would help you choose to upgrade to a Premium account?

From my findings, the Users felt:
1. The idea of seeing the option to upgrade to a Premium account as soon as the application loads is fine, and all Users stated that they’re used to and comfortable with seeing that option as soon as the application loads, as long as an option to proceed without upgrading is provided.

2. The location of the upgrade option within the home screen for both Users with free, or new, accounts doesn’t hinder their scrolling of the content.

3. The location of the upgrade options within the profile modal seems like a good, reasonable place because it doesn’t bother the User as they’re experiencing alt.bit’s content, and new Users who are upgrading to a Free account receive an incentive for doing so.

4. The amount of upgrade locations within alt.bit’s flow feels good to the User because they know exactly where to look if they want to upgrade to a Free, or Premium, account. However, the User would trust the application more if the option graphic looked the same throughout the experience, so as not to confuse the User.

5. Overall, the User would like to be presented with curated, tailored content - the User feels this is what would compel them to upgrade to a Premium account. Also, since alt.bit is a podcasting application, ad-free content would push them to upgrade to a Premium account.

Conclusion

Even with time constraints, this was a great experience. Designing the overall look and feel was nice but being able to hone in, testing a specific feature in the application was great because it pushed me to think deeper, beyond the visual appearance of the design.

Insights from this experience:

All of alt.bit’s business goals described in the brief were included and adhered to throughout the design process and included for the testing phase.

The Users were pleased with the flow of alt.bit, and they were familiar with and understood the placement of the upgrade options, but I feel more testing would need to be done with actual content to see what type(s) of content would push a User to upgrade to a Premium account.

Key metrics should be put in place to dig deeper to see what might drive the User to upgrade. More testing, which could include behavioral data (task success, task time), as well as attitudinal data (ease of use, trust, and appearance), could provide valuable information on ways to convert more Users to Premium accounts