I have drafted the following workflow for a web application and would like to hear opinions about it.
THE APPLICATION:
The application allows users to submit a work order where a number of inputs is required by the user.
It is an application in the legaltech area but it is a B2C application.
THE WORKFLOW
- Provide basic data about your problem (basically questions which can be answered with yes or no)
- Enter your first name, last name and email address. Accept data protection policy.
- Account creation and auto-login.
- Add further personal data: address, birth date and phone number
- Provide detailed data about the problem
- Upload required documents
- Accept terms and conditions, submit request to process the order
The user receives an email confirmation about the submitted order.
This email and all subsequent emails with information about the current status contain a link to the personal member area.
During the initial problem submission a user account for the member area is automatically created. The email address is set as username.
LOGIN
On the first attempt to access the personal member area the user is shown a page saying: "An activation link has been sent via email. Please check your inbox."
This personalized email only contains a button saying “Activate your member account.” which gets the user to the “Set password page”.
After setting the password, the user is logged in to the personal member area and can subsequently login using email address and the set password.
A password forgotten link is available in the login form. Should a user attempt to reset the password although the account has not been activated, then the “activation process” (see above) kicks in.
THOUGHT PROCESS
We have observed on another application that the conversion rate is lower on mobile/tablet devices than on desktop. In this other application the user is required to provide all data and upload documents before being able to submit the work order.
Therefore the new flow splits the order creation in 2 parts:
- a short part with only basic input required which can easily be completed on a mobile / tablet devices
- a second part with all the remaining data, document upload and final order submission
Once the user has completed the first part of the process we are allowed to send reminder emails and also the user would always be linked back into the last edited page in the second part of the process.
QUESTIONS
- What do you think about automatically creating a login without letting the user set the password initially?
- What level of transparency do you think is required at the end of part one of the process so that the user understands what happened?
- Which other pitfalls would you see in such a workflow?