Visa already had an RTX (real-time payments) platform in place but needed a Help Centre to guide new and existing users—especially developers and businesses—on key features, terminology, and integration steps.
Establish a User-Centric Foundation. Translate user needs and business objectives into intuitive designs for the Help Centre, relying on user testing data to validate each iteration.
Drive Data-Driven Decisions. Leverage both qualitative and quantitative feedback (via UserTesting.com and stakeholder input) to refine the Help Centre’s navigation, layout, and content hierarchy.
Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration. Work closely with the Project Manager, Business Analyst, and fellow Designer to ensure that design solutions meet technical feasibility, business goals, and user expectations.
Lead Product Designer (Me). Oversaw all design activities, from conceptualising wireframes to leading user testing on UserTesting.com. Translated test insights into actionable design improvements.
Supporting Product Designer (Colleague). Assisted with setting up the user testing platform, participant scheduling, and synthesizing insights.
Project Manager. Served as the primary liaison between the design team and higher-level stakeholders. Defined the overall objectives and ensured alignment with the broader business roadmap.
Business Analyst. Conducted competitive benchmarking of existing help centres, compiled content requirements, and structured the information architecture in collaboration with the design team.
Aligned with product leaders to clarify user expectations, business goals, and potential “pain points” in navigating multiple services.
Defined user testing scenarios on UserTesting.com, focusing on how participants accessed Help from the top navigation, whether through text labels or icons.
Developed three prototypes featuring different Help Centre access points: a “Help” text label, a “?” icon, and a “lifebuoy” icon.
Tested with a 5-user functional sample to capture qualitative feedback on usability.
Ran a questionnaire with ~30 participants to collect quantitative insights on navigation preferences and comprehension of Help Centre structure.
Hierarchy & Discoverability. Found that the text label “Help” outperformed the icons by clearly indicating a help resource. The “?” icon was more intuitive, while the “lifebuoy” symbol caused confusion.
Contextual Assistance—Build or Buy?. Multiple participants wanted in-flow, contextual help (e.g., a side panel) to minimise context-switching. I evaluated the time and cost of building such a solution in-house vs. integrating a third-party tool. Together with the Project Manager, I recommended Richpanel for faster deployment, robust in-app messaging, and lower long-term maintenance overhead.
Every test participant successfully completed the test without assistance.
Observed in moderated sessions (via UserTesting.com), recorded in session logs and participant surveys.
Average time to find “Entity Management” dropped from ~35 seconds to ~5 seconds.
Tracked via screen recordings and completion timestamps in UserTesting.com analytics.
Notable decrease in newly submitted tickets after the Help Centre’s launch. Historically, we handled around 25 new-user tickets per month.
Customer support logs and ticketing system reports compiled by the Project Manager over a one-month pilot.
Building the contextual side-panel in-house vs. using Richpanel would have cost significantly more developer resources (5 devs over 2 sprints).
Development estimations and timeline planning with the Engineering Team and Project Manager comparing in-house efforts vs. Richpanel’s setup.
Originally, the Learning Centre occupied prime space at the top, with no dedicated search field in the header. This layout caused users to overlook the Platform section and struggle to find “Entity Management.”
By moving the Learning Centre to the bottom, emphasising the Platform section, and adding a search field in the header, users reduced their time on task by 86%—from about 35 seconds down to 5.
Demonstrated by guiding product owners toward clarity in site navigation through well-structured user research.
Showcased with stakeholders, balancing business objectives, technical feasibility, and user needs.
Reinforced at each step, from wireframes to hi-fidelity prototypes, validating decisions through user research.
Positioned the Help Centre as a dynamic resource, easing customer support load and fostering user independence.
I learned to confidently back up design recommendations using data from usability testing and user feedback.
Stepping into an existing platform and clarifying the product roadmap required me to proactively define challenges, hypothesize solutions, and iterate quickly.
Evaluating build-vs.-buy scenarios for contextual help forced me to consider cost, time-to-market, and long-term maintenance—a pivotal experience in product strategy.
I honed my presentation skills, ensuring that product leaders, engineers, and fellow designers understood both user pain points and the ROI of proposed solutions.
