Reducing client onboarding time by 50%.
The problem
Users were submitting inaccurate data, requiring us to manually follow up.
Our solution
Mitigate erroneous responses by making it easier for users to understand requirements and error-proofing the form.
Contents
parameters
Context
Dwolla offers an API that allows businesses to transact on the ACH network.
Deliverable
Interaction design prototype; copy.
My role
Sole product designer
Time frame
July to August 2021
process
Brief
These “chatlogs” are for illustrative purposes. They are summaries of actual conversations I had.
Discovery
"What else can we do to make the user’s experience easier?" I asked myself
Gathering requirements
Research with the stakeholders of this feature.
Distilling pain points
I assumed that users were submitting forms incorrectly because they didn’t understand what was being asked of them.
They didn't understand because:
The copy was dense and complex.
Access to the documentation wasn’t offered.
Both the business and client suffered inefficiencies from back-and-forth client interactions.
Goals
With these pain points in mind, I solved for goals:
The client wants to start transacting (finish onboarding).
The business wants to mitigate unnecessary client support interventions.
solutions
Solution 1
Make the UI error-proof
Eliminating incorrect submissions
Proposal 1: Progressive disclosure
Display additional questions depending on the response given (progressive disclosure). Only relevant questions are presented.
Proposal 2: Accurately represent allowed responses
option 1: Mix checkboxes and radio buttons
Pro: conforms to user expectation that only one radio button may be selected
Con: confusing interaction pattern
option 2: Self-correcting checkboxes
Pro: hidden error-prevention behavior
Con: violates user expectations for checkbox behavior
Solution 2
Reduce the cognitive load of answering complex questions
Making it easy
Proposal 1: Simplify content
Make copy easier to understand.
View static comparison. I converted in-line lists to unordered lists, introduced liberal paragraph breaks, and replaced URLs with hyperlinks.
Proposal 2: Provide (better) help
Create direct links to the relevant documentation. The previous state had only one link to the documentation index for the whole form.
Iterating
I discussed usability pros and cons with UX colleagues and engineers for different solutions to select the best one.
I also discussed with my cross-functional team to weigh engineering tradeoffs of different implementations.
I ensured compliance with info security and legal requirements, making specified changes.
Greenlight
results
Problem-solution fit
Eliminated most unnecessary client support interventions.
Reduced clients’ average time to go-live (onboarding + implementation) by 50% (110 days to 55 days).
The improvements I designed successfully solved the user and business problems.
With the opportunity to do it again…
I wish we had the resources to validate my assumptions first to ensure that I was solving the right problem.
I would have loved the opportunity to run usability tests on my progressive disclosure solution. It could be worth it in the future and learnings could have led to other solutions.
Reflections
This was my most impactful and successful project to date.
Through this project, I learned that I’m most interested in problem-solving—because even though the content of the project itself isn’t inherently fun, I enjoyed working on this project. ※