Wealthfront — the UX review

Wealthfront is one of my favorite savings and investing apps. I’ve used Wealthfront since college, and they truly embody the “set it and forget it” mantra.

Aside from their technology, what makes Wealthfront shine is their thoughtful attention to the UX of their app. By being friendly, casual, and human, Wealthfront makes their sign up process conversational while limiting intimidation in an otherwise frightening experience.

These are high praises, and Wealthfront isn’t perfect. I’ll show you proof of Wealthfront’s excellence and areas to improve and how you can apply their tactics to your finance product.

Greetings matter.

We’re going to start on one of Wealthfront’s weaker points.

This is the first screen a user sees after downloading the app. There’s no onboarding carousel, just a single informational modal.

This intro screen is prime real estate Wealthfront is missing out on. Here’s why:

• Wealthfront lists features instead of outlining benefits
• The paragraphs are long and written in a font color that’s hard to read
• It’s written from the point of view of what the company wants to say, not what the user wants to hear

At this point, a user still isn’t sold on using Wealthfront. They probably were convinced enough by the app store screens to download the app, but they still need to be sold on why they should start creating an account.

The only point where Wealthfront succeeds on this screen is that they make it very easy to get started–you can’t miss the bright, purple button.

Nailing contextual cues.

The credentials set up screen is often neglected.

There’s a ready-made set of rules that most apps follow–list email, password, confirm password, and password requirements.

Wealthfront takes this screen to the next level.

First, I applaud them for outlining how a user’s email will be used. I don’t know how many times I’ve logged into an app I just signed up for, seen “username” in the login area, and not realized my email was my username. This friendly bit of context also gives the user confidence in knowing how their email will be used. It seems like this screen is limited on space, but I would also recommend adding if users will receive emails (and what kind of emails) by signing up.

Wealthfront continues down the path of great contextual cues with the password setup. To combat a tight space, they add the “Need tips?” hyperlink for users who might need more help forming a secure password. This is great because it saves space and only gives information to the users who need it while not overwhelming the users who have done this a million times.

Also, the shaking hands illustration next to the legal disclosure adds a nice touch of comfort to an otherwise intimidating bit of text. I assume they are required by legal to have an agreement in the CTA–Wealthfront lightens that well by adding “Sign me up.” Emphasis on “me”–if Wealthfront wrote, “I agree. Sign up” the CTA would feel much more formal and intimidating. “Me” adds a casual and conversational touch that can help keep a user on track.

Descriptive headers to combat questions.

Throughout Wealthfront’s sign up process, they interestingly use descriptive headers.

Usually, there’s some sort of pattern when it comes to headers, like starting each header with a verb or making each header a question. Wealthfront strays from that uniformity:

• “Let’s set up and secure your account before we talk finance” is a statement that speaks to the user as part of a conversation.
• “Verify your phone number for protection from hackers and bots” directs the user toward an action.
• “Your income helps us account for your financial growth, taxes, and even social security” is a descriptive statement with no action.

Uniformity is not a hard requirement, but these variations make the tone feel a bit inconsistent.

Where Wealthfront succeeds in these headers is by providing all the context you need succinctly in the header. The casual tone of “before we talk finance” makes Wealthfront feel human and approachable. Additionally, “protection from hackers and bots” so succinctly captures why a user needs to enter their phone number that it makes it feel like a no brainer.

Most finance apps (and apps in general) break up the header and explanation into a header and complementary body. I’m curious how this approach works for Wealthfront, as, while the headers are very descriptive, they offer more text to read than a simple header and description in the body.

One note for Wealthfront’s consideration: Is the name required a legal name or any name? As someone who goes by her middle name, I’m constantly unclear if my legal name is required.

Creating context to build confidence.

To break up their sign up flow, Wealthfront adds context screens throughout the journey.

While these screens look beautiful, there’s a lot of reading material to parse through. I don’t know about you, but, on the first screen, I stopped reading after the bolded “Forget stock picking.” That’s a solid line but, if that’s the only line I’m going to read realistically, Wealthfront is missing a key opportunity to sell me on moving forward. Additionally, the light-colored font doesn’t help readability.

This can easily be fixed by distributing the paragraphs into bullet points and darkening the font color.

On another note, Wealthfront breaks the tried-and-true CTA rule to always start a CTA with a verb. Additionally, as I’ve said before in previous posts, a user should be able to read your header and CTA and know precisely what to do and where he or she is going next. If I read “Building your plan” and “Let’s do it,” the screen’s intent and meaning is not crystal clear. As an alternative, I would suggest:

• Header: Next, let’s build your plan
• CTA: Continue

Because users aren’t building their plan on this screen specifically, “Build my plan” might be a confusing CTA.

Tying it together.

Wealthfront has UX that stands out and does many things well, but every app has room to improve.

To recap, here’s what you can take away from Wealthfront’s sign up process:

• First impressions matter–the first screen in your app should sell users on continuing
• Adding contextual cues to input fields offer users peace of mind and deter second thoughts
• Succinct, descriptive headers help users continue on their journey without questions
• Keep context screens motivating, concise, and readable

I’d love to learn what you think about Wealthfront’s sign up process–feel free to email your thoughts to slater@writingforfinance.com.

Originally published at https://writingforfinance.com on August 2, 2020.