How United Onboards New Users (design) | Hacker News Reader

How United Onboards New Users (design)

useronboard.com

121 pointsohjeez49 comments

Open articleView on HN

I guess we're going to see this posted every day until United falls out of the headlines?

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=useronboard.com

It's interesting that every account that has posted this story submits multiple times a day.

It was painful though

I was happy to find that after the 149 slides I only needed to click my browser's back button once

Yep, I was sure to check that a few slides in heheh.

Oh the irony, criticising the mobile app about its design on a painful to use on a mobile phone slide show.

You should ask for a refund.

Not quite understanding this. The United app is also free.

And at least it has buttons that are large enough to touch with my finger without encroaching into some other div causing an unexpected zoom.

I laughed and then tried to invite you on HN mobile... Joke's on us I guess.

Curious why the user didn't click back instead of on the home button around slide 70-75. It would have saved them about 50 slides or so and 10-15 minutes of real time. They clearly saw the back button later around slide 120. The micro-pessimization of looking at the account creation flow before attempting to book a flight also seemed somewhat unnecessary.

While it is not an excuse for the poor design, I am not sure why you would search award travel if you don't have any points/miles to redeem nor even have an account. They even leave the boxes unchecked by default. Clearly a better UI would have process equally streamlined both for new users and for customers with United miles/points to spend.

It's like you're angrily agree with the OP.

> I am not sure why you would search award travel if you don't have any points/miles to redeem

Well in this day and age of award bonuses, sign up awards, maybe they believed they might have some already. This wasn't made apparent in the app.

Right, along with complaining that 'Show Nearby Airports' doesn't work when you've forbidden location services.

Usually that feature is to give flexible airport options. So if you search for SFO it will also give you OAK. Nothing to do with your current location.

The question asked was "Allow United to access your location even when you are not using the app?”. It's not clear that answering "no" would prevent the app from accessing location when you are using the app.

That's a failing of iOS, not the app - that is a system dialog that allows an app to ask for foreground only location services, or background location services (and this is the dialog presented, no customization allowed).

That's probably something a software developer / tech inclined person would know. Then again, they might assume the app is clever enough to roughly geo-locate you via IP address, and it would kinda make sense as even just knowing the town or state someone is in significantly narrows down the likely list of airports.

But even that uncertainty aside, tech folk are not the primary target audience for this app. The general flying public are. I'm not sure all of this would be immediately obvious to them. And hitting yes to a dialog that sounds as if it's asking for permission to track your every movement sounds kinda scary to me...

The point is that he didn't have an incentive to approve such wide permissions at that point. They should have waited to ask permissions until that screen, or given more information as to why you should approve their request.

On iOS it's also pretty cumbersome to allow these things after disallowing them. You have to go into settings, find the privacy tab, go to the correct requirement and then find the app to toggle it on.

I agree it's not clear from this article alone, but I've read his previous publications and it comes up a lot.

My thoughts exactly. Of course a lot of room for improvement in all these airline apps but the person was intentionally playing dumb on a few of those steps knowing it would double the number of steps. Of course the app should have better protection and warnings to prevent that from happening but since reading that on a phone with no swipe to view next slides and having to tap that tiny arrow that often zoomed in instead shows the author may want to focus on their own app a bit first.

I actually thought those buttons would result in additional results, rather than narrowing down his/her later choices. Either that or they'd do nothing, since that's what the other button of that type that they encountered seemed to do...

Admittedly I don't fly that much, maybe once a year. But I still don't quite get some of these 'frequent flyer point' schemes. Do you get them as a reward for flying? Or, as in this case, are they always 'disney money' that buy flights?

This is exactly why whenever I have to deal with something more complicated than Skype credits, I use a desktop.

Typing a lot of information in on a smartphone in your shitty app = waste of my time and I'm not taking that risk again after dozens of tries over the years.

I've seen worse. The CVS Android app. In order to enter my birthday (why do you need my birthday CVS? You won't let me order alcohol in your app anyway. For those who don't know, CVS is a popular chain of liquor stores where you can also get prescriptions filled. Like a small, neighborhood Costco.) I had to click a little back arrow month by month 40 years to get to when I was born. Twice.

