Keeping users happy and reducing bounce rate by 58%
CultureAI
Product Design, SaaS
2025
Overview
CultureAI is an intelligence-driven defence company built to help keep companies safe. The B2B SaaS platform is used by CISO's and security analysts to monitor their employees and automatically intervene if they do something risky. In Nov 2024, I led an initiative to investigate and solve why 67% of user sessions ended before they reached the homepage. Using UX research and small but strategic design changes, I improved usability, user satisfaction, enhanced platform adoption AND reduced bounce rate by 58%.
67% of user sessions bounced
Between April and October 2024, I used HotJar to uncover a major usability issue:
13,200 attempted logins
8,800+ sessions bounced without ever interacting
96% of bounces occurred on or before login
This was high friction during first contact with the product, often among stakeholders or first-time users and posed both reputational and adoption risks, what was going on?!
A frustrating experience led to abandonment
User research revealed that:
People were abandoning logins due to long load times
Some users mistook the reactivation modal for a broken login and closed the tab
"Login failed" messages showed for users with incorrect permissions, but without clarity or ways to resolve
Users were treating the product as a passive tab, returning intermittently rather than staying logged in
Small, high impact changes improved clarity
I scoped out low effort, high impact changes that would increase clarity without requiring a complete overhaul:
Improved the login/session reactivation flow
Enabled greater understanding of permission levels for different users
Worked with engineering to ship a performance fix
Outcome
Bounce rate reduced to 9.2% (a 58% reduction!)
Anecdotal feedback from CS: Fewer login complaints and improved user clarity
POV sessions became smoother, with better engagement from the start
