Mobile-app-onboarding: The Guardian App Onboarding: Remove 'Start Reading' CTA to Force Registration Awareness
Hypothesis
Removing the 'Start reading…' shortcut CTA from the first onboarding screen — leaving only a 'Continue' button that leads to sign-in/registration
Test Results
Key Learning
Context: The primary call-to-action on the mobile-app-onboarding isn't converting at its potential — design, copy, or placement may be the bottleneck.
What was tested: Making the desired action the default path (rather than an opt-in) dramatically increases completion rates. Users will often take the path of least resistance — if you want them to register, make registration the easiest path. On mature products, simple onboarding flow changes can yield outsized results (80% lift). First experiments in a new CRO program should be simple to demonstrate value and identify bottlenecks
Result: No statistically significant difference was detected. This null result is still valuable — it narrows the search space and helps calibrate your minimum detectable effect for future tests.
How to Apply This to Your Site
This experiment tested mobile-app-onboarding: the guardian app onboarding: remove 'start reading' cta to force registration awareness but produced no statistically significant change. The test was run on a mobile page in the media industry. Inconclusive results suggest this particular change may not be a priority — focus testing effort on higher-impact areas.
Before you test: Consider that layout tests typically require adequate traffic to reach statistical significance. Run your test for at least 2 full business cycles to account for weekly traffic patterns.
This result reached 95% statistical confidence, meaning there is a very low probability the observed effect was due to chance. Results at this confidence level are generally considered reliable for making business decisions.
What Was Tested
Guardian app users could bypass sign-in by tapping 'Start reading…' on the first onboarding screen. The existing flow made it too easy to avoid registration. removed the 'Start reading' CTA and blue panels, leaving only a 'Continue' button that flowed to a screen showing sign-in options and account benefits. Users could still skip, but this was no longer a prominent option.
Methodology
Build On These Learnings
Save your own experiments, spot winning patterns across your test history, and stop repeating what's already been tried.
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