Design Portfolio of Jason Cordone

PayPal Payments Pro

Disjointed business account set-up experience.

Challenge

A constant challenge for the business sector was the product, PayPal Payments Pro. The problem arose when PayPal acquired VeriSign and tried to integrate, but were only able to get half way through the integration process because of two conflicting APIs. Both the business dev team and designers were faced with a major design challenge. The projected outcome was to create one flow that consisted of two data form Applications.

Objective

Design an experience that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. This flow would combine both signup processes into a user-friendly environment retaining user attention, minimizing drop off rates to allow the users to experience the core benefits of PayPal Payments Pro.

8%
Growth with 2.5M PayPal Pro accounts

35%
Success of accounts setup fullfilled

30%
Increase in unique visitors

10%+
Growth with 2.8M PayPal Pro accounts

25%
Success of accounts setup fullfilled

40%
Increase in unique visitors

Lead Product Designer

Responsible for design and cohesive experience that allows the user to successfully set-up a business account with PayPal without friction and reduce high drop-off rate. Collaborate with multi-disciplines and lead product initiatives, working sessions to achieve business goals.

Team

Emma Hoare
Kristin House
Asokumar GurusamyView
Sridhar Gandu
Sachin Bhandari

Disciplines

UX/UI Product Designer
Content Designer
Project Manager
Product Manager
Product Developer

Customer Insights & Definition

This being a Business Dev project the design team initiated and collaborated with Biz-Dev, marketing / Sales, Content writers, product managers, producers and engineering for the execution of the project. The need, conceptualization and the implementation plan were chalked out and were presented to all the stakeholders. We worked in Agile and Lean UX, so using post it notes to roughly layout requirements and a rough flow helped with the alignment of the team.

Collaboration and alignment of our projected goal was an important step within this process. Next we would move onto research with users who are business owners and uncover the pain points of trying to signup and upgrade also educate them on why they should upgrade to a PayPal Payments Pro account. It was important to capture all the data that would be needed in both flows so we wouldn't miss any of the crucial information needed to vett the users stepping through this experience.

Gain insights from the current experience

Before flow was mapped out it was important to do some research with our end-users to try and discover the pain points that they were experiencing. So we set up a series of User testing in the lab and observed the interactions of both frustrations and the small successes.

After conducting the research we wrote down what was working and what wasn't-our key takeaways. The results from this experiment showcased the reasoning behind the high drop-off rates that PayPal was encountering within this experience, and supported the teams rationale behind designing a better more cohesive user experience.

Our findings

Pros
User was excited about upgrading their account
User didn't feel interrogated with all the questions
They had a sense of pride, as they were setting an account up for their business

Cons
User right up front weren't sure on what they were getting
They were anxious not knowing what information they were going to need to provide
Multiple users commented on the process time, "how long is this going to take"

Building a customer baseline

Compiling all of our insights and requirements for our signup experience we started the process of mapping out the unified flow.

As we started this process we thought about all the data we gained from our user testing sessions. We observed that users needed to have a better understanding of preparation, key benefits and the duration of time it takes to signup.

Sketching out a stepflow pattern

I started to do some sketches and conceptualizing ideas around keeping the user engaged because duration of time and drop-off were two major challenges we had to solve.

I also wanted to make sure the design educated the user at the front door, so they were well prepared to provide all the information. Again, one of the business goals was to not waste the users time and empower them to finish the signup process so they could upgrade their account.

Lo-Fidelity Wireframes

With a stepflow concept sketched out and defining each step, I began to work with another UX designer collaboratively to start designing each page and all the requirements for those pages. We also simultaneouly worked on the patterns for the input fields, regular expression notifications, error messages, step pattern interactions etc.

This part of the process defined the functionality and flow of all the minor nuances and details that would be needed to validate our users. We also began documenting all the interactions and states for all the components being used within this experience. We then pressure tested within the eternal team to make sure that everything was captured correctly. Once the flow was validated with all stakeholders, we built a rough lo-fidelity prototype to once again user test.

Pros
Front door was clear to the user with what they need to be prepared for
Step flow pattern was a success, it provided footing in the process
Step flow module made the user feel like they accomplished something in each section
They liked the ability of saving progress in case they had an interruption

Cons
Still concerns revolving around too many steps
Unclear about the benefits of the account
No celebratory or informative moment when completed

Visual Language & Structure

During this process, I began to implement the visual language to all the pages and integrate new and existing patterns. I defined and created rules around typography treatments, colors and grid, so the pages had rhythm. I also specified the spacing and breakpoints for the experience based off the most common screen sizes / devices.

One main component was the progress tracker. This pattern allowed for the user to be able to know where they were in the flow, what they needed to complete and what they had completed.

It also acted as a navigation device so users could skip around, but only after they completed the first page which was the minimal account creation page. This allowed the team to capture the users data in the early parts of the flow which had led to higher conversion

Content was also important and I worked closely with the content designer to deliver the right message and educate the user by explaning the benefits of a PayPal Payments Pro account and that the user will be creating two accounts which make up the Pro account.

Mobile in mind

As I was designing the experience for web, I was taking into consideration what the adaptive mobile experience would entail. By thinking about the simplicity of a mobile first experience it removed the complexity and create a simpler approach to solving these design challenges

Asking the right questions

Before the designs go to the usability lab, we have a group discussion about what questions we need to have the researcher ask and get answers to. This to me is the moment of truth where everyone's effort is put to the test. In the next three to four days, in the usability lab, we get our answers.

We had to Pivot and make some adjustments

So based off our findings when testing the hi-fidelity prototypes on both mobile and web, we received the same data around the users not understanding what they were getting before going through the signup experience. So we had to to pivot and change the design not only on the validation screen but also the summary screen to reassure users of the PayPal Pro customer benefits.

The step flow pattern worked ven better because we also had to consolidate some of the pages so there were not as many steps in the signup process.

What worked
We launched the new experience on time
User research and insight worked extremely well
We addressed all challenges with design solutions
PayPal Payments Pro saw an 30% increase in conversion within the first two weeks after launch

What needed work
The email notification of your credentials, and then having to log back in through half the experience is still disjointed
Ideally once the API complication gets fixed it could use existing information to vett the customers
Pro experience was still seeing a small amount of drop-off, which meant more work to be done