If only you were born yesterday.

I'm a frequent flyer with status on United Airlines.

This "onboarding" demonstration is an eye-opener for me. While I didn't experience any of the issues that this slideshow demonstrated, I now realize that my experience and knowledge with flying United helped a ton to start working with this app. On a related note, I also did not share the same general resentment for what United did on the recent flight to Louisville. Not because of lack of empathy, but again because of experience both good and bad, and also because if I were to be the doctor, I would know my options for getting to my destination in time. After a while, you start forgetting that other people do not share that level of experience and knowledge, and to make this relevant for Hacker News: this is an issue that affects me as a developer too.

That being said and in United's defense, this app has incredibly powerful functionality that's not mentioned at all here. This app allows you to scan your passport and get it "pre-approved" for boarding an international flight, something that can save you A LOT of time at the airport. Furthermore, in case you are affected by "IRROPS" (delays and cancellation) the app can offer you alternatives and rebook you immediately. And there's a lot of other helpful stuff this app can do. Granted, it is still limited in what it can do, and sometimes it can't help you out, but it is a huge timesaver if it does. In short, the United iOS app can be an incredibly powerful travel companion, but it still requires a user that is more educated about air travel than the average Joe.

So as a developer, I do agree that the onboarding experience for inexperienced users should improve and I will look at the onboarding process in the applications that I write. But at the same time, as a frequent flyer, I hope any changes do not constitute merely "dumbing things down" at the expense of the powerful functionality where this app really shines today.

This is probably a result of having a huge team of disempowered developers, each working on delivering a tiny slice of functionality, with a product owner lacking any kind of organizational clout. Most likely the app team is beholden to a much larger, powerful and entrenched backend division that dictates what APIs they have available and when they can use them.

Most likely this was outsourced to shop that doesn't care at all about anything but checking off "requirements" in a contract.

That sounds about right.

I doubt that it is a problem with the dev team, or a PM's lack of org clout or lack of API access (apparently the app could functionally do what it needed to do, except perhaps the final step, which might have required correcting an expired CC. iTunes has the same flaw when my card expires, requiring me to login from my desktop to fix). In my opinion, this is purely the fault of the PM or PO for lacking any sort of understanding of proper interaction design or making it a point to enlist the help of others who do, with the end result being a horrible UX.

This is a fairly gnarly space in general. Because of various laws, they have to collect much more data, with more granularity, than a normal e-commerce site. Like birthdates, middle initials, loyalty numbers, etc...for every passenger, not just the buyer. And searching for products is more complex as well. You have to account for cities with multiple airports, one way vs rt, displaying key info like layovers, ancillary charges for bags, many different sorts/filters etc. Oh, and inventory that appears, disappears or changes price (or terms) very rapidly. Just examples, this kind of thing is spread throughout.

Throwing the need to do this in at least 4 disparate interfaces (desktop, mobile web, Android, iOS) then amplifies any mistakes.

There isn't really any airline that does this completely right. If they get close, keeping up with business and platform changes usually breaks it at some future point.

Some things are just hard to do well on tiny screens with shitty keyboards...and X different variations of them.

or no devs at all...

It's good that someone is pointing out these basic mistakes. It's really easy to see which companies go the extra mile.

Slide 123 is hilarious! It's exactly how I feel after I've lost pages of information due to a badly-designed flow.

http://www.useronboard.com/how-united-onboards-new-users/?sl...

I gave up ~35 slides in.

The app wants to notify you to give you updates on flights. It's a handy feature. I've received Delta notifications 5-10 minutes before it's announced at the gates.

The "Favorite" prefilled locations are United's two major hubs. A significant amount of their travelers start out or end up at those two locations, so it is saving a lot of users time.

The location and notification messages they complain about are Apple's messages. United I'm sure would want to say something more informative.

This review is apparently based on a 10 year old's understanding of traveling and tech.

I think the issue isn't that it's asking for notif permission at all, it's that it's asking at the wrong time. Most mobile app developers and designers should know that you wait till the moment before it's needed before asking the user, which for this case would probably be after you book a flight successfully. This is for the good of both the customer and the company. The customer actually knows what it's being used for, and the company successfully establishes a communication method with the customer for more engagement. You don't ask for notif permission right at the beginning. That's an amateur app developer mistake.

