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Intuit |  QuickBooks Self-Employed

TAGS

The problem

Research and feature requests (inbound support tickets) showed that QuickBooks Self-Employed users wanted a way to gain insights into their business beyond profitability. Users wanted a way to see more varied aspects of their business without having to deal with clumsy exports and manual data manipulation and the ability to customize views to see the information that's most important to them.

To satisfy user requests, the design team created customizable "tags" to apply to transactions, which can then be placed within a "group". These markers allow users to view, sort, and organize transactions and generate reports to see, at-a-glance, what's going on with their business.

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I joined the team post-MVP and used the respective findings to update content for the first-time user flow and other pieces that completed and connected the experience.

The challenges

  • How do we quickly explain tags and their benefits?

  • How do we show users how to use tags and groups?

  • Where should we surface the product to make it more discoverable to help increase conversion rates?

  • How do we let users know we heard their requests and feedback?

  • Can we make it fun?

Research and project onboarding

I joined the team post-MVP. The data was collected, research was done, and initial design decisions were made. I sat in on user interviews for future iterations of tags, but to get started on the first-time user flow, I relied on documentation that included videos, data, and synthesized research to gain user empathy and better understand the problems that needed content solutions.

Process & Solution

Project overview

Access points

Dashboard discovery card

A key learning from the tags MVP was the need for increased discoverability on the user's dashboard. Most users weren't finding tags through the discovery card, but by stumbling upon it while browsing, the customer sandbox, or via email sent to users that participated in a dry test and opted-in to get notifications for when the MVP  launched.

To make tags more discoverable, the team thought a tweak of the content on the discovery card could help. With research showing customization as a priority, I led with the benefit of customization. 

Before

The promise of "insights into your business" seemed too vague since many QuickBooks features make the same promise. The challenges were to differentiate tags from other products and to express the benefits of tags in just a few words. 

After

For the final content, I anchored on the initial research that showed users wanted customization and the ability to"see things how they make sense to me". I wanted to convey a sense of empowerment and for users to feel that they have control.

Discovery card targeted to returning users

Tags needed to be surfaced to MVP users as a fully finished product. Also, we wanted to let users know that we'd listened to and applied their feedback.

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To get this done, I worked with the team's visual designer and design technologist to create an animated discovery card for the user dashboard. We wanted the overall feeling to be light, and celebratory, and the overall content emphasis on "we heard you". The CTA anchored on creating groups, which many of the new tools within tags would require as a first step.

Returning user settings

Tags needed a permanent home in settings. The logic of the existing menu was tricky and a bit hard to understand, so recommending placement was difficult. The layout was set to be revamped, but in the meantime, the tags navigation label needed to be surfaced.

The placement wasn't up to me, but if it were, the menu would have a hierarchy that more clearly defined features vs. capabilities. The navigation label would be placed within the capabilities alphabetically by the product name.

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I began with a verb to on the navigation label to let users know what will happen after the command is selected. Also, I believed that this would be the pattern going forward. 

The "NEW" tag was added to bring attention to the feature being added to the menu. I had concerns that this may be borderline marketing, but it was clearly outlined in the voice and tone guidelines as an acceptable practice.

First-time user Access point and Tags set up

First-time user settings

Using the same logic I used for returning users, I created an access point for first-time users who are seeing tags for the first time.

First-time user set up flow

Feedback from the MVP showed that users didn't understand how tags could help them beyond a quick visual update of their business. With the added functionality of grouping transactions, this screen needed to clarify and explain the benefits that tags offer, and how to get that done.

Before

On the first screen of the setup, I wanted users to feel that tags are empowering. The profile of a QuickBooks Self-Employed user typically doesn't see themselves as a business person, but as someone that has to "take care of business". These users don't often take the time or have the confidence to analyze their business. My intent was to help make users feel that they have the information, the tools, and the smarts to dig a little deeper without feeling intimidated.

After

Selecting groups

Before

I reformulated the header on this screen to be a statement rather than a question to decrease cognitive load, and to create a parallel structure throughout the experience. I used "select" instead of "choose" or "pick" in the header, as users would be physically engaging with the UI. "Pick" was used in the subhead since it's the secondary user decision and wasn't related to the UI. 

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To reassure users and give them confidence about selecting, I added assuring language to let them know that they can make changes later. When this content was written we weren't sure where within the experience the changes could be made. In future iterations, I'd let the user know where to change their selections "You can always change them later in settings".

After

Groups

Future versions of tags would have customizable groups, but for this iteration, I worked with the team's product manager to create a finite set of groups (categories) that users could select. The groups were derived from evaluating data pulled from the MVP and QuickBooks Self-Employed. We looked at the top ten industries of users and created groups based on the type of information that would be important for them to track.  
 

I wrote definitions of the groups for the UI to help users choose their groups. I considered various ways to define each group with an eye on ensuring the delivery of just the right amount of information at this point of the flow.  
 

  • Should we use simple definitions?

  • Does each group need an example of how it can be used?

  • Do we even need groups to be defined?
     

My instinct was that expressing examples for each group here would be too much information, and that showing the benefit for each group would become redundant (I took this to my team's peer review, and the other writers agreed). In the end, we used less of a definition, but more of a "how is this relevant at that moment in the flow." I used the second person, "you" to make users consider themselves and their business within the flow.

Setting up tags

The header content used on the setup page of the MVP attempted a lot heavy lifting, but we learned from users that it wasn't enough to explain the concepts users need to grasp for how tags work, and how it could help them. Initially, we tried some concepts using dynamic content to personalize the selection, but in the end, we didn't have the development resources to get that done. 

Before

Instead, we decided to use contextual fly-out help. To balance the information from the fly-outs, I simplified the header and used "start creating" with the intent to ground users in their desire to see customized views of their finances. And again reassuring that anything that they chose now isn't permanent, inferring that users can play around with the tool without any effect on their account.

After

Help personas

To create the personas for the help fly-outs, I used the same data we used to create groups, focusing on the top industries of QuickBooks Self-Employed users. Based on the top industries, I created fictional businesses and events to illustrate how those particular businesses could use tags and groups. Also shown is the error a user receives if they try to create a tag that already exists.

Set up confirmation

Working with the team's visual designer, we felt that at the end of the set up, we didn't need to continue to "sell" the product, and wanted to refocus the message on the success of the customer.

Before

We decided to simplify this message and remove the illustration that was used on the MPV.  I used this opportunity to flex the QuickBooks voice and tone (delight when it's right) by injecting some levity and celebration at the end of the flow.

After

Transactions screen tooltip

To finalize the first-time user experience, I created a tooltip bringing the user's attention to the new feature. I simplified the copy to be quickly scannable to explain what users can do in the tags field.

Before
After

results

We learned that once users created rules (grouping tags), the conversion rate (defined as users that assigned tags to transactions) went from 4% to 7.5%, which was attributed to the addition of in-context examples of how tags can be used. 

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The team that created this experience moved on to other areas of the business soon after the product launch and it wasn't picked up again until after I left Intuit.  I would have been curious to know how users discovered the FTU experience; through discovery cards or settings. What was the conversation rate from each of those access points? What percentage of users created grouped tags vs. left ungrouped?

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