Redesigning a Background Check Site for 9x Faster Task Completion
CROSS-CHECKS, a global background check company, had major usability issues: abandonment rates were high, task completion was slow, and left users unable to find the services they needed, despite a booming $9B industry projected by 2030. Through research and optimization, I redesigned the site—cutting task time by 9x and reducing abandonment from 20% to 0%.
My Role
UX/UI designer
Tools
Figma, Procreate
Duration
Sep 2024 (4wks)
Project focus
Website redesign
"A background check isn’t just due diligence—it’s how we protect our people and our culture."
— Maria Chen, Senior HR Manager
Problem
Challenge
CROSS-CHECKS was expanding fast, and the business shift only worsened an already confusing website. It was a maze—users couldn’t find the services they needed, lost trust, and some even gave up entirely.
Solution
To improve user experience and help users find the services they needed, I:
Prioritized content structure by aligning business goals with user needs.
Refined visual hierarchy to improve scannability and draw attention to key actions.
Introduced intuitive navigation clues, backed by research on visual hierarchy and cognitive design principles.
How do I turn this disorienting system into an efficient tool?
Project kickoff with stakeholder meeting
Research
This redesign project began with a kickoff meeting with CROSS-CHECKS’ leadership. During this meeting, I assessed the current state of the website and led the effort to clarify and define the key goals for the redesign:
Modern, high-tech look: Align the site with the company's AI incorporation and global expansion.
Effective navigation: Make it easy for users to find the right service and package seamlessly.
An industry-wide shortcoming: unintuitive navigation
Competitive Analysis
After my heuristic evaluation, I wanted to know if competitors faced similar issues—unclear navigation, weak content and visual hierarchy, overwhelming service lists without categories, and missing key info like pricing, timelines, and submission details—and how they addressed them. I identified 4 global background check companies using research and client insights:
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Boutique investigative firm with a global footprint.
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Service Structure: Mintz organizes services by industry sectors.
Navigation & Structure:
The website's navigation is complex, with services spread across multiple sections.Content & Visual Hierarchy:
The site presents dense information with minimal visual breaks.Service Clarity:
Services are listed without clear categorization, and descriptions are often jargon-heavy.
Essential details like pricing, timelines, and submission requirements are missing.Visual Design:
The website has a corporate, text-heavy design with limited modern visual elements.
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Mid-sized company with a strong U.S. presence.
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Service Structure: By business size and hiring volume, with tailored screening packages.
Navigation: Clear and intuitive, helping users find services quickly.
Content & Hierarchy: Well-structured pages with clear hierarchy and helpful summaries.
Service Clarity: Transparent service descriptions and pricing details improve trust.
Visual Design: Modern, user-friendly design with engaging visuals.
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One of the largest providers, serving enterprise clients globally.
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Service Structure: By regions and industries.
Navigation: Complex and scattered.
Content & Hierarchy: Dense information with little visual break.
Service Clarity: Services buried in text-heavy pages, lacking clear categories and details like pricing.
Visual Design: Outdated, corporate design with minimal visual interest.
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Rapidly growing, tech-driven firm based in Canada.
-
Service Structure: By businesses and individuals.
Navigation: Simple, straightforward, and easy to use.
Content & Hierarchy: Clean layout with concise content and clear headings.
Service Clarity: Offers transparent, easy-to-understand services and upfront pricing.
Visual Design: Minimalist, modern design that enhances readability.
Key Insights
A lack of transparency, poor UX, disorganized content are industry-wide issues
UX issues
Companies offer dramatically inconsistent and varied services.
Inconsistent services
Background check sites use testimonials to build trust in these lesser-known services.
Testimonials
Current Site Usability Analysis
Hidden services and disorganized content on CROSS-CHECKS led to a 20% drop-off in task completion
Moderated usability tests were conducted to learn how users respond to the current background check site. Since this is for a global background check company, I recruited a diverse range of 5 participants from Canada, the UK, and the U.S.
Task completion time?
Navigation strategies?
Current site feedback?
The key findings include the following:
All users found CROSS-CHECKS' images outdated and lacking a modern, high-tech feel.
All 5 users relied on navigation menu for easy access to desired services and understand site functionality.
1/5 users abandoned the finding drug screening task after 3 minutes, with an average task completion time of 1 minute and 43 seconds.
Users felt the site cluttered with texts, irrelevant information, typos, inconsistent terminology, broken links, and excessive animations.
Style Preference A/B Testing
Key Insights
Next Steps
To understand users’ high-tech visual style preferences, I also compared the original hero images with the alternatives. All 5 participants preferred option 1, the minimal, dark style, saying it reminded them of Apple and felt more modern.
✅
Option 1
The current site usability analysis and A/B testing result confirmed audit findings. All the problems mentioned combined caused some participants to abandon their tasks when asked to complete “drug test” navigation.
Option 2
Outdated Visuals
Users found the imagery outdated and unmodern.
Poor Navigation
Users found the site hard to navigate with poor hierarchy.
Information Overload
Text-heavy, irrelevant content caused overload.
High impact, low effort:
Fixing the inconsistent terms, typos, and broken links.
High impact, high effort:
Prioritizing content hierarchy with stakeholders and create visual hierarchy accordingly.
Introducing intuitive navigation guidance.
Replacing visuals that lack a high-tech look with better-fitting ones.
