Elevating Lumen Technology’s Forms submission – From a dated printable page to a modern Digital Wizard flow.
One of the products Lumen Technology offers to its users is the service of buying and porting Telephone Numbers. I was in charge of the Digital Voice Product, and while designing the Phone Numbers Porting flow, I realized that we were still using printable forms to ask users for important information. The flow of orders already had four main steps, which are: Add Location, Set the Order Type, Add Numbers, Add Letter Of Agency only for ported phone numbers) and Directory Listing Options. The request was to allow users to download the printable form and upload the filled copy when ready. After researching internally, I found that this flow delayed the ordering process mainly because of mistakes in the form and the back-and-forth with clients while solving those issues.
After discovering those issues, I decided to launch a process to elevate the experience:
A wizard is a step-by-step process that allows users to input information in a prescribed order, in which subsequent steps may depend on information entered in previous ones.
Nielsen Norman Group
Forms can be annoying! Especially when communicating crucial information within a flow. If users make any mistake, the form is returned, and the order is canceled or put on hold, causing the user to re-do the whole flow again. Because our primary purpose is to nurture user satisfaction and fulfill orders, solving this was a must!
A dated mentality usually leads to dated experiences. UX helps create usable experiences and helps organizations understand that we must ‘listen more’ to our users, research trendy possible solutions, and elevate the overall digital platform.
Forms usually provide Organizations with important information; when poorly implemented, user dissatisfaction elevates, disrupting submitting orders. As a result, the Organization loses users, hurting its KPI.
Some businesses had to undergo losses of thousands or even millions because of legal issues while filling out mistaken legal forms, such as Letters of Agency. We should care!
Each organization has unique needs and ways to communicate with its users; each experience should be studied rigorously to satisfy user expectations.
Before moving pixels, I wanted to learn more about user pain points. I connected with the Product and Research teams to connect the dots and inform my design.
For this study, we defined one primary persona:
I wanted to focus on UX learnings, prioritizing user expectations and the overall functionality more than the Aesthetics. I made sure to eliminate all the issues mentioned while designing the experience. Help and chat options are always in the design; if users get blocked, assistance is always there.
