A redesigned onboarding that took sign-up completion from 1% to 70%

Intro

VIDI pays people to work as mystery shoppers and store auditors: a side gig, like driving for Uber, but done inside real stores for Brazilian brands.

The app had no trouble getting downloaded. The trouble was what came next. Out of roughly 1,000 daily downloads, about 10 people finished signing up. The first screen alone lost 80% of them: a long, scrolling form with 10 fields, followed by terms, extra personal questions and a selfie.

But we couldn’t just delete the form. VIDI runs on trust: brands pay for real visits from real people, so we genuinely needed identity data to prevent fraud.

The challenge was asking for a lot, without it feeling like a lot.

Problems

Sign-up asked for everything upfront, in one long form. 99% of downloads never became accounts.

Solution

Phased the process: essential data first, broken into short steps that explain why each item is needed. Everything else moved to post-sign-up profile completion. Added Google sign-in.

Results

Daily sign-ups went from ~10 to ~700: completion grew from 1% to 70% of downloads.

before after

fig 1. old sign-up vs. phased sign-up — drag to compare

Screen 01: Phase 1 - Empty State — 01 Phase 1 - Empty State

Screen 02: Phase 1 - Filled — 02 Phase 1 - Filled

Screen 03: Phase 1 - Validating — 03 Phase 1 - Validating

Screen 04: Phase 1 - Error Scenario — 04 Phase 1 - Error Scenario

Screen 05: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Empty — 05 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Empty

Screen 06: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Focused — 06 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Focused

Screen 07: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Typing — 07 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Typing

Screen 08: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Typing — 08 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Typing

Screen 09: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Filled — 09 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Filled

10 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Validating

Screen 10: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Validating — 10 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Validating

Screen 11: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Error — 11 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Error

12 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Invalid code

Screen 12: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Invalid code — 12 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Invalid code

13 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Code validated

Screen 13: Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Code validated — 13 Phase 1 - Phone Validation - Code validated

Screen 14: Phase 2 - Empty — 14 Phase 2 - Empty

Screen 15: Phase 2 - Focused — 15 Phase 2 - Focused

Screen 16: Phase 2 - Filled — 16 Phase 2 - Filled

Screen 17: Phase 2 - Loading — 17 Phase 2 - Loading

Screen 18: Phase 2 - Invalid ZIP code — 18 Phase 2 - Invalid ZIP code

Screen 19: Phase 2 - Validated ZIP code — 19 Phase 2 - Validated ZIP code

Screen 20: Phase 2 - Number filled — 20 Phase 2 - Number filled

Screen 21: Phase 2 - Validating — 21 Phase 2 - Validating

Screen 22: Phase 3 - Empty — 22 Phase 3 - Empty

Screen 23: Phase 3 - CPF info — 23 Phase 3 - CPF info

Screen 24: Phase 3 - CPF Focused — 24 Phase 3 - CPF Focused

Screen 25: Phase 3 - CPF Filled — 25 Phase 3 - CPF Filled

Screen 26: Phase 3 - Gender selection — 26 Phase 3 - Gender selection

Screen 27: Phase 3 - Gender selected — 27 Phase 3 - Gender selected

Screen 28: Phase 3 - Gender Filled — 28 Phase 3 - Gender Filled

Screen 29: Phase 3 - Password focused — 29 Phase 3 - Password focused

Screen 30: Phase 3 - Password Typing — 30 Phase 3 - Password Typing

Screen 31: Phase 3 - Password meets criteria — 31 Phase 3 - Password meets criteria

Screen 32: Phase 3 - Validating — 32 Phase 3 - Validating

Screen 33: Phase 3 - CPF Error — 33 Phase 3 - CPF Error

Screen 34: Phase 3 - Password Error — 34 Phase 3 - Password Error

Screen 35: Welcome wizard - Start point — 35 Welcome wizard - Start point

Screen 36: Welcome wizard - Info 1 — 36 Welcome wizard - Info 1

Screen 37: Welcome wizard - Info 2 — 37 Welcome wizard - Info 2

Screen 38: Welcome wizard - Info 3 — 38 Welcome wizard - Info 3

Screen 39: Welcome wizard - Info 4 — 39 Welcome wizard - Info 4

fig 2. the full phased flow — drag to scroll

Setting the scene

The drop-off wasn’t subtle.

