Welcome Carousel

The Team

Product Manager: Sarah Nusekabel
App Developer: Brandon Alexander (iOS)

Client

Reverb, FM Team

Project URL

Reverb in the App Store

Overview

Many Reverb app users never create an account or log in, limiting the adoption of platform features that we build for them to enjoy. I led a project to redesign the Welcome Carousel and rethink when and how it appears with the goal of increasing MAUs and engagement.

We prioritized social sign-in for ease of use and security and streamlined the email form into a toggleable webview. I refreshed the creative and messaging, partnered with copywriting and brand design to define new value props, and aligned the experience with our design system alongside my iOS engineering partner.

We also surfaced the carousel more proactively across key user paths, nudging sign-ins more frequently and continuing to support users with empty states. The result: increased account creation, improved engagement, and a cross-platform foundation that sets the stage for feature adoption.

The Goal

Increase account creation and returning-user logins by surfacing prompts earlier and simplifying the signup and log in experience, ultimately contributing to growth in Monthly Active Users (MAUs).

Exploration and Discovery

The current app experience presents several opportunities for improvement. Social sign-ins, which are trustworthy and easy, are underutilized, suggesting a need to prioritize these CTAs when users are most motivated. The carousel also suffers from an outdated brand presence: it fails to capture the energy of music creation and the overall look is inconsistent with existing channels.

Messaging currently emphasizes Reverb as a platform rather than highlighting app-specific benefits, with varied CTA messaging and supporting copy referencing features that are no longer available. Sign-up and log-in experiences differ, creating friction and maintenance challenges; there is an opportunity to streamline forms, simplify text, and unify both flows in a webview.

Finally, users often navigate multiple screens before encountering the Welcome Carousel, highlighting the opportunity to increase its visibility to reinforce account benefits and encourage account creation.

Process

1. Prioritize social sign-in

The team began by focusing on social sign-in as a primary area of experimentation, prioritizing it for both speed and security while intentionally deprioritizing email as a secondary option. To reinforce this shift, we changed the hierarchy of the button groupings and reformatted the social options as buttons using clear “Continue with” action language. We also expanded coverage by adding a Google sign-in option, which had previously been unavailable on iOS.

2. Improve email sign-in, brand updates

After seeing an increase in account creations, we shifted focus to improving the email sign-in experience alongside brand updates, starting with cosmetic changes aimed at strengthening brand trust and creating a more cohesive connection across platforms. I collaborated with the brand and copywriting teams to identify four core value propositions, pair them with supporting imagery, and pull through elements of the brand design system, “The Curve.” The updated messaging emphasized trust and affordability, introduced the Favorites feature as a next-best action, and allowed us to remove outdated copy and references to features no longer available.

We also hypothesized that a video carousel would be more engaging, leaving users with positive brand sentiment and excitement to continue.

Finally, work completed for the web sign-up and log-in experience cascaded into the in-app webview, which was preferred over the native form for maintenance and security reasons. Because the form can toggle between sign-up and log-in, we were able to condense the email CTA to a single line.

3. Increase visibility

Once the carousel content was heading in the right direction, we turned to a new problem: users touched many screens in the app before ever being prompted to log in or sign up. We believed that increasing the visibility of the sign-in prompt would drive more account creations and logged-in users.

With this hypothesis, my product manager and I identified three paths where we could prompt users with the carousel, increasing both app sign-ins and MAUs. Although these paths were accessible to logged out users, they offered little value without an account, so surfacing the carousel was ultimately to the user’s benefit. When dismissed, it still allowed us to display an engaging empty state with a call to action.

Through many discussions, the team ultimately opted to surface the carousel more proactively rather than restrict access to parts of the app. Using this method, we could nudge sign-ins more frequently, with little friction, and continue optimizing our empty states.

Final Designs