If it were, you'd have fixed it already.
A two-week, psychology-first diagnostic for digital teams with a conversion gap that shouldn't exist.
Confusion is a clarity problem. You fix it with better copy, a cleaner layout, a more obvious CTA.
Uncertainty is a psychology problem. And it's a lot harder to find in the data.
When someone abandons your checkout, or stalls on your signup form, or gets to the final step and just... doesn't commit — that's rarely a usability failure. It's a trust failure. Something in that moment made them feel like they might be making a mistake.
The tricky part? Most diagnostic tools aren't built to find it. They show you where users leave. They don't show you why they stopped believing.
That's the gap this audit closes. (It's not the button, by the way. It's never the button.)
We analyze one flow — your checkout, your signup, your donation form, your onboarding — wherever users are walking away. You leave with five connected deliverables that build on each other, taking you from "we know something's wrong" to "here's exactly what to change first."
Where you're losing people — and the behavioral patterns underneath the numbers. Not just drop-off rates. The friction signatures that explain them.
Funnel + Friction AnalysisA visual journey map of what users are thinking, feeling, and trusting at each stage. Where confidence builds. Where it quietly breaks.
Emotional Journey MapA prioritized opportunity matrix ranked by conversion impact, psychological friction, and implementation effort — including where AI augmentation could unlock ongoing optimization, not just a one-time fix.
Opportunity ScoringSpecific, concrete recommendations your team can act on. Not wireframes. Not vague direction. Clear guidance on what to change and why it will work.
Solution RecommendationsA prioritized testing roadmap so you know what to validate, in what order, and how to measure whether it's working. You don't just get answers — you get a way to keep building on them.
Experimentation RoadmapI'm Mara Thorsrud, the founder of Distinct Vintage LLC. I've spent two decades as a UX strategist and design psychologist working on products where the stakes are high and the margin for confusion is low.
The patterns I look for in an audit aren't theoretical. They come from sitting with users who hesitate, teams who are stumped, and flows that perform fine on desktop and fall apart on mobile for reasons no one could explain. (Until we looked at the cognitive load. It's almost always the cognitive load.)
The Hesitation Audit™ distills that experience into a focused, fast, repeatable diagnostic — built for teams who need real answers, not a months-long engagement.
"Mara is consumer-obsessed, not afraid to challenge the status quo, and a great collaborator with product, engineering, and partner teams."
You have a flow with a measurable conversion gap. You have data. You've probably already tried the obvious things. And you're ready to understand why users are hesitating — not just run another test and hope.
We analyze your funnel data, session recordings, and flow structure. We identify where users drop off, where cognitive load spikes, and where trust signals are missing or misfiring. AI assists with pattern detection. Expert judgment drives the interpretation.
We develop all five deliverables and walk you through them together. You leave with a complete picture of where your users hesitate, why it happens, and what to change first. Plus a clear way to keep improving over time.
Hi. That's exactly what this is for.
The Hesitation Audit™ is a focused, time-boxed engagement. Not a retainer. Not a months-long project. I lead every audit personally — so spots are intentionally limited.
Book a Discovery Call →We'll spend 30 minutes figuring out if this is the right fit.