A complete UX audit and design system rebuild that increased user retention by 58% and reduced support ticket volume by 43% for a project management SaaS platform.
The Challenge
DesignLab's platform had a 72% drop-off rate during onboarding, with new users unable to complete basic tasks without contacting support. The interface had accumulated inconsistencies from years of feature additions — 14 different button styles, 3 navigation patterns, and no consistent information hierarchy. Support tickets for 'how do I' questions consumed 60% of the support team's bandwidth. The churn rate had climbed to 11% monthly, threatening the viability of the business.
- 72% user drop-off during onboarding with most users abandoning within the first 15 minutes
- 14 different button styles, 3 navigation patterns, and inconsistent design language throughout
- 60% of support tickets were 'how do I' usability questions, not bugs or feature requests
- 11% monthly churn rate with exit surveys citing 'too complicated' as the #1 reason
- Task completion time for common actions was 3-4x longer than competitor benchmarks
Our Solution
Advenno executed a complete UX transformation including user research, journey mapping, information architecture restructuring, interaction design, visual design, and a comprehensive design system. The redesign focused on simplifying complex workflows, improving discoverability, and creating an intuitive onboarding experience that guides users to their first 'aha moment' in under 5 minutes.
- User research program with 40 user interviews, task analysis, and competitive UX benchmarking
- Complete information architecture restructuring based on card sorting and tree testing with users
- Guided onboarding flow achieving first 'aha moment' in under 5 minutes with progressive disclosure
- Comprehensive design system with 120+ components, design tokens, and accessibility standards (WCAG AA)
- Redesigned dashboard with customizable widgets and contextual help eliminating 'how do I' questions
Our Approach
UX Research & Audit
Conducted 40 user interviews, analyzed 2,000 support tickets for usability patterns, performed heuristic evaluation against Nielsen's principles, and benchmarked task completion times against 5 competitors.
Information Architecture Redesign
Ran card sorting sessions with 60 users to restructure the navigation, validated with tree testing, and designed a new IA that reduced navigation depth from 5 levels to 3 maximum.
Interaction & Visual Design
Created wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes for all key workflows, conducted 3 rounds of usability testing with 15 participants each, and iterated designs based on task completion metrics.
Design System Development
Built a comprehensive design system in Figma with 120+ reusable components, design tokens for theming, interaction patterns, and detailed documentation for developers.
Implementation & A/B Validation
Worked side-by-side with DesignLab's engineering team to implement the new designs, conducting A/B tests on each major section to validate improvements before full rollout.
The Results
User retention increased by 58% within 3 months of the redesign launch. Onboarding completion improved from 28% to 79%, and time-to-first-value dropped from 45 minutes to 4.5 minutes. Support tickets declined by 43%, with 'how do I' questions virtually eliminated. The design system accelerated new feature development by 35% as engineers used pre-built components instead of creating custom UI. Monthly churn dropped from 11% to 4.6%, and the NPS score improved from -12 to +47.
Technologies Used
We knew our UI was a problem, but we didn't realize how much it was costing us until Advenno showed us the data. The redesign didn't just make things prettier — it fundamentally changed how users experience our product. Our churn is down, our NPS is up, and our engineers ship features faster.