Clearer payment choices and domain setup

The payment panel now names the assumptions behind its lowest monthly price. Namewrench keeps each domain's setup controls and results together. These are seven changes from a UX audit of the purchase and lease-management flows, now deployed on Namegarage and Namewrench.

Make payment terms visible

One purchase note promised ownership "today," while the surrounding terms correctly made transfer conditional on payment and verification. We changed both the generated HTML and the browser redraw. Otherwise, JavaScript would have restored the old promise when the page loaded or a bundle changed. The direct-payment row also says transfer can happen as quickly as the next business day, rather than presenting that timing as a guarantee.

Direct payment now explains its lack of Escrow.com protection before the payment actions, with a link to the comparison. That difference belongs where the buyer chooses a route.

When the site offers one monthly payment method, it now states the method instead of presenting a dropdown with one option. The underlying provider value still drives consent, eligibility, and submission checks.

The lowest-payment teaser names its term and zero-down, level-payment assumptions. The selected schedule stays visible separately. A 60-month teaser should not look like the amount due on the selected 3-month plan. Changing the term, down payment, Easy Start option, or bundle updates the selected amounts through the existing calculator. The shortest available term remains the default, and the payment formulas stay the same.

Keep setup feedback with its domain

Namewrench now shows Manage nameservers directly beside each domain. Check nameservers remains a separate public DNS lookup. Buyers no longer need to run that lookup to discover the management controls.

Each domain has its own labeled setup region. A bundled lease keeps its other domains reachable while one region loads or saves. This applies the Law of Common Region: a boundary helps explain which controls and facts belong together.

Waits, errors, and results stay in that region. Failed saves preserve entries, and a status refresh retains an unsaved draft while showing registrar values separately. A completed request restores focus only while it still owns the interaction; it does not pull the buyer away from another task.

Blocked states pair the server's reason with a supported next step. When a lease is frozen and registration coverage is short, fixing coverage alone would not open editing. The guidance follows the server's restriction rather than inferring a different cause from the coverage flag.

Reviewing that recovery path exposed another mismatch. A leased domain can leave the sales catalog, whose contact-form picker correctly rejects unknown names. Lease support now puts the domain in the editable message instead. The catalog picker keeps its existing validation. During portal test sessions, the account page withholds its contact links, so the lease panel offers no direct route to an ordinary inquiry.

The Namewrench guide has the current setup steps. Registrar readback, public DNS propagation, and ownership transfer remain separate facts in the interface.

Check the behavior and the test boundary

Local browser fixtures use synthetic inventory and intercept provider responses. They exercise delayed requests, failures, retained entries, bundled domains, blocked states, focus recovery, and both configured payment methods. Focused accessibility checks cover the sales-site monthly payment panel and the contact form.

After deployment, fresh signed operator sessions confirmed test mode on the server as well as in the browser. We checked the payment wording and schedules, including down payments, Easy Start, bundles, and a balloon final payment. No checkout or payment was submitted, and no analytics or ad request was observed in that payment rehearsal.

For Namewrench, we reused an existing operator login. A nameserver save and readback confirmed simulated state, and we restored the original simulated values afterward. No live registrar setting changed. We also checked blocked guidance, independent domain panels, and the separate simulated DNS lookup. The test session had no bundled lease, so bundled panels remain covered by the local fixtures.

These checks establish the implemented behavior. Their effect on completion rates remains unmeasured.