Tripling Account Activations with a Simple UX Tweak
Here’s how a straightforward screen redesign tripled the number of customers activating their software through account sign-in—giving the company greater visibility into product usage and offering users a smoother licensing experience.
The Problem
We had a recurring issue with how customers renewed their software licenses.
The company provides remote access software. For years, users had to manually enter a license key each year to keep using the product. Eventually, a more streamlined system was introduced: customers could now sign in through an online portal to manage their subscription. This meant that, as long as their device was online and the software had been activated via account credentials, their license would auto-renew.
However, not everyone was making the switch.
Despite building a customer portal with auto-renewal features, we noticed that many users were still entering license keys manually during installation. This caused two main issues:
- Unnecessary friction – Even though customers had paid, they still needed to manually license the software, or it would stop working.
- Lack of visibility – Devices licensed manually weren’t connected to the user’s account, making it difficult to track installs and usage metrics.
There were rare cases where manual key entry was necessary—such as on offline machines—but for most users, it was just an extra step that didn’t need to be there.
Digging Into the Cause
I started reviewing the onboarding process, specifically the licensing wizard shown during software setup. The initial screen offered three choices:
- Sign in to your account to activate your subscription
- Start a free trial
- Enter a license key (Enterprise subscription only)
The first two options led to the same sign-in flow, while the third—highlighting it was for “Enterprise” users—seemed to subtly guide those users toward manual key entry, even though that wasn’t the ideal path.
To validate this, I ran a small user test. Participants were told they had an Enterprise license and were asked to walk through the wizard. Most picked the third option, confirming the wording was nudging them in the wrong direction.
The Redesign
To fix this, I proposed a simple update to the wizard screen:
- Make account sign-in the primary action
- Demote the license key option visually
- Rename the manual option to something more descriptive like “Register offline”
This change made it clear that signing in was the default for most users, and that manual entry was a fallback for special circumstances. After testing the new flow with another group, we saw a noticeable shift in behavior, so the team moved forward with implementing the update.
Measuring Success
The company tracked a key metric called “Registered servers”—instances of the software activated via account sign-in. Manual license key activations weren’t measurable, so improving this metric would indicate more users were taking the preferred path.
We focused on trial users specifically, since they were new and unaffected by previous behaviors. If the redesign was effective, we’d see the difference here most clearly.
The Outcome
The new design launched in March 2019. Within a month, the number of online registrations for Enterprise trials nearly tripled. This not only made our analytics team happy, but also meant fewer support issues and a smoother renewal process for customers down the line.
A small change to a single screen had a big payoff—for both users and the business.
Mark Boxall 