The 48% Drop-off. A “Pay” button that wasn’t one.

Nearly half of applicants never paid.

Progress Residential rents single-family homes online. After submitting, applicants pay a fee before screening can start. 48% of them stopped there.

The page said you weren’t done, and gave you nothing to press.

Fullstory replays of the Next Steps page showed long idle stretches, repeated refreshes, and taps that went nowhere.

The most-tapped spot was the property card. It wasn’t a link: 7,396 dead clicks from people looking for a way forward.

Paying was blocked because the job was split three ways.

The payment link lived in an email, the checklist on one dashboard, the status on another. No page owned the next step, so a buried email left nothing to press.

That’s why the audit’s first recommendation was to merge them. Payment needed a page that owned it.

Now you can pay from the page.

The fee is authorized in a sheet on the dashboard, and the status updates the moment it’s done. Nothing waits on an email.

The card people kept tapping now opens the home.

It opens the listing, with your place in line right under it. The tap people were already making now goes somewhere.

The deadline went from body copy to the first thing you read.

The first screen says the application isn’t finished, what’s left, and the date it’s cancelled if those things aren’t done.

You can see who you’re waiting on, and nudge them.

The old page said emails had been sent. Now each co-applicant shows where they are, with a reminder one tap away.

Built to test in Maze. Then the company restructured.

Usability testing against the 48% baseline was the next step. Progress restructured before it ran, so the redesign ended as a recommendation rather than a release.

The report, the prototype and the direction are what the team kept.