Background

SmartAsset, the largest marketplace connecting consumers with financial advisors nationwide, designed its matching experience around three key stages: pre-match, match, and post-match. However, the pre-match stage, which relied on advertorials and marketing campaigns, experienced significant and consistent consumer drop-off, signaling a critical need for improvement.

Goal: Increase conversion rate (CVR) by enhancing the UX/UI of the marketing advertorials

Research & Design Process

A feedback loop was established to identify any pain points and product opportunity areas throughout all three stages of the consumer experience:

• CSAT Surveys: Assessed user satisfaction across key journey stages.

• Expert UX/UI Reviews: Highlighted design inconsistencies and technical flaws.

• Analytics Deep Dive: Uncovered a high proportion of mobile users and low levels of engagement in pre-match stage.

Key Findings

The UX/UI review validated the below findings and identified additional areas of potential improvement (see annotations):

• Inconsistent Branding: Users perceived a disconnect between the pre-match and match phases.

• Misaligned Expectations: Consumers were unclear about next steps, often expecting a "score" at the end of the questionnaire.

• Suboptimal Mobile Experience: Analytics revealed that most users accessed the funnel via mobile, yet the pre-match phase was not optimized for small screens.