From Drop-Off to Completion

My Roles:

• UI/UX Designer

• Product Designer

• Interaction Designer

Improving TurboTax Completion Rate with Adaptive Navigation

Duration

• 3 Weeks

Methods:

• Field Research

• Desk Research

• User Interview

• Contextual Inquiry

• User Persona

• Competitor Analysis

• Impact-Effect Matrix

Personal Project

Introduction

Picking Up Where You Left Off in TurboTax Feels Harder Than It Should.

Ever left TurboTax mid-way and returned unsure where you left off; forced to backtrack through several pages or click around in confusion to find a section? This case study tackles those pain points to create a smoother, more intuitive experience.

Where Are Users Getting Stuck?

To validate and explore this pain point further, I conducted 5 contextual inquiries and user interviews, as well as a heuristic evaluation, to uncover specific breakdowns in the experience.

• Smarter, More Intuitive Left Panel
  

• Adaptive Navigation
  

• Quick Access to Sections
  

• Context-Aware Tax Home
  

• Resume Seamlessly

User reviews revealed a recurring frustration with navigating out of prompts.

Insights from User Interviews:

Validated: Adaptive navigation helps users stay oriented.

Discovered: Users want a quick “Jump to Section” feature.

Unvalidated: Too many detailed sections confused users.

My Assumptions vs. Reality

Persona:

John & Jane Doe ,

Returning User Resuming Tax Filing

Competitive Analytics

Transforming User Pain Points into Design Solutions

Focusing on What Truly Matters to Users

Design Process

• A dynamic Tax Home that adapts to each filer’s situation, showing only what’s relevant. Users can quickly find key sections without being overwhelmed. A “Continue where I left off” button takes users back to their exact spot, easing return visits.

Turning solutions into UI

• An adaptive left panel featuring a "jump to" function, enabling users to quickly navigate to the sections they need. This panel dynamically updates based on user input, simplifying navigation out of prompts and highlighting the most relevant parts of their return.

I conducted five rounds of usability testing to ensure the experience felt intuitive and clear.

Validating with users

Test

Success Metrics

Success metrics were derived from my limited but representative usability test.

• 30% faster task completion

• Increase in user confidence

• Reduction in hesitation on return visits

• Positive qualitative feedback

• Improved overall usability

Did these features help users?

Final words...

This project revealed how adaptive, context-aware navigation can transform a complex process into a more intuitive and confident user experience. Small design changes, like dynamic panels and clear resume options, significantly reduce friction and help users stay oriented, especially when returning after breaks. It reinforced the importance of empathy and continuous testing in creating meaningful, user-centered solutions.