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.

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Increasing E-Bill Adoption
through effective UX
research and design
Joseph Dickerson

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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?

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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

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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

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Design documentation
 Used PowerPoint to present and test design concepts
 Used Visio to document user flows

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Examples of Screen
Designs/Mockups

7. +
Examples of Screen
Designs/Mockups

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Did the changes work?
YES.

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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

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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

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Questions?