Our form already works. We’re improving it anyway
At Movem, we’ve been spending time improving the experience people have using our existing applicant form.
And I’m not talking about adding new features.
We’ve been focused on researching and improving something that already works.
But if it ain’t broke…
The humble applicant form is how our users interact with Movem. Without it, no matter how good our algorithms are, we’d cease to exist—it’s our core product—just like Monzo’s banking app or Slack’s chat interface.
Sometimes, even in a more design-led world than ever before, companies still forget this. Most companies don’t have an army of user experience researchers, and I’ve witnessed first-hand how challenging it can be to get time allocated for improving the UX of something that already works.
The value companies see in design and UX continues to grow, but stakeholders still struggle to see the potential profit when the benefits aren’t as clear cut as the shiny, new features that clients are ready and willing to stump up for. The monetary value of UX is much harder to precisely predict or track.
If you aren’t Google or Airbnb, it takes guts and vision to allocate time for researching and refining the experience of a product that already ‘works’.
Usability changes at its heart
The team has dedicated this time to focusing on improving the usability and accessibility of the applicant form.
We watched hundreds of session recordings and conducted user interviews, enabling us to identify where change was needed.
We’ve added a step-by-step guide and bank log in advice; we’ve simplified existing page layouts and re-written explanatory copy; and we’ve changed button labels and page headings. Almost every page has been updated—whether it be an entirely new page or a minor copy tweak.
And the results are in
We’ve been deploying the improvements in batches over the past month and we’re already starting to see the benefits.
Applicants are completing the form faster and customer support queries are down. In turn, this means our customers will spend less time on supporting their applicants, and they’ll receive completed references even faster.
Seeing people glide past an improved component or layout that previously took people ages to navigate is hugely rewarding and satisfying.
Our last batch of changes were deployed this week, and we’re eagerly awaiting to see how they affect people’s form experience.
We’re not stopping there! We’re already in the design phase of some hugely exciting work that is going to take our current form UX to the next level. Watch this space for more news.
To learn more about our mission at Movem, visit movem.co.uk
