Payflow
User-Centered Design
Modernizing a Legacy System.
My Role
I was asked to collaborate with the director of Payflow, a third-party payment system, to assess their current systems and processes and propose a new design solution.
- Facilitate remote usability testing sessions.
- Write qualitative surveys.
- Build customer journey maps.
- Design and prototype a new system.
Where it began
Out-of-date software and out-of-date processes. The legacy system leveraged a 40-year old manual database tool and onboarding processes were supported by sending a fax.
This all resulted in a massive build-up in accounts receivable.
Benchmarking Legacy
Before creating a new solution, I aimed to evaluate the performance of the current system. This approach would help me identify what was functioning effectively, where the system fell short, and uncover potential opportunities for improvement.
To benchmark the system, I chose to conduct basic qualitative surveys and usability tests focused on the most common daily tasks. This would provide valuable insights into user experiences and highlight areas needing attention.
How happy are you with tools and processes used today?
Very Unhappy
Unhappy
Neutral
Happy
Very Happy
Very Happy
Unhappy
Neutral
Additional Answers
Participants also filled out additional answers from the survey. Here is an example of just one.
Director of Home Health Care
Unhappy
"The process we currently have for new providers, caregivers, and clients is extremely tedious. Our system does not allow us to import right to it so we have to use other programs such as Excel to receive documentation during onboarding."
How confident are you in […]'s capabilities to support many new provider locations and accounts?
1/5
Tell us more about why you chose that rating.
"Our process right now is not suited for large growth. We have one person solely focused on onboarding and other helping when needed. The issue then comes of maintaining those providers and keeping up with the changes."
Seeing the Big Picture
In order to understand how everything ties together, I collaborated with the company's director to create service blueprints customer journey maps.
From there, I sketched out some initial ideas and shaped out basic functionality.
Making the Design
Using the customer journey maps and sketches, I created a seamless Figma prototype of the entire employee journey. The prototype demonstrated how employees would onboard new accounts as well as collect payments and settle invoices.
Validation
The new design looked a lot better, but would it actually be an improvement? To know for sure, I conducted a follow-up usability test using the same tasks and survey questions. That way I could make a direct comparison between the old system to the proposed solution.
The responses were overwhelmingly positive.
How did you feel about using the software used today for onboarding accounts and billing?
5 Responses
A breath of fresh air. It showed us what could be. I thought it was easy to use, had a great flow, and was an easy way to document all the information needed.
After learning where things were located initially, it felt very comfortable to use. Everything I tested was located in places that made sense and had a good flow to them.
It was very user-friendly.
It looks great. It was intimidating that I had to manage it myself, while being recorded, without having seen it beforehand.
It seemed good but would feel better using it more to give a more detailed answer.
How confident do you feel about the tools used today being a replacement for current systems and processes?
5 Responses
I am extremely confident. Just the idea of being able to invite our customers to add/edit their own information is a huge benefit. It would put some responsibility onto the customer which would cause less errors and more visibility.
Although it is still early in the development process, I feel confident that these tools will be a huge help in replacing our current system.
Very confident. It walks you through step by step.
Good. It seems very easy to use.
I would feel more confident If I could use the tools more before I could say if it would be better than what we have right now. As a whole and only using it once is does seem good.
How would having access to this software impact your day-to-day responsibilities?
5 Responses
Currently, things are extremely drawn out. Because the potential new software has everything stored in one place and we allow the customer to edit information, it would allow us to onboard a provider, clients and caregivers quicker. This means we could onboard more customers in the time it takes to currently onboard one. This would help us be able to grow.
It is difficult to say this early on in the development, as the initial pieces being developed don't cover any of my job responsibilities. However, I do believe that once completed, this will have a large impact on my day-to-day routine, and will save me a lot of time doing manual processes that should be automated.
Frees up some time. Not as much clicking around.
It will greatly improve my day-to-day activities. Currently, we are working with a dinosaur system, so hopefully, this will bring us improvements that will make us more competitive.
It should make it easier if we only have to enter things once into the system and not to enter again. It could cut down time.
Final Thoughts
This project was a lot of fun and I'm grateful for the opportunity to modernize and improve the company's platform.
Doing all of the usability testing, customer journey maps, high-fidelity designs, and prototyping was a lot of work, but it all paid off. It was an amazing feeling to hear such kind words from the director I worked with and the employees feedback from the survey on the new designs.
©2025 Tyler Renfro