Firebase showed the gap between downloads and completed sign-ups. Clarity showed where it happened: most people opened the first screen, scrolled through the form and left.

The old flow had four stages:

01A scrolling form with 10 required fields80% gave up here
02Terms of use
03Extra profile information (age, marital status and similar)skippable
04A selfieskippable

Stages 3 and 4 were skippable, but almost nobody got that far.

Firebase

daily downloads vs. completed sign-ups

12,480 01A scrolling form
with 10 required fields 12,480 people · 100% of downloads
−62%
4,720 02Terms of use 4,720 people · 37.8% of downloads · −62% from step 01
−78%
1,040 03Extra profile information(age, marital status and similar) 1,040 people · 8.3% of downloads · −78% from step 02
−71%
300 04A selfie 300 people · 2.4% of downloads · −71% from step 03

Daily downloads vs. completed sign-ups (Firebase): people who reached each stage of the old sign-up
Stage	People	Change from previous stage
01 · A scrolling form with 10 required fields	12,480	—
02 · Terms of use	4,720	−62%
03 · Extra profile information	1,040	−78%
04 · A selfie	300	−71%

Design challenge

Who is downloading the app?

Many new users are just curious. They’ve heard they can earn extra money and want to see what it’s about. They haven’t decided to commit, and a 10-field form asks for commitment before giving anything back.

VIDI, on the other hand, can’t let people in with no identity checks. One fraudulent visit can compromise a major brand’s data.

Product decision

Not everything had to happen at sign-up.

I mapped every field in the old flow and split it into two groups with the team:

Essential to enter

Data that’s legally or operationally required before someone can register.

CPF (Brazil’s tax ID)Address

Can wait

Data that helps us match people to opportunities or allow them to take surveys.

AgeMarital statusOther demographicsProfile selfie

The second group moved out of sign-up entirely and became part of a new profile-completion experience.

See profile area case

Google sign-in

Some of the work was already done for us.

Adding Google sign-in did two things at once:

Returning users who had registered with their Gmail got straight in.
New users skipped name, email and password entirely and jumped to the steps Google couldn’t fill.

Screen recording of the Google sign-in: choosing an account on the login screen and landing on the home screen

Step by step

With a reason for each.

The essential data stayed, but the experience around it changed:

One topic per step instead of one long scroll.

CPF field with a “Why do we ask for this?” link right below it

A short access point to the explanation of why we ask for things like CPF, so sensitive data feels justified, not invasive.

“One last step” screen with a three-part progress bar fully filled

Clear progress, so users know how close they are.

What almost happened

I wanted to go further.

My original proposal was an Airbnb-style social-only sign-up: get in with Google, browse surveys, and complete your profile only when there’s something worth doing.

This addresses one of VIDI’s core pains. We can’t guarantee surveys in every town, so someone in a small rural city could complete the whole sign-up only to find nothing available.

It wasn’t technically possible at the time without reworking core parts of the backend, so we shipped the phased version. It remains the next step I’d push for.

Results

1%→70%

Sign-up completion, measured as completed sign-ups per daily download.

~10→~700

New accounts a day.

70×

More sign-ups, while still collecting the identity data the business depends on to operate.

Learnings

Shortening a form is not the only answer. Asking at the right moment, with a reason, works too.

We still ask for sensitive data. We just stopped asking for all of it at once and started explaining why.

Next project

A liveness check that eliminated identity fraud

Adding an extra layer of security without turning verification into a frustrating extra step.

check it out