If "Favorite" is United's favorite, maybe it should be renamed "Popular". The term "Favorite" is usually used to indicate something the user set themselves.

As for location and notif permission prompts, if as an app developer you think the message isn't informative, typically you explain in your words in a custom UI prompt in your app (about why you want to send notifs) first, and when they click yes, you make the system prompt. Two steps, yes, but higher allow rates for the company, and more information for the customer. I think it's a good practice.

I don't think the review is based on a 10 year old's understanding of traveling and tech. I think it's quite valid overall.

Well, the goal of the app is not just buy tickets. You can have flights out side the app that they notify you about, so I see the logic of asking for permissions when they did.

I am 100% in agreement with you.

(I'm the person who made the slideshow)

Is it your website as well? If so, the mobile experience needs a few tweaks. Especially when viewed in portrait orientation.

The arrows to go back and forth are tiny, and very close to the slide window. Which, when your finger overlaps onto, jumps around and zooms. I thought maybe swiping would work, but it does not.

The top menu links are pretty tiny as well.

I thought it worth mentioning because the amount of work to fix it seems pretty low.

Yes, it's my website and the mobile experience completely sucks. That's the highest item on my to-do list for site updates.

Well this brings back memories of sitting in their plane trying to become a milageplus member. After filling in the whole form, I find that I cannot submit because the app cannot use the airplanes wifi. I know my bad for assuming that if united let you browse their webpage for flight status that surely they would let their mobile app work over the wifi as well. Worse I assumed when I got home, I would submit the form and be done but no, the session timed out and all my data entry was lost.

I tried the United app last year. I was in Austin, about two hours before my flight.

I signed in and expected my flight info. Nope. Instead, they asked for my confirmation number. Remember, they know who I am and the current time. Why else would I open the app?

I checked the "airport maps" page assuming it would show Austin. Granted, as my home airport, I probably don't need a map but maybe my destination? Nope, Cleveland.

Delete.

Given United Airlines' consistent poor service and arrogance for many years, it's time to dismiss the company, re-accommodate and onboard their employees (especially executive managers) to other businesses, perhaps new airlines started by people like Richard Branson.

The app sucks, but apparently the critique is from someone who has never flown before.

How so?

Because everyone who has flown knows you need to choose these basic things when flying: Departure, Arrival, and two Departure Dates. So it's not that bad if the app won't hold your hands and tells you that you need these basic things.

People who fly, like, once or twice per year (leisure travelers or travelers visiting friends and relatives (VFR)), will not know these things. There are many, many people who have never flown on a plane, too.

They make up a significant portion of total passenger volume.

Also, every other airline app gets this right.

Funny. Although I didn't see the option to specify which hospital to take you to after United has dragged you off the plane when the flight is overbooked.

OK the UA iOS app definitely has problems.

I wonder how it stacks up against other airlines' apps?

How do the airlines' apps stack up against 3rd-party apps like Kayak?

They all suck. It's a hard space to get right, especially to get right across 4 different UIs (desktop, mobile web, Android, iOS). And, pieces of the functionality across even more UIs, like the airport kiosks.

It's basically a thousand tiny cuts. For example, if the user selects an outbound flight, then changes the return date to one day earlier...it may have invalidated the pricing on the outbound flight.

Similar if they pick flights and then input a birthdate past a certain range. They are now an "unaccompanied minor". Prices are different, and they can't be on any connecting flights...nonstop or direct only.

Just two examples, as mentioned, there's a lot of this sort of complex business process.

And, most invested in their backend services during the "desktop mostly era". So a fair amount don't have reasonable services layers...the business rules are locked up in some layer that isn't easily exposed to all 4 UIs. Most are just now coming out of that barrier, piece by piece. Legacy is a bitch.

There is a lot of talk on United's folly out there. This is definitely worth a read.

Surprised it made direct mention of the recent event.

Probably A/B tested for maximum customer annoyance /s

Reply on news.ycombinator.com