Through user research, a company found that their e-bill signup process was overly complicated and the term "e-bill" was confusing. Usability testing of proposed solutions led to a redesigned experience with simplified signup and messaging that focused on the value of bill delivery. The changes resulted in a 145% increase in e-bill activations in the first week and an average 30% lift sustained over time, showing the impact user experience design can have on adoption.
2. +
Case Study: E-bill
Business Need: Increase adoption
of e-bills
Several questions were considered:
What habits or workflows prevent e-bill
use?
Is the current process easy to
understand and use?
What are the obvious benefits of e-bills
we can convey to users?
How effectively are we communicating
the value of e-bills?
What are ways we can “convince”
customers to adopt e-bills?
3. +
User Research Results
We conducted research with users regarding our e-bill products
and messaging and quickly identified that:
• The current e-bill sign-up process was overly complicated
and was often abandoned
• The term “e-bill” was confusing to many
• Many thought all their bills were “e-bills” – “they were
paid electronically”
• Because online bill pay is a “quick” interaction, lengthy
messages were not effective
• The content areas in the UI that informed users that a
particular biller could send e-bills were not obvious and
were unseen by many bill pay customers
• Even e-bill “power users” did not “turn on” all available e-
bills
4. +
Usability Testing and Results
Several proposed solutions were tested with users
After rigorous analysis of the data from the tests, we
developed a design strategy:
• To reduce ambiguity the use of the “e-bill” term was curtailed in
the experience
• It was replaced with the explicit value proposition “get your
bill delivered here”
• The e-bill signup form was simplified and streamlined
• The redesign also allowed users the opportunity to “turn on”
bill delivery for more than one bill
• Bill “thumbnails” were added to promotional areas to help novice
users better understand the idea of e-bills at-a-glance
• Messaging and notifications related to e-bill trials were improved
9. +
Lift Above Baseline in
Daily E-Bill Activations
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
7/6 7/20 8/3 8/17 8/31 9/14 9/28 10/12 10/26 11/9 11/23 12/7 12/21
Week Beginning (2008)
Pre-FP1 Baseline
Weekly Avg
Weekly Avg Trend
XMAS
THXGVG
30% final avg lift
(Week 23)
FP1 Launch 7/27
145% lift in Week 1
·
The Impact on E-bill
Activations was
pronounced and
permanent
Consumer e-bill activations jumped by 145 percent
in the first week
The average e-bill activation rate stabilized at a 30
percent higher level
The volume of e-bill activation requests per
consumer jumped by 34 percent - more consumers
signed up for multiple e-bills.
E-bill activation requests per consumer stabilized
at a rate 10 percent higher than the previous level
10. +
What does all this tell us?
UX works… it’s a trigger for innovation and informs affective
product design
Always keep the user in mind
Research them, show them early design ideas
How you frame the offering is just as important as how users
signup for it
Question the design through testing and refine it based on user
feedback