PayPal Story - Making Peer to Peer Payments Personal

Achievements

Scalability & Efficiency

• Developed 20+ reusable components, reducing design inconsistencies by 40% and accelerating product rollout.
• Streamlined workflows, cutting development timelines by 30% through improved collaboration with Data Science.
• Led end-to-end design execution, ensuring alignment across product, engineering, and business teams.

Stakeholder Alignment & Impact

• Improved accessibility compliance by 40%, driving higher usability and engagement.
• Secured executive buy-in, influencing key business decisions and driving double-digit growth in P2P transactions.
• Advocated for user-first design, ensuring all solutions met business and customer needs effectively.

Why is it important?

PayPal’s peer-to-peer (P2P) payments are a critical part of the business — powering 70% of transaction volume and 30% of new user acquisition.

But

P2P has remained unchanged since it launched in 2015...

The “Story” feature — which lets users attach an animation to their transfer — was intended to add warmth and personalization, but it was hidden and underused.

I was asked to rethink the feature from the ground up. This was not just a UX problem — it was a missed opportunity to deepen emotional connection, differentiate the brand, and support long-term retention.

Challenge

Develop an adaptive onsite framework and scalable services architecture that integrates P2P capabilities from across PayPal, Xoom, Crypto, Venmo.

Identified Problems & Research Insights

Through collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders, we’ve identified key problems from the Voice of the Customer, the UXR perspective, and business challenges from leadership.

To understand user behavior, I partnered with UX research to dive deep into behavioral data, surveys, and usability tests:

• Only 20% of users found the Story feature.
• 70% of users said they wanted a more personal send experience.
• Users who saw the animation rated their experience 4.7/5, compared to 4.1 for those who didn’t.
• 80% of recipients dropped off after the transaction detail screen — never seeing the animation.

The Opportunity

Acquire new users with expanded capabilities

+

Retain current users by streamlining jobs to be done and elevating features at the right time

Primary User

Here’s an example of design approach for the Story feature.

Feel as a current user

Meet Anna

Data shows 80% of users view the transaction screen (second screen) and move on.

Anna missed the heartfelt animation her friend Jenny chose—a meaningful detail that went unnoticed.

Empathize Deeply with Users

I mapped the user journey and spotted the emotional drop-off—right after the transaction. The feature was hidden and 80% of users never tapped it. The map made the problem crystal clear and became a key tool to align with our Design VP on how to fix it.

I created personas like Rohan, a frequent sender seeking more emotional expression, and Maya, a social receiver who craved joy and connection through each transaction. Their stories shaped our goal: make sending money feel personal, without adding friction.

Design Goals

With the insights and alignment in place, I reframed the challenge as a guiding question:

I defined three core design principles to guide the solution:

1. Enhance Discoverability — Make Story easy to find.
2. Drive Emotional Connection — Surface it at meaningful moments.
3. Ensure Scalability — Design for future currencies, contexts, and platforms.

Design Iterations & Solution

• Small Fix, Big Impact

Before jumping into the feature, I audited the UI and quickly spotted layout issues—like inconsistent spacing and unclear hierarchy—that made it hard to scan. I reorganized messages, added section labels, and set things up to scale for future features like crypto and currency conversion. It was a small tactical move that improved usability, sped up my workflow, and earned recognition from leadership.

• From Visibility to Emotional Resonance

My first concept focused on making the feature easier to find and more engaging. I replaced the plain text link with a clearer entry point, added an animation preview, and introduced a stronger interaction trigger.

But something was missing, the animation felt separate from the sender’s message, which weakened the emotional impact. So I reworked it, merging the Story directly with the message to create a more personal, connected experience that felt seamless and intentional.

• Designing for What Matters

After meeting with the PM, I learned that a CTA wasn’t necessary, recipients already had the money, and the focus needed to shift toward current promotions (like PayPal Debit Card).

I led a redesign that merged the Story animation directly with the message, creating a more personal, fluid experience. Partnering with brand and UX writing, we refined tone and visuals, and ran A/B tests on microcopy to ensure clarity and emotional resonance.

