
Project overview
Brief
WALDO is a startup company based in London, England. They specialize in subscription-based contact lenses and other eye care products such as eye drops and blue light glasses. WALDO has started to expand into the US market and wants insight into why their customers cancel their subscriptions and to address those issues to improve the customer experience. My role as UX Writer on this project was to empathize with the customers and design cancellation options that reflected customers' frustrations succinctly.
Project
I used user-centered design thinking to design a cancellation survey list that best reflected customers' reasons for canceling a contact lens subscription. I also collaborated closely with my team to ensure different perspectives were heard and business goals were considered.
Problem
Our cancellation survey is outdated, and the reasons lack clarity, which frustrates users. Without a clear understanding of why our users are canceling, we cannot address the issues that users are experiencing.
Solution
Revamp our cancellation survey to provide clarity for users, allowing them to feel heard while gathering optimized data to address issues that users are experiencing.
Understanding the user
Original design
Firstly, I assessed the current cancellation survey options. Many lacked clarity and had clunky-looking slashes that gave the options a technical feel instead of the empathetic, human touch that can help ease users who might already feel frustrated. I noted this and decided to do some user testing to see users' thoughts firsthand.

User testing
All interviewees were representative of WALDO's customer base and only included contact lens wearers and online subscribers of a product or service. I started the interviews by collecting the pain points of the users in regard to online subscriptions and wearing contact lenses. Then, I asked for feedback on WALDO's current cancelation reason list.


Pain points




Starting the design
Analyzing the pain points
I analyzed this feedback and reviewed it with the UX Designer. Since one of the pain points included wanting to expand on the 'other' option, I connected with the Data Lead and Lead Developer to gain insight on the feasibility of adding a free text box. Both agreed that it would be a good addition to the flow, but it would have to be a separate project after the initial copy changes. Setting that pain point aside, I began addressing the other pain points and adding clarity to the options overall..
Optimizing the options
Referencing the user feedback, I optimized the survey options and reviewed them with the UX Designer. Once we were both pleased with the new options, I set up another round of user testing.

Testing the design
User testing
Once again, all interviewees were representative of WALDO's customer base and only included contact lens wearers and online subscribers of a product or service. I asked each interviewee for feedback on the optimized cancelation survey options.


Pain points


Refining the design
Analyzing the pain points
I analyzed this feedback and changed 'Prefer monthlies or weeklies' to 'Do not want daily lenses' to prevent confusion. For the pain point regarding the survey list being too long, I expressed my concerns to the UX Designer and Data Lead. If users found the survey list too long, it might provoke inaccurate responses due to users not wanting to spend time finding the best option. I offered the solution of combining similar options into one to shorten the list, but ultimately we decided to keep the detailed, longer list to gain more insights about customers' cancellation reasons to discover how we could provide those customers with a better experience.
CX data comparison
After finalizing the list length, I collaborated with the CX Lead to ensure the survey options aligned with the CX data reports from customers who canceled via phone. All of the survey options lined up perfectly with the CX data, apart from two missing options: 'Moved out of delivery region' and 'Lenses out of stock'. The CX Lead also suggested adding a follow-up question section of the cancellation survey flow to gain more specific reasonings from customers, but after speaking with the Lead Developer, we agreed to add this to a future project alongside the 'Other' input box.
Refined design
After adding the two additional options from the CX data reports, I presented the new survey list options to the UX Designer, Data Lead, and CX Lead. Everyone was pleased with the newly optimized options, and we set in motion implementing the changes to the cancellation flow.

Finalizing the design
Before vs. after


Next steps
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Begin putting together a project plan for a secondary project which will include an 'Other' input box and follow-up questions after the main cancellation question
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Record the survey data to gain insights and see if any additional changes are needed
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Review the data to see how we can improve the user experience with WALDO
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Add win-back text within the cancellation flow for appropriate options
Conclusion
Takeaways
Canceling a subscription is often a frustrating experience, and this project gave me the challenge of creating a great customer experience within that. By using data-driven design, user's frustrations served as the driving force for improving the customer experience. Proving that negative feedback and the loss of a customer can be a catalyst for change and the key to a new and improved user experience.
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What I Learned:
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Being able to compromise and consider different perspectives is of the utmost importance to ensure productive and effective teamwork.
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Sometimes what is best for the user cannot be accomplished right away. However, working with your team and putting a clear plan in place is the best way of working towards those goals.
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