Driving day zero engagement with a 21% growth in new user transactions.
Team
Design Manager
Product Manager
Developers
My Role
Conceptualization
Design/Dev Handoff
Usability Testing
Duration
1 month (Product & Design)
CONTEXT
Setting new users up for gold savings
New users often felt confused about the value of saving, trusting the app, or choosing a saving mode. This hesitation delayed their first gold purchase. Our goal was to remove these barriers and help users confidently make their first transaction—right from the home screen.
BACKGROUND
60% of new users overlooked the main entry point to set up their daily savings
Every day, around 10,000 new users join Jar, but only about 330 set up their daily savings on day zero. Surprisingly, 60% of these users accessed the setup through secondary screens like the hamburger menu or settings, not the prominent home feed entry point. This mismatch revealed a critical gap: despite the prime real estate on the home screen, the primary entry point failed to clearly communicate the value or guide users toward action. Without a simple, compelling starting point, most users hesitated or dropped off before making their first gold transaction.
IMPACT
Driving stronger engagement and faster conversions
The improvements in the savings setup flow delivered meaningful results beyond just increased conversions. We saw higher click-through rates on the home feed widget, indicating better user engagement with the entry point. Behavioural data showed users moved more confidently through the process, with a noticeable reduction in time to first transaction.
21%
Growth in total daily savings setup on day zero
(330 → 400)
15%
More adoption of home-feed banner in the total split
(40% → 65%)
2%
Reduction in overall daily saving cancellations
(18% → 16%)
PROBLEM DISCOVERY
How simple questions created barriers for new users to save
To uncover why so many users dropped off before setting up daily savings, we reached out directly to new sign-ups from tier 2 and 3 Indian cities who had been using Jar for just a day or two. Most of these users were first-time digital savers with limited experience in online financial products.
Trust Issues
Will we get our money back? Should we even trust this app?
-Ramesh, Auto driver
Hesitation
What is the appropriate amount to begin my savings with?
-Udit, College student
Benefit clarity
What will I get if I invest in this app or put my money into it?
-Kavita, Home maker
Defining the Challenge: Turning early hesitation into quick, confident decisions
From user insights, it was clear we needed to deliver a simple, doubt-free context that quickly communicated Jar’s core value. Early engagement drives retention, so we focused on speeding up the user’s first gold transaction by making this entry point clear, trustworthy, and easy to use.
CHALLENGE:1
The sudden jump from the banner screen to amount selection screen was quite overwhelming for a new user
Many new users experienced an abrupt shift when moving from the home feed banner to the setup screen. Instead of a clear, guided flow, they encountered a dense and jargon-heavy interface without context or direction. This sudden jump created confusion and made it difficult to know what action to take next. For new digital savers, the missing clear guidance turned curiosity into doubt, causing hesitation and lost first transactions.
Can we shorten the flow and simplify the decision making? Do we even need a separate amount screen in the first place?
Bring amount selection into the home feed widget, letting users see the benefits and pick an amount right away, making the process simpler and faster.
CHALLENGE:2
The home feed banner lacked guidance and clear value, resulting in low motivation and engagement for new users
Users weren’t able to see the value in saving from the home feed banner, so their intent and engagement remained low—let alone conversions. We saw that without answering “why should I save?” right up front, most new users lost interest before even considering their first transaction. This made it clear that the first step had to be about highlighting the benefits and building trust. Only after users understood the value could we offer a clear, easy way for them to take action—streamlining the path from curiosity to confident saving.
Amount shown
upfront
Gold coin
approach
-
More chances of accidental setups for new users.
-
Failed to motivate or show key product value to the users.
-
The change amount interaction was not intuitive for our users.
Encouraged one click quick transactions especially for high intent users.
Users were able to map the saving amount with gold quite clearly.
Collapsible drawer
approach
Two state widget
approach
-
Multiple actions in the widget were distracting for a new user.
-
One extra click to reach till the amount selection state added some friction.
-
Amount selection slider was not intuitive and clear as a CTA for the users.
-
Amount pills provided visibility & ease of decision by showing all the options upfront.
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Progressive disclosure keeps interface simple, aiding user focus and clarity.
From Information overload to confident savings
We realized showing everything upfront overwhelmed new users. Instead, we decided to first highlight the value of saving with Jar—helping users see the benefits and build trust. Once we had their interest, we smoothly led them to pick their saving amount in the second step. By keeping choices simple, we made it easy and fast for users to finish their first transaction with confidence.
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After doing some Usability Testing, we found out that the upward drawer interaction clashed with the feed scroll and the amount selection slider was also not intuitive.
CHALLENGE:3
Reinforcing trust and setting a clear expectation
We focused carefully on every detail to ensure users truly understood where their money was going and what saving in gold meant. By designing clear visuals and simple explanations, we made the process transparent and easy to follow. Our goal was to eliminate doubts and build real confidence, so users felt secure and informed before completing their first transaction.
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We made the first CTA more prominent to avoid confusion due to swipe interaction.
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We also added more obvious signifiers and chose the pills construct for quicker and intuitive amount selection.
Shaping the final experience
Once our direction was clear, we took the selected designs into high fidelity — adding detail, refining interactions, and bringing them to life. The goal was to make the widget stand out while staying true to the existing design system. Designing for dark mode brought its own challenges, but the final outcome struck the right balance.
LEARNINGS
What really works (and what doesn’t)
The widget revealed positive behavioral shifts. We saw a drop in average Day-0 conversion time, showing that first-time setups need a different flow than repeat transactions. Social proofing, however, didn’t resonate in this context and was later removed. CTR was initially lower than expected, but improved after adding motion nudges and auto-opening the amount selection for low-engagement users.
NEXT STEPS
Personalization & context: the road ahead.
The design has since scaled to 100% of non-transacting users and continues to perform well. Insights from this experiment have been applied across other features. A V2 of the widget focused on personalization, contextual triggers, and driving event-based transactions (like paydays and festivals).