Case Study
Payment Links
Team
Joshua
Product Designer
Ryan
Product Manager (STAX PAY)
Overview
As part of the product design team, I helped design Payment Links, a flexible payment solution that allows businesses to quickly request and accept payments without the need for a dedicated website or checkout page. Businesses can generate a shareable link, QR code, or Payment Button, making it easy to collect payments across a wide range of platforms.
These payment links can be shared through email, SMS, mobile apps, and popular social channels like Facebook and WhatsApp—meeting customers where they already are. This flexibility was a key focus of the design process, ensuring that businesses could engage customers across multiple touchpoints with minimal friction.
To enhance the user experience, the payment flow supports a variety of payment methods, including ACH transfers, digital wallets, and credit/debit cards, giving customers the freedom to choose how they want to pay.
Another core part of the design involved creating a customization experience that allowed businesses to configure their payment links to match specific needs—whether that’s adding multiple line items, custom fields, or tailoring the checkout experience for different use cases. This flexibility ensures businesses can scale Payment Links to fit their unique products and services.
Through user research, iterative design, and close collaboration with engineering, I helped ensure the Payment Links experience was intuitive for businesses to set up and simple for customers to use.
The Challenge
The existing “Website Payments” feature was too complex for most merchants, requiring coding knowledge, API calls, and webhooks to implement. Additionally, it was buried five clicks deep in the UI, making it inaccessible. The goal was to simplify the experience, making it easy to create and share payment links in just one or two clicks.
The use of tokens and API keys were a pain point for most users, resulting in straying away from utilizing this amazing feature to collect payments.
"Do I need to be knowledgable in code to maximize it's use".
Research and Discovery
Conducted stakeholder and user interviews to identify pain points.
Discovered that most merchants avoided the feature due to its technical complexity.
Defined key user needs: quick setup, ability to edit links, and visibility of stored links
Design Solutions
Reduced Complexity: Removed coding requirements and made link creation a simple, intuitive process.
Faster Access: Moved Payment Links to a more prominent location within the UI, reducing clicks.
Editable & Manageable: Allowed merchants to modify, enable, and disable links to prevent outdated payment issues.
Expanded Functionality: Explored options for recurring payments and tracking clicks vs. revenue.
Iterative Testing: Created wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and usability-tested the flow before launch.
Outcome
400+ users onboarded in the first two weeks after General Availability (GA) release.
Positive adoption feedback, aided by a Pendo guide to highlight the new feature’s ease of use.
Merchants found it faster, simpler, and more accessible compared to the previous solution.
Takeaways
Visibility drives engagement—moving the feature from deep in the UI to a more accessible location increased adoption.
Simplicity is key—reducing friction in setup and eliminating coding barriers made the feature viable for a broader audience.
User education matters—introducing a guided walkthrough helped drive adoption and user confidence.