From 60% Abandonment to 50% Engagement

70%

Reduction in daily emails

65%

Reduction in support tickets

40%

Reduction in drop off rate

COMPANY

WP Engine

TEAM

UX Researcher

Product Manager

Engineering Team

ROLE

Lead Product Designer

TOOLS

Figma, Miro

Pendo

Jira

TIMELINE

8 weeks

The Problem

WP Engine's notification settings were driving customers away. Built by engineers without UX input, the interface was a confusing maze of technical jargon and unclear options that left users frustrated and overwhelmed.

  • 20% of customers were receiving thousands of emails daily

  • One of our largest accounts was risking cancellation if we didn't fix the notifications ASAP

  • Support was fielding 30-50 notification-related tickets per week (spiking to 100 after system updates)

  • Users were either ignoring and/or missing critical alerts or considering canceling their accounts

The Stakes Were High

What Users Were Telling Us

“I’m getting hundreds of emails a day!”

“If I get one more email about something I don’t care about, I’m seriously going to turn everything off or cancel my account.”

“What do all these options mean?“

Research & Discovery

To understand the full scope of the problem, I conducted comprehensive research using multiple methods:

User Interviews

Customer conversations revealed deep frustration with the notification experience. Key themes included:

  • Inability to find or understand settings

  • Email overwhelm leading to ignoring all notifications

  • Confusion about technical terminology

  • Desire for granular control over notification frequency

Pendo Analytics Analysi

Support Ticket Analysis

Our support team confirmed this was a critical business problem:

  • 30-50 tickets per week specifically about notification frustrations

  • 75-100 tickets per week during peak periods (post-updates)

  • Common complaints: email overload, confusing settings, unclear labels, threats to cancel

  • Made this one of our top 3 support issues month over month

Design Strategy

Reduce Cognitive Load

Simplify the overwhelming interface through better information architecture and visual hierarchy.

Provide Granular Control

Give users the customization power they need without overwhelming them with options.

Design Process

Key concepts we explored:

  • Categorization by Features/Products → Group related notifications together

  • Categorization by Severity → Help users prioritize what matters most

  • Frequency Controls → Let users choose immediate vs. digest delivery

  • Clear Visual Hierarchy → Use typography, icons, and spacing strategically

Iterative Design & Feedback

Moving from sketches to wireframes, I presented progress at:

  • Weekly design pod workshops (5 designers + design manager)

  • Bi-weekly design critiques (all 16 designers + creative director)

Most valuable feedback received:

  • "Have you considered progressive disclosure? This still feels like a lot of options at once"

  • "What if we made the severity levels more scannable with better visual hierarchy?"

  • "This is much cleaner, but are we sure users understand what 'Critical' means in our context?"

Prioritization Framework

When balancing competing feedback, I prioritized based on:

  • User Impact → Solutions addressing pain points from research

  • Business Goals → Features that improved retention and reduced support load

The Solution

Before

After

Information Architecture

  • Grouped by product areas (Atlas, eCommerce, System)

  • Clear severity hierarchy with color-coded icons

  • Eliminated technical jargon for user-friendly language

Key Design Decisions

Interaction Design

  • Two-level choice architecture

  • Consistent patterns across all sections

  • Bulk controls with checkboxes

  • Smart defaults to reduce setup friction

Cognitive Load Solutions

  • Added explanatory sidebar

  • Progressive disclosure of options

  • Scannable visual hierarchy

  • Clear interactive affordances

Results & Impact

The redesign delivered significant improvements across all key metrics:

User Engagement Metrics

Business Impact

Qualitative Feedback

What I Learned

This project reinforced several key lessons that I carry into every design challenge:

Research Drives Design Decisions

The combination of user interviews, analytics, and support data provided a complete picture that guided every design choice. Without this foundation, I would have been designing based on assumptions.

Balancing Simplicity with Power

The biggest challenge was reducing cognitive load while maintaining granular control. This taught me the value of progressive disclosure and smart information architecture.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Working within a 16-person design team while owning a specific experience showed me how to leverage collective expertise while maintaining design ownership. Regular critiques and workshops elevated the final solution.

Business Impact Matters

Tying design improvements to concrete business metrics (support reduction, user engagement) helped secure stakeholder buy-in and proved the value of user-centered design.