Improving the onboarding experience for young gamers

Hamul’s younger user base (ages 5-12) faced a high volume of account recovery requests, which disrupted their experience and increased support workload. Many of these users had signed up using their parents' email addresses, often because they didn’t have their own. However, when they forgot their passwords, they couldn’t access their parents’ emails to complete the recovery process. This led to frustration, account lockouts, and increased reliance on customer support for manual recovery. Additionally, this friction discouraged continued engagement, as some users abandoned their accounts rather than navigating the recovery process.

Year: 2022

Studio: Logic + Rhythm

Role: Lead Product Designer, 1 x Founder, 2 x Engineers

Role: Lead Product Designer, 1 x Founder

Services: Product Design, Illustration

Goal

Design an onboarding flow that allows young gamers to create and manage their accounts independently. Additionally, the Hamul team wanted to introduce the Hamul Coin rewards program to encourage referrals, enabling users to earn coins and redeem them for emoji reactions and video effects.

Process

Recognizing that email was not a viable solution, the focus shifted to using SMS-based OTPs for account verification and login. This approach eliminated the need for email in managing login credentials and password recovery.

The onboarding flow was designed to set users up for success by guiding them through key actions such as setting up a username and profile picture, adding their favorite games, and inviting friends to join.

Results

Improved login success rates: reduced the number of login issues caused by forgotten passwords and inaccessible email accounts, and enabled young users to create and manage their accounts without relying on their parents' email addresses.
Simplified account recovery: eliminated the need for email-based password resets by implementing SMS-based OTPs, making account recovery faster and more accessible.
Higher user engagement: enhanced onboarding flow encouraged users to personalize their profiles, add favorite games, and connect with friends, fostering greater in-app engagement.
Boosted user growth: the introduction of the Hamul Coin rewards program incentivized referrals, driving an increase in new user sign-ups through friend invitations.
Enhanced in-app activity: reward redemption for emoji reactions and video effects motivated users to interact more frequently with app features, increasing overall activity.

Hamul has since been acquired by Roblox for $17 million in 2022.