Redesigning Onboarding Process: Increasing Adoption Rate by 36% in the Riliv Mobile App

Riliv is a mental wellness app offering meditation and counseling services. However, its onboarding flow caused a high user drop-off, particularly at steps that felt irrelevant, long, or intrusive. After identifying friction points through analytics and usability testing, we overhauled the experience to be faster, more personalized, and trust-building.

We turned a clunky first impression into a seamless entry point that significantly boosted adoption.

Company
Riliv
Role
Product Designer
Scope
UX, UI, Research, Illustration
Period
Q2 2020
Redesigning Onboarding Process cover

Disclaimer: This is a high-level project overview. For the full case study or more details, feel free to reach out at olehabib98@gmail.com.

Key Challenges

Riliv aimed to make mental wellness accessible, but users were dropping off before even getting started.

  1. 01

    How can we create a personalized experience that supports different user goals—meditation or counseling?

  2. 02

    How can we streamline onboarding without sacrificing clarity or trust?

  3. 03

    How can we shift valuable steps like reminders earlier, increasing engagement without pushback?

Design Process

  1. 01Analyze Data Funnel
  2. 02Validate Issues via Usability Testing
  3. 03Map Multi-Path User Flows
  4. 04Build UI and Interactive Prototypes
  5. 05Conduct Usability Testing
  6. 06Revise and Finalize design
  7. 07Support QA and launch

Key strategy

We designed the onboarding to feel like a conversation, not a checklist—intelligently adapting to each user’s goals, emotional state, and readiness level to build trust and guide them with purpose.

Key Solutions

  1. 01

    Personalized User Flow

    Created three distinct onboarding paths based on intent: mindfulness, counseling, or unsure. Each path had tailored steps, visuals, and tone to make users feel understood from the start.

  2. 02

    Simplified Progression

    Removed unnecessary friction by reducing the number of screens, adding skip options, and giving users more control over their pace.

  3. 03

    Early Reminder Placement

    Moved the reminder feature earlier in the flow to increase visibility and adoption. Users could choose reminder frequency and integrate with Google Calendar.

  4. 04

    Flexible Meditation Experience

    Previously, users were forced to play a meditation track. The redesign allowed them to skip, making the experience feel less forced and more respectful of time.

  5. 05

    Gender-Matched Illustrations & Consistent Visual Style

    Aligned all illustrations to a cohesive visual language, and used gender-aware imagery to strengthen personal resonance and inclusivity.

01 Choose a gender
02 Fill date of birth, phone number and city
03 Choose motivation for using Riliv: meditation, counseling, or still explore?
04 Landing page of meditation and counseling flow
05 Meditation flow: choose desired benefit
06 Meditation flow: set meditation reminder
07 Meditation flow: summary page
05 Meditation flow: creation of personalized meditation program

Outcome Highlights

Based on 2020 data

  • Adoption

    93.3% of users completed onboarding — a +36% increase from the original flow, showing that friction points were effectively resolved.

  • Retention Lift

    Push reminder was perceived positively. While exact impact on retention isn’t fully trackable, early data showed increased re-engagement patterns.

  • Clarity & Trust

    Users felt more confident navigating the app and understood Riliv’s value faster — laying the foundation for sustained use.

Collaborator

  • Product Manager (Novia)
  • Psychology Specialist (Geby)
  • CBO (Audy)
  • Tech Team