Understanding User Needs
Small businesses and HR teams need intuitive and efficient navigation
While the company aims to serve a broader range of users, by combining user interviews, background check service reviews, and articles online, I was able to summarize and create 2 personas which informed my design decisions throughout the process: both consider intuitive and efficient navigation key to their experience.
As a foundation for the redesign, I conducted a full site audit to identify broken links, outdated pages, typos, and inconsistent terminology. This cleanup was essential to establish a trustworthy and user-friendly experience.
Redesign Highlights
3. Simplified navigation & refined CTA
2. Establishing typography hierarchy
CROSS-CHECK’s brand guidelines didn’t define the typographic system, so I established a hierarchy to support usability and consistency across the site. By introducing varied font sizes, I helped guide users’ attention and improve overall readability.
1. Content audit & consistency fixes
Research shows users use dropdown menus for navigation and learning site features. I introduced dropdown navigation, a more prominent search bar, and a bolder CTA/hero to strengthen brand identity, improve accessibility, and simplify service discovery.
BEFORE
AFTER
4. Eliminating distractions
I removed unnecessary animations and implemented progressive disclosure by redesigning service cards to highlight essential information upfront, allowing users to quickly find what they need without leaving the page.
BEFORE
AFTER
5. Service trust through testimonials
I incorporated prominent testimonials to build trust and confidence in unfamiliar services, addressing the industry’s reliance on user feedback for credibility. This strategy ensures potential customers can gain confidence through the positive experiences of other users.
ADDING TESTIMONIALS
6. Site-wide country switcher
I introduced a country switcher, allowing users from different regions to access location-specific services. While technical constraints prevented full implementation, filters provided a temporary solution.
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
2nd Usability Testing
Test Result
Users appreciated the visual improvement but still needed more service information
I conducted a comparative user evaluation with 5 participants by presenting the original and redesigned versions side by side. Users responded positively to the visual improvements but expressed a need for more information on services, such as pricing and process—details the client was still working to finalize.
Navigation ease
Visual feedback
✅
✅
The following key findings were identified during the interviews:
All 5 users completed the “finding drug test screening” task within 11 seconds, compared to 20% abandonment rate.
All 5 users thought the visual design is improved with comfortable spacing and modern style.
All 5 users found it’s easier to navigate with a much more intuitive navigation, improved visual and content hierarchy.
2/5 users found the new design still lacks enough information.
9x faster
Task was completed faster after the redesign
100%
Found the site visually pleasing and modern
✅
⚠️
Content Clarity
100%
Found it easier to navigate the site
40%
Said important details were still unclear
2. Filters as the current solution vs. site-wide country switcher for future adaptation
Technical Constraints & Adaptation Strategies
SITE-WIDE COUNTRY SWITCHER
After meeting with the stakeholder, I learned due to technical constraints, a site-wide switcher wasn’t feasible during the project, so the developer and I opted to implement filters on service pages as a temporary solution.
FILTER
1. Creating process overview and templates with limited information
After usability testing, I found users still wanted clearer details on pricing, turnaround time before booking, and how AI fits into the background check process. Since these elements were still being defined, I brainstormed with the CEO and designed a service template based on competitor analysis, added instruction, information, and a prominent “Contact Us” option.
TEMPLATE WITH PROCESS DETAILS AND "CONTACT US"
PROCESS OVERVIEW
Current Prototype
Client Testimonial
Eliza M. CEO of CROSS-CHECKS
“Her thoughtful approach—asking the right questions and doing deep research to truly understand my business—resulted in a website design that exceeded my expectations.”
Final Thoughts
Post-implementation UX metrics recommendations
I recommended the following metrics to guide future iterations after design implementation:
Task completion time and rate: Track task completion rates and times for key actions, such as plan purchases and specific information searches, to identify potential navigation or clarity issues affecting user success.
Bounce rate: Track the percentage of users who leave the site after viewing only 1 page, which could signal confusion or irrelevant content.
User satisfaction scores: Collect user feedback through surveys or questionnaires to gauge overall satisfaction with the website experience.
Conversion rate: Measure the percentage of users who complete a desired action, such as signing up for a plan or making a purchase.
What I accomplished
Identified critical areas for improvement on the website including cluttered design, unclear information, inconsistent design elements, irrelevant content, and distracting animations to improve user navigation.
Revitalized brand visuals by transitioning from a traditional to a contemporary design, focusing on optimizing information hierarchy, enhancing spatial layout, and curating impactful imagery.
Optimized the website, resulting in a 9x faster task completion time and reducing the abandonment rate from 20% to 0% during the drug test navigation task (based on results from 5 users).
Improvement and reflection
The unspoken client needs, often the root of deeper challenges:
From this experience, I learned the importance of proactively identifying clients' unspoken needs—often the root of deeper challenges. What initially seemed like a visual design issue turned out to reflect a lack of clarity in the client’s business identity. When clients struggle to define content hierarchy and priorities, in this case, it signals unresolved questions about their core services, pricing, and positioning. I realized that gaining deeper industry knowledge early on is essential to understanding the barriers preventing them from reaching their goals. Addressing these issues requires going beyond UI fixes—leveraging tools like AI and competitor analysis earlier in the process could have clarified their direction and strengthened strategic decisions.
Explore more the ethical implications of AI in the background check industry:
Moving forward, I aim to explore the ethical implications of AI in the background check industry to ensure its responsible use. I also recognize the importance of a more clearly defined business direction to support strategic decision-making. Balancing CROSS-CHECKS’ global expansion with a smooth transitional process remains a priority as I continue to refine workflows and support sustainable growth.
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