PUBLIC TECH | INTERNATIONAL UX RESEARCH
Optimizing Global User Onboarding & Identity Trust Barriers
Qualitative UX research on Estonian e-Residency to uncover friction points, navigation drop-offs, and trust barriers across international digital entrepreneurs.
Outcome
A research-backed trust roadmap that eliminated critical onboarding friction and simplified B2B service discovery.
The challenge
Estonian e-Residency is a world-first digital identity program, but international users were dropping off during information gathering. Founders were overwhelmed by competing CTAs, hidden pricing, ambiguous terminology like “Marketplace,” and broken search flows.
Our approach
Conducted end-to-end qualitative usability testing and video-recorded interviews with five target user profiles across Europe. We tracked pricing discovery, country-specific guidelines, B2B service directory navigation, and contact flows.
KEY RESEARCH FINDINGS & SOLUTIONS
01 — The Interactive Map Confusion: Users mistook a decorative map for an interactive tool. Solution: turn it into a clickable global case-study explorer. 02 — “Marketplace” Terminology Friction: Users expected second-hand goods, not business providers. Solution: re-architect this as B2B Services with search and comparison tools. 03 — Broken Search & Hidden Pricing: Irrelevant search results made pricing feel hidden. Solution: optimise high-intent keywords and fix UI layering. 04 — Friction in Contact & Support Routing: General advice seekers were routed to police email addresses. Solution: restructure the contact path from inquiry to official support.
RESEARCH & DESIGN LEAD — Grete Evert, UX/UI Researcher & Designer