Clue-less! Clueless web transaction design in the New York State 529 enrollment. I go through a series of enrollment screens, well-designed, no problem. Then, after the final data-entry click, I wait for a few moments, and I'm expecting to be presented with some kind of confirmation screen. But no. Instead, I get an extremely tacky "Upromise Rewards" sign-up screen, with no apparent connection to my transaction.
I happened to know, from my prior research, that Upromise was connected with the NYS 529 plan, but many people wouldn't (the actual investment vehciles are Vanguard funds, which is the most likely thing to notice in research). And even so, I almost bailed at that point. It seemed really unlikely to me that I wasn't going to receive a confirmation screen, but it sure seemed that way. Eventually, I thought to scroll to the bottom (note, I had to scroll), and I noticed a "NEXT" button.
So I was finally taken to the NEXT screen. The worst part is, that wasn't even the confirmation screen for the submitted transaction--it was for the pending transaction. In other words, had I bailed at the Upromise Rewards screen, my enrollment never would have been completed. How dumb can you get?
As an aside, the whole Upromise Rewards thing, even if it were not implemented in a way that risks sabotoging correct user navigation during the essential transaction, is just so tacky. I mean, here I am signing up for a decade-long savings program, in which I will invest tens of thousands of dollars, and they are throwing the moral equivalent of pop-up ads at me! If they absolutely had to pitch their rewards program--I said "If"--they should have relegated it to a bottom-dwelling paragraph with an opt-in checkbox.
(Speaking of tacky--well a name like "Upromise" seems pretty tacky, too.)
7:28:30 PM 
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