Eliminate Excess Steps

Have you ever visited a website where you feel like it takes you five clicks when the action could have taken only one or two?

That means there are excess steps present. Congrats, you’ve just identified an area for improvement!

If it’s an action you complete only once, this is only slightly irritating. It may not be something that you even notice, depending on where you fall on the UX obsession spectrum. Even if you don’t think you noticed, I’d be willing to bet that you don’t walk away with a completely positive outlook on that site.

Let’s say instead that the excess steps are required on a website that you use frequently, or every day. This can cause an immense amount of frustration, to the point where users find a different site that serves their needs.

Little annoyances add up to large frustrations over time, often without the user being able to pinpoint what went so wrong. We’re very familiar with this psychological principal as it relates to relationships, but seem to overlook how it applies to our experiences on the web.

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Email unsubscribe pages tend to violate good UX practices all the time. Think about it – this is a page you don’t want your users on in the first place (you’d rather keep them on your mailing list), and the page isn’t indexed on search engines, so it gets far less traffic than other pages on your site.

It’s these often-forgotten pages that can cost you more users than you think.

Here’s an example of a page that I was directed to after I clicked an unsubscribe link from an email.

This page failed my UX assessment miserably by not leveraging two key pieces of information that they had at their fingertips. Not to mention, the page is lacking an appealing design, which can go a long way for user re-engagement.

Bad example of an email unsubscribe page

  1. They already knew I wanted to unsubscribe from email.
    Tip: Instead of a catch all page which produces heavy cognitive load, direct email unsubscribe links to an email only unsubscribe page and put the mail and phone unsubscribe content elsewhere.
  2. They already knew my email address.
    Tip: Instead of forcing the user to type in their email address (this takes time and you can end up with typos), pre-fill that box and allow the user to confirm. Alternatively, go ahead and submit the request as soon as the email link is clicked and completely eliminate the need for typing.

Instead, I’d recommend an unsubscribe page like the clothing retailer Bonobos, because it does a few key things right.

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Good example of an email unsubscribe page

  1. The page is branded and styled to feel cohesive with the main site.
  2. The page content is very specific to the call to action link that was clicked.
  3. It provides the user with frequency adjustment options, instead of an immediate opt out (good for both the user and the site owner).
  4. The user’s email address is pre-filled.
  5. It’s interesting. This is a bonus, not a requirement. If you go down this path, please consider the tone of your brand before adding this type of content.

My team is subject to these common missteps too.

If you’re a product manager or a designer, stay familiar with the ‘your baby might be ugly‘ principle and always stay open to improvements.

I was recently working on a password retrieval feature. The scope for this feature went something like this: ‘the user should be able to click a link from the new account welcome email and reset their password’. Sounds good so far, right?

We ended up with the following user flow.

Old forgot password user flow

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As soon as we tested the feature, we knew the flow had to be adjusted. Since a password reset is a secure action, we ultimately decided that having the user confirm via email is a priority. This means that we didn’t eliminate as many steps as we could have for other non-secure actions.

We ended up with the following flow.

New forgot password user flow

It’s tough to plan a new feature ‘correctly’ the first time around.

Without anything concrete to look at we must plan the user flow, the appearance, the options, the functionality and the success/error messages. You’ll end up with flaws and things you’d love to change as soon as you get the chance to interact with the feature. That’s exactly why first feature releases are referred to as MVPs (minimum viable products).

The important thing isn’t that your features are perfect the first time out the door – if that was the goal then we would never be able to release anything. Rather, strive to consistently improve on the feature based on feedback received from your users.

The New Goal:
Release something that meets the most basic need first;
then make it better and better over time.

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Above all, monitor your site because it will be obvious where users are having trouble.

We use a screen recording tool called Hotjar on websites that we host. This allows our team to study things that go right and things that go wrong, and make adjustments accordingly. Are you getting duplicate form submissions? You’re probably missing out on an important success message. Are your users jumping back and forth on form steps? Simplify the process and consider changing the order in which information is presented.

If you don’t have the budget for a service like Hotjar, you can still use all the features from a free analytics tool like Google. And make sure to frequently the pages of your site just like a normal visitor would.

Have trouble remaining objective about your site? Get friends and coworkers involved too! Most people are happy to take a few minutes to offer their opinions when they know product owners are eager to make improvements.


Here are a handful of tips to streamline user flows and eliminate excess steps on your website.

  • Have a short number of options? Make all of them visible immediately. Radio buttons are great for single selects and I tend to like checkboxes for multi selects.
  • Prioritize form fields, especially if your form has dependencies. It’s odd for the user to have to jump around in a form because they don’t initially realize that one choice affects another. Instead, map out the order in which the vast majority of your users fill out your form and then present the fields accordingly.
  • Use tooltips to provide additional info when necessary, but don’t overuse these as a way to overcome a poorly thought out user interface.
  • Don’t overuse confirmation dialogues! I find this most apparent when I open an editor and then attempt to exit/cancel immediately, but first I’m presented with a message that requires me to confirm the action. The issue is that I never even made any changes. Consider placing an unobtrusive success/error/warning message directly on the screen to let the user know what has just occurred. We’ve used growls quite a bit recently and are big fans of those.
  • Create pages that serve very specific purposes. Otherwise, users will be overwhelmed with directions covering how to navigate the site in order to get where they need to go.

My final recommendation would be to contribute to the web community.

If you notice an area for improvement on a site that you use, fill out the feedback survey or contact form. Be kind! Often times these issues are simple to correct or improve upon within the available CMS (content management system), and the website owner just hasn’t noticed the flaw yet.

As a second generation REALTOR, Katie comes to TRIBUS after working for a major franchise brokerage and a prominent custom home builder in metro Atlanta, GA. While selling homes, she realized she had a passion for helping agents establish a meaningful web presence and build a CRM that worked. Since then she's become a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and graduated from a UX program, all while staying grounded in real estate technology. Her background in the industry and her training in psychology have paved the way for her current user experience focused role, where she leads the product team at TRIBUS.

Katie has moderated and spoken at various events including the RESO Technology Summit and Hacker Connect - a tech intensive session of Inman Connect.
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