It is better to give a quick experience missing features or ask for details upfront to make the experience better?

Question

I have a pretty complex financial app that allows users to add their accounts and then use various tools, calculations, reports and graphs with these accounts. The more accounts they add the better, the more details they add about each account the better.

I've gotten a few complaints from users that when they add an account they have to enter too many details. What do you think is better.

A) Let users add all of their accounts without bothering with details at first. This gets them to use the app the quickest with the least amount of friction possible. Some of the tools and reports won't be as accurate since they didn't add details about their accounts but they can do that as a separate step.

B) Have the users land on the page that requests details but give them a skip button.

C) Break up the asking for data part which is a single form right now and make it multiple questions, wizard style (one question at a time). This way we still get the details we need to give them a better experience but it will feel less overwhelming to the user.

Has anyone dealt with this sort of problem? What do you recommend?

Answer 1

For new users, I think minimal setup time would be optimal. So something like option (A) would be acceptable. Create the least amount of friction on sign-up. I would assume the users do a typical sign-up with email and password, then once the account is created, the next step is to take them to a series of dashboard/account setup steps? Give the users the ability to prioritize entering the base data needed with the option to skip past the additional information. I have seen related processes in "profile" set ups where entering more details in the users profile is optional and can be added later. Whereas, the account details fields are needed in order to get the account created.

Answer 2

Reduce the cognitive load by offering a shortcut (Option A), but add a banner on the detailed view saying something like this (Option C):

"Some report data may not be accurate, please complete your account [View account details]"

This way the UI isn't in the way of user's tasks, shows clear status, and provides a quick way to access more of the features.