User research: registration flow usability testing

What did we learn?

Results
TBD
Slides readout
Summary doc

What’s this issue all about?

Usability testing for new users going through GitLab's registration flow.

Who is the target user of the feature?

1. New users of GitLab (i.e. Developers, Product managers, Data analysts, etc.)
2. Administrators (those who administrate the service)

Final tally:

No. of participants	Type of account registration
1	Free account (Personal)
7	Free account (Company & re-directed to trial)
3	Free trial (Company & direct path)

What questions are you trying to answer?

1. Can users find the registration process they are looking for? (i.e. free account vs. trial, personal vs. company, etc.)
2. Are users able to complete the registration process?
3. Are there any barriers to entry? (i.e. getting stuck in the verification process, not understanding GitLab specific wording, etc.)
4. Are there any bugs in the system or errors the user might encounter and how do we currently handle those?
5. Is there a particular reason we see significant drop off at certain steps of the flow?

What research do we have already on this topic?

TBD

What hypotheses and/or assumptions do you have?

That we have a unnecessarily long and complicated registration process that users must navigate in order to access our product.

That it is up to the user to find the right path, and if they get stuck or choose the wrong one then they are likely to abandon.

What decisions will you make based on the research findings?

We will use these insights to make improvements to the entire registration flow.

Study documentation

• Sign up sign to be displayed
• Participant sign up sheet
• Reimbursement sheet
• Usability testing script

Checklist

• Create interview script draft
• Ask UX Research team to review interview script draft
• Make updates to interview script and finalize
• Schedule interviews with participants
• Conduct interviews with participants
  • Upload all recordings to Dovetail
• Compile and analyze data
• Write report draft
• Ask UX Research team to review report draft
• Refine report draft
• Create video summary of findings
• Add findings to What did we learn? section in this research issue
• Share final report, research issue, and video summary (#product, #ux, #ux_research_reports)

Problem Themes

The main themes from registration research are:

• There is a lack of transparency from GitLab; We need to do better at anticipating user needs.
• We ask for too much, too soon.
• We put the burden on the user to make the right choice, instead of us guiding them down the correct path.