I led a restructure of PayPal's Checkout, an industry-leading product with +50% market share.
My focus was on redesigning the information architecture and navigation to improve user experience, transparency, and scalability of PayPal features while maintaining our impressive 80% conversion rate.
I facilitated sessions, brainstormed models, and created a blueprint to organize features. I guided designers, collaborated with a writer and researcher, and tested redesign variants.
The result? A progressive disclosure design that simplifies the interface, enabling customers to access their wallet and view card benefits.
User interviews helped my team and me understand how customers experience checkout.
We found that after making a purchase, consumers need assurance that the transaction was successful with the correct card. However, clutter on the checkout page can make this difficult. Despite having multiple cards in their wallets, customers often stick to using just one out of fear of mistakes.
These problems inspired our design guiding principles
Through research, we identified two purchase mental models that customers gravitated towards:
"I want to use this card": Customers select a card based on the benefits associated with a specific purchase.
"I want to pay my way": Customers want to explore their payment options (such as splitting a card, using one for benefits, or using credit) and choose the best option.
I conducted a workshop with designers to gather their ideas on the ideal hierarchy to reorganize the +30 checkout features based on these mental models. Further discussions with product and engineering partners, as well as the PayPal credit team, led to the consolidation of these ideas into two blueprints.
Myself and 2 fellow designers ran mobile-first design explorations based on our blueprints, ranging innovative approaches aligned with upcoming design systems to utilizing our team's existing capabilities.
We created two final prototypes for testing after narrowing down our design options. The prototypes were tested using a hypothetical transaction where participants had to identify different payment methods.
Customers found the design intuitive, enabling easy switching between payment methods. Ultimately, this design was chosen for its reassuring effect, clear communication, and concise presentation.
This design, although innovative and streamlined, posed a steep learning curve for customers. Considering potential risks to business goals and customer experience, the team decided to abandon this approach.
We chose the inline design and integrated all features seamlessly, collaborating with three designers, including myself.
I oversaw card selection and addressed potential issues, taking the lead in coordinating UX work keeping us focused during weekly sprints.
After inviting customers to test the checkout experience, we gathered bug reports and suggestions, documented them in a spreadsheet, and prioritized requests. We made continuous improvements until fulfilling our commitments of choice, assurance, and efficiency. Finally, we confidently launched the new checkout experience to the public.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned on this journey is the significance of designing a self-explanatory product and prioritizing people's pre-existing mental models to create experiences that truly connect with them.
Better conversion rate
The new design resulted in a decrease in checkout time from 2.5 minutes to 2.15 minutes and a 1% increase in conversion rate.
Reduced mental load
The use of multiple cards to pay also increased significantly, indicating that the design helped customers select the best payment method with confidence.
Customer satisfaction
The marketing team reported that customers appreciated that changes were made while keeping the experience familiar