Removing the CTA improved engagement without hurting discoverability. While the layout needed further refinement, this change pushed us toward a more intuitive and cohesive experience overall.

Final Experience

• Refined the experience for clarity, scalability, and emotional impact

The final solution kept the layout clean and scannable, making it easy to absorb key info at a glance. To stay visually balanced, the animation expands only when there’s no accompanying text.

I designed the layout to flex with future needs—whether it’s new money transfer features or expanded content types. The result is an adaptable UI that supports evolving use cases while keeping the experience seamless and aligned with both user needs and business goals.

Key improvements:

• Unified the message and animation into a single, adaptive component
• Embedded directly into sender and recipient flows
• Renamed “Story” to “Note” for clearer mental models
• Extended the experience into confirmations and push notifications
• Applied responsive variations for different currencies, screens, and flows

Enhancing Emotional Connection Through Key Touchpoints

I always aim to design solutions that solve today’s needs and scale for what’s next. This wasn’t just about improving a single screen—it was about creating a cohesive, emotionally resonant journey.

To build that, I expanded the interaction model across key touchpoints:

• Confirmation screen in the sender’s flow to reinforce clarity and build confidence.
• Recipient notification with an embedded preview—a first for PayPal—to spark anticipation and connection through visual storytelling.

Usability testing showed this approach boosted engagement and deepened emotional resonance. By thoughtfully designing these moments, we turned a routine transaction into a more meaningful, memorable experience—building trust, driving retention, and strengthening brand affinity.

Validate with User Testing

I drove validation through 20 remote usability sessions and in-product A/B testing:

• 45% increase in feature engagement
• 3× uplift in Story usage (from 3% → 9%)
• 2× improvement in post-transaction satisfaction
• 2× increase in transaction frequency for users who engaged.
• Users described the new flow as “thoughtful,” “personal,” and “worth sharing.”

Cross-Functional Impact

This project required deep collaboration across product, engineering, and the design system team:

• I created clear, actionable specs and defined key interaction states for handoff.
• I surfaced layout and structure inconsistencies in legacy components — and worked with the system team to address them.
• I built responsive, reusable patterns that scaled to future features like gifting and seasonal campaigns.
• I documented intent clearly to leadership, helping reframe this feature as a retention driver.

A key part of the strategic phase was defining a scalable design direction for the new feature.

I led the integration of new components into the company-wide design system for future use. To streamline this, I created a detailed component request list with:

• Visual examples
• Text descriptions
• Asana tickets for tracking

I highlighted differences from existing components, including subtle changes in pixel spacing, structure, and functionality, ensuring clarity even for less visible details.

I also designed responsive variations, showcasing how elements adapt across different use cases and focus states.

I collaborated closely with the design system team, holding multiple meetings to ensure alignment and flexibility in integrating components—either as standalone elements or variants based on their recommendations.

Once added to the system, I rigorously tested and reviewed components to ensure they met design specifications. I also documented their placement within the design system to guide future collaboration and consistency.

Navigating Trade-offs

An early concept placed Story prominently in the send flow, but a sync with our PM revealed the same screen needed to promote PayPal Debit.

Also, no action was required from recipients — the funds were already delivered — which made the promo feel out of place.

I proposed a new approach: pairing Story with the sender’s note. This kept the interaction lightweight, personal, and intuitive — while respecting business priorities.

Influencing the Roadmap

Initially, the feature wasn’t prioritized. Several stakeholders questioned its ROI.

I used research to show how emotional connection correlated with increased engagement, and worked closely with our PM to reframe the feature as a long-tail retention and differentiation lever — especially in social contexts like birthdays and holidays.

This repositioning helped secure executive sponsorship and roadmap inclusion.

Design Outcome

• Feature adopted into roadmap and design system
• Internal leadership buy-in
• Scalable patterns reused across multiple PayPal products
• Strong signal that Story is driving engagement and deeper connection

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