Keen, Ingenio's flagship site, is where people pay by the minute to talk with psychic advisors. Most new customers start with chat, but when the $1 trial ended, most of them left, on every platform.
Many users arrive doubting psychic readings are legit.
Asking for money amplifies that doubt.
A 60-second window adds urgency, not confidence.
Chat feels less committal than a phone call.
Users go at their own pace, no voice required.
Most people discover Keen on their phone.
Mobile converted about 30% lower than web in every cohort, regardless of advisor or time of day.
The design assumed committed buyers who only needed payment options.
A full-screen modal pulled users out of chat, away from their advisor, at the moment of decision.
4 look-alike options, dense copy and a disclaimer, all under a 60-second clock.
No default and no clear best value, so the timer often ran out.
Each problem fed the next: disruption worsened overload, overload caused paralysis, paralysis ended in timeouts.
More confidence and less cognitive load at payment means more trials convert, which means more revenue and a stronger market position.
The payment flow spiked cognitive load at the exact moment trust was forming.
60-second window
4 dense options
Full-screen takeover
Required disclaimer
How might we streamline the UI so customers can choose with confidence before time runs out?
The pain point matrix pointed to mobile-native patterns (easy, high impact) over backend changes (hard, high impact).
Fixes decision paralysis: no default and no clear best value meant the timer often ran out.
Fixes context switching: a full-screen modal pulled users out of chat, away from their advisor.
Fixes visual clutter: 4 look-alike options, dense copy and a disclaimer under a 60-second clock.
Fixes tiny tap targets: the old ones were too small for thumbs.
Cut anything that didn’t help the user make a decision
Clearer type hierarchy so price, time and action read differently
Brand color on the CTA only
A light shadow to lift the sheet over the chat
Users weren’t against paying. They were overwhelmed by the ask at a vulnerable moment.
A
Control
Original payment flow
B
Variant
Optimized for cognitive load
Locked by the test framework
The 1-minute window, the number of options, backend price logic
Platforms
Mobile app + responsive web
Key metric
Deposit conversion rate
The VP of Product expanded the test to every platform. I’d designed for that, so the changes scaled with small tweaks.
More noncommittal visitors from lower-intent channels. Commitment, not friction, was the barrier.
Downloading an app signals intent, especially for a niche product. Friction was the barrier.
Reducing cognitive load pays off most when users already have intent.
Framing it as a key business problem (i.e. a mobile-web conversion gap) earned buy-in to pursue this amidst a range of priorities.
Diagnosing the mismatch between where users were (forming trust) and how the system treated them (buyers) revealed the real leverage.