Customer Onboarding Improvements
The Firms's digital onboarding flow was losing 60% of prospective customers at a single point in the process: a series of Terms and Disclosures agreements near the end of sign-up. At a moment when users were closest to becoming customers, the experience was effectively turning them away.
Case Study Summary
The Problem
A digital customer onboarding flow was seeing a 60% drop off in form completion, due to user frustration with an accordion menu.
The Solution
The form was reconfigured to remove a checkbox at a crucial step that users were missing, and the "Continue" action was made to be first person verbs, "I Accept" and "I Certify"
The Outcome
Following the redesign, form abandonment at this stage dropped from 60% to 14%, a 77% reduction. Onboarding completion increased substantially.
Before image, losing 60% of users.
After image, losing less than 15%
Detection
Using Quantum Metrics, we were able to observe user behavior in granular detail. Rage clicks, hesitation patterns, and abandonment events all pointed to the same location in the flow. The data made the problem undeniable: this wasn't a drop-off trend, it was a wall.
Diagnosis
Deeper analysis revealed two compounding interaction failures. First, within an accordion-style Terms and Disclosures component, a required checkbox was visually buried. Because the accordion pattern allowed users to scroll past collapsed sections, a significant portion were never registering the checkbox. Without it checked, the Submit button remained inactive with no clear explanation why.
Second, the button labels themselves were working against comprehension. Generic continue actions like "Next" and "Continue" gave users no sense of what they were actually agreeing to at each step. Users were clicking through a legally significant process without any real sense of participation or understanding.
The result was a silent failure state with no path forward, particularly acute on mobile where the accordion pattern collapsed content aggressively and inactive buttons offered no feedback about what was missing.
The Solution
The redesign addressed both failures. The required checkbox was surfaced clearly within the flow rather than passively nested inside a collapsible element, ensuring users couldn't miss the action required to proceed.
Equally important, button labels were rewritten in first-person verb language. Instead of "Continue," users now saw labels like "I Accept" and "I Acknowledge" at each step. This small change reframed the entire experience: rather than passively clicking through a form, users were making conscious, understood commitments at each stage. The language honored the significance of what they were agreeing to while making each step feel clear and intentional.
The Outcome
Following the redesign, form abandonment at this stage dropped from 60% to 14%, a 77% reduction. Onboarding completion increased substantially, with a measurable impact on the bank's ability to convert prospective customers.
Reflection
This project reinforced that the most impactful UX problems aren't always the most complex ones. The issue wasn't confusing content or a flawed information architecture. It was a combination of a hidden interaction pattern and language that failed to communicate meaning at a critical moment. Behavioral analytics tools like Quantum Metrics were essential in making an invisible problem visible, and in building the internal case for prioritizing the fix. It was also a reminder that microcopy carries real weight: the words on a button can be the difference between a user who feels lost and one who feels confident.