# Trial first-run redesign with progress bar: +105% activation

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Onboarding (SaaS)
- Elements: Onboarding flow, Progress bar
- Test run by: [AURUM](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/aurum/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://wingify.com/success-stories/aurum/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/aurum-astrea-first-experience-redesign/

Redesigning the first screens of a free trial, with less decoration and a visible progress bar, more than doubled activation (+105%, or 7 percentage points). AURUM ran this A/B test on Astrea, its legal practice software, and it was published as a VWO case study. The team changed several things at once, so the lift belongs to the redesign as a whole.

## Result

**+105% activation**

- Activation rate during the 10-day trial: +105%, a gain of 7 percentage points.
- Activation meant doing a meaningful action, such as adding a task, adding a fee or processing a clipping.
- Several changes shipped together, so no single change can be credited.

## Control

The trial's first-run screens were dominated by large illustrations, with no clear sequence of steps. Registering with the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) appeared as a bare mandatory step.

## Variant

The large illustrations were removed so the setup action stood out, and a progress bar showed every step, the current one and those already done. Setup became one continuous flow, and the OAB step explained how it helps users get more from Astrea.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Removing big illustrations put the one action that mattered in front of users.
- A progress bar shows how much is left, which makes people more likely to finish.
- Explaining why a mandatory step helps them turns a chore into a reason to continue.
- Treating setup as one flow kept momentum instead of stopping at isolated screens.

## Caveats

A bundled redesign of the whole first experience, so the lift can't be tied to one element. No sample size, duration or confidence level was shared.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we strip decoration from our trial setup screens, add a progress bar and explain why each required step helps, then more trial users will activate because the path to value is clear.
- Primary metric: Trial activation rate (share of trial users completing a key value action)
- Guardrail: Setup completion rate
- Guardrail: Trial-to-paid conversion
- Guardrail: Support tickets during onboarding
- Who should test it: SaaS products with a free trial and a multi-step setup before users see value. It matters less if users reach value in one step or the setup is already short and clear.

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Credit: AURUM ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/aurum-astrea-first-experience-redesign/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.