Case Studies
FINTECH • CONSUMER MOBILE APP
The Problem
A fintech startup was receiving repeated support tickets involving the same workflow within the app. The investigation focused on reviewing that workflow from the user's perspective to identify the source of confusion.
The Audit
The audit identified a copy error in the app. The copy described a process that differed from how the product actually worked. Both the user and the company were reporting accurate things based on what they could see from their perspectives, but they were seeing two different things, which led to confusion for everyone.
The Outcome
The engineering team used the audit results to change the copy in the app to accurately inform users of what to expect. The repeated support tickets disappeared.
FINTECH • CONSUMER MOBILE APP
The Problem
A fintech company was receiving significant support volume and negative reviews caused by unreliable bank connections. This prompted an audit of the bank connection workflow. The goal was to replicate the errors users were encountering and provide screenshots so the engineering team could see the errors from the user’s perspective.
The Audit
The audit followed the user’s journey through the bank connection process, highlighting errors including:
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Bank connections being marked as successful despite transactions being months out of date or account balances being incorrect
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Attempted bank connections that remained in a perpetual loading state
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Sign-in failures involving Plaid or Yodlee that looked the same from the user’s perspective, but had different technical causes
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Bank connections failing due to bank-issued MFA codes not being sent
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Connection failures with smaller banks and credit unions
The Outcome
Identified bugs were turned into prioritized tickets for the engineering team to address. Errors that interfered with the user’s ability to use the app for its intended purpose were highest priority, and minor sources of friction were assigned lower priority.
FINTECH • CONSUMER MOBILE APP
The Problem
A financial services platform was receiving complaints about how it handled reports of fraudulent transactions. This prompted an audit of the customer experience during fraud investigations.
The Audit
The audit walked through the customer experience during a fraud investigation and identified three major gaps in the fraud response process:
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The support team did not have a consistent response to customers who reported fraudulent transactions. The customer's experience changed depending on which support agent they talked to, and some responses were contradictory.
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Some support agents failed to immediately freeze the customer's account and trigger an investigation when a fraudulent transaction was reported.
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The customer was unable to get updates on their case. They were passed around between support agents with no clear next steps or resolution timeline.
This experience was frustrating for customers as they had little to no transparent communication from the company regarding the status of their case.
The Outcome
It was recommended that the support team:
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Ensure the customer's account is frozen and a fraud investigation begins as soon as fraudulent activity is suspected.
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Work with the compliance team to confirm that fraud investigation procedures meet applicable regulatory requirements.
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Establish a clear workflow for handling fraud investigations.
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Create and consistently follow a centralized playbook for supporting customers during fraud investigations.
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Provide an approximate resolution timeline upfront.
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Regularly update customers on the status of their case before they have to ask.
FEMTECH • CONSUMER MOBILE APP
The Problem
A software engineer was looking for feedback on their app. They were concerned that the onboarding and product workflows were too confusing and asked for a review focused on identifying onboarding friction, factors that may encourage continued use, and potential reasons for abandonment.
The Audit
The audit found seventeen points of friction during onboarding and eleven in product workflows, most notably confusion during account creation, navigation bugs, getting stuck in long loops, and copy that used incorrect biological terminology.
The audit also identified aspects of the app that worked well and should be retained. This included points in the workflow where the user did not have to think about what to do next and could proceed intuitively.
The Outcome
They used the feedback to improve the onboarding and core product workflows, make account creation easier, fix several bugs, and revise the copy to use biologically accurate terminology.
TRAVEL INDUSTRY • CONSUMER MOBILE APP & WEBSITE
The Problem
A software engineer requested an audit for a recently launched app and website. They were having difficulty acquiring users and wanted to rule out UX issues as a potential factor.
The Audit
The audit covered onboarding, copy, error and recovery paths, account management, support, core product workflows, and offboarding. It identified eight points of friction, including getting trapped in certain states with no clear recovery path, missing error messages when attempting actions that could not be completed, delayed error messages, unclear copy, and dead links.
The Outcome
They used the feedback to improve copy during onboarding and offboarding, remove an unnecessary onboarding step that was causing confusion, and improve a core product workflow that previously had confusing error messages.