DigitalOcean
Automated PayPal Payments
The project introduces automated PayPal payments for DigitalOcean customers, enhancing convenience for businesses needing timely transactions and international users facing card payment issues. This move aims to keep services uninterrupted and broaden payment accessibility globally.
Year:
2022
Tools:
Figma and Miro
My Responsibilities:
Discovery
Ideation
Wireframing
Prototyping
Team Members:
Jaskaran Sondhi (UX/UI)
the challenge
DigitalOcean's limited payment options and one-time manual payment system caused frustration for new and existing users. The dependency on manual payments often resulted in service disruptions due to late or missed payments. Additionally, many new international customers had no way to verify their identity using their credit/debit cards.
diving into the existing problems
Restricted verification options during sign up
Only two ways to get verified
During signup, users were limited to only using their credit/debit cards or making a one-time payment using Paypal.
Some international users could not use credit/debit cards
International customers from certain countries, like India, were unable to user their credit/debit cards for international payments due to their bank's limitations.
Payment methods for existing users caused frustration
Manual monthly payments
Existing users who did not add a credit card during sign up were forced to make one-time manual payments every month.
Service disruptions due to missed or late manual payments
Often time, users would miss the payment date, causing their services to be frozen and incurred late fees.
the solution
The redesign implemented an automated monthly payment feature using PayPal, providing users with the option to set up recurring payments either during the signup process or post-onboarding. International users could also connect their credit/debit cards to PayPal and use it as a payment method to get billed automatically every month.
solution 1
Verifying identity with PayPal for new users
New users can choose PayPal as a verification method during signup and save it as their default monthly payment method so they get billed automatically.
solution 2
Adding PayPal as a new payment method for existing users
Existing users can easily add PayPal as a payment method from the billing page. International users now have the option of connecting their cards to PayPal and using it as a default monthly payment method.
Diving into the process
Discovery
Identifying key touchpoints for payments
I created a dummy account on DigitalOcean to analyze a user's experience first hand and identified three touchpoints where users are introduced to payment options.
01
Identity verification during signup for new users
When new users are signing up, they can either verify their identity by adding a Credit/Debit card or making a one-time transaction with PayPal.
02
Manual bill payments for existing users
Verified users that have on-boarded can make a one-time payment via PayPal using the 'Make a payment' button in the billing page of the control panel.
03
Adding a new backup payment method
Existing users could add a backup payment method from the billing screen.
problem statement
New users encounter limited payment options during account verification, and existing users face challenges with manual bill payments, leading to widespread frustration and service interruptions. This situation demands a more user-friendly payment system to ensure continuous and reliable service for businesses and international customers.
ideation
Sketching potential solutions
I did not want to deviate too much from the existing user flows, so I leveraged what DigitalOcean had already implemented as payment options and tried to integrate PayPal recurring payment in these existing experiences.
new users
Selecting 'Pre-Pay' or 'Recurring' during sign-up
My idea during sign-up was to use the existing identity verification payment gateway. Instead of just offering pre-pay, users will get to choose either pre-pay or recurring payments when selecting PayPal as a payment provider.
new users
Opting in to PayPal recurring payments during verification
When choosing PayPal as a payment method for verification, users need to make a payment of $5.00 to verify their PayPal accounts.
My idea was to introduce a check box to enable recurring payments and add their PayPal accounts as the default payment method for future billing.
existing users
Adding PayPal recurring payments as a backup
Existing users that have verified their identity using a Credit card can add a backup payment method like a second credit card, bank account, or Google Pay.
Since we were introducing recurring payments, I liked the idea of adding PayPal as an option in this experience so users could add PayPal as a backup payment method.
wireframes
Building out the experience
Once I shared my initial ideas with the product and design teams, I started turning those sketches into wireframes to help me visualize a user's journey through the sign up and post-onboarding process of adding PayPal recurring payments.
PayPal payments for new users during sign up
version a
Selecting a PayPal payment method
My idea here was to allow a new user to choose between Pre-pay and Recurring payments as separated experiences during sign up.
Depending on a user's selection, we will show different experiences for making a pre-payment or recurring payment method for future billing.
version b
Opt-in to PayPal recurring payments
Showing a checkbox to opt-in to recurring monthly payments is another idea I explored.
When a user enables recurring payments, our system would save their PayPal account as the default payment method, which would be used to pay for the services automatically every billing cycle. This would be highly beneficial for international customers since they could verify their accounts by connecting their international credit or debit cards via PayPal.
PayPal payments for new users during signup
version a
Add PayPal as a payment method in Billing
For existing users that are already on-boarded onto DigitalOcean's platform, they could add a backup payment method from the billing page using a variety of payment methods.
I wanted to leverage this existing experience, and add an option to add PayPal recurring payments. Additionally, to inform users of this new feature, I added a CTA specifically for PayPal recurring payments, which would take users straight to the PayPal login page.
version b
Using a prominent banner for PayPal recurring CTA
Since we were introducing PayPal recurring payments as a new feature, I wanted to highlight this by adding a banner with a CTA that informs users of this.
By using a prominent, eye-catching banner, it would be easier for users to identify PayPal recurring payments in the billing page, since just using a link like in Version 1 did not stand out for this new feature.
After creating these lo-fidelity prototypes, I turned to the product and design teams for a review and received the following feedback, helping me move in the right direction
Feedback for new users signing up
❌ version a
This design was scraped after learning that PayPal does not have different user flows for people choosing pre-pay or recurring payments.
✅ version b
Using a check-box to enable recurring payments would not only reduce an extra step of choosing pre-pay or recurring, but also make it easier for users.
Feedback for existing users
❌ version a
This design was scraped after learning that PayPal does not have different user flows for people choosing pre-pay or recurring payments.
✅ version b
Using a check-box to enable recurring payments would not only reduce an extra step of choosing pre-pay or recurring, but also make it easier for users.
final prototype
Experience for new users during sign up
Experience for existing users post-onboarding
retrospective
Final thoughts and take aways
01
Viewing the experience from the customer's POV
It was crucial for me to get into the shoes of our customers and go through their journey during sign up and post-onboarding to realize the potential restrictions they faced while using the platform.
02
Considering international customers
We must take into account the limitations for international customers regarding payments. By digging deep into the customer base, I was able to surface the issues that certain international customers faced with billing.