Inbox Redesign — Restoring Trust
Restoring trust in a broken inbox — how clear design reduced support tickets by 30% and increased message engagement by 12%.
Overview
“How Clear Design Reduced Support Tickets by 30%”
Company: WP Engine | Role: Lead Product Designer | Team: UX Researcher, Product Manager, Engineering Team | Tools: Figma, Miro, Pendo, Jira | Timeline: 4 weeks
Key Results
- 30% reduction in support tickets
- 18% drop in bounce rates
- 12% increase in message engagement
The Problem
WP Engine’s notification inbox was supposed to be the central hub for critical communications, but users were actively avoiding it because confusing features and unpredictable behavior made them lose trust in the system.
Why Users Were Avoiding the Inbox
- 30 seconds — Median session time (users fleeing quickly)
- 40% — Click-through rate (low engagement)
- “Black hole” — User description of the inbox experience
What Users Were Telling Us
“I see the ‘mute’ option, but not sure what it does.” — Sarah G.
“The messages are so tall, I can only see a few at a time. It’s really annoying.” — Mike R.
“I just wait for the email alerts — I only go to the inbox if I have to.” — Jennifer L.
Business Impact
Support Burden: Steady stream of confused users asking “What does mute do?”
Engineering/Design Debt: Inconsistent UI patterns and accumulated usability issues slowing development and requiring constant maintenance
Trust Issues: 2 out of 3 users relied exclusively on email because they couldn’t trust the inbox to work predictably
Before State
Research & Discovery
User Interviews
3 in-depth interviews with users who had recent inbox activity:
- Users described the inbox as “unpredictable” and “messy”
- 2 out of 3 relied exclusively on email notifications instead
- Couldn’t predict what would happen when using “mute” feature
- Interface felt disconnected from the rest of the platform
Pendo Analytics Analysis
Real usage behavior revealed the problems:
- 30 seconds — Median time spent (quick exits)
- 40% — Click-through rate on message threads
- High bounce rate — Users entered and immediately left
The Solution
Results
- 30% reduction in support tickets
- 18% drop in bounce rates
- 12% increase in message engagement
