Product: Porter Airlines iOS & Android app

Role: Main Product Designer

Scale: 110K+ MAU · 4.8★ iOS · 4.5★ Android

Overview

Payments are a moment of truth. If users hesitate, get confused, or lose trust, the transaction fails.

This project started as a small request to add new payment methods. Over time, it became a full rethink of how the app communicates cost, balance, and success—turning a fragile checkout into a clearer, more scalable foundation.

"Just add more payment methods"

The original brief sounded straightforward: allow users to redeem travel credits and gift certificates. At the time, credit card was the only payment option in the app.

I audited the existing mobile and web payment flows and reviewed best-in-class e-commerce checkouts. Early concepts and a revised user flow quickly took shape and received verbal approval.

At that point, it looked like the project was ready for hand-off.

But it wasn’t.

Reframing the problem

A 2024 framework migration paused many mobile initiatives, including this one. When the project resurfaced later that year—driven by the retirement of gift certificates and launch of gift cards—I revisited the earlier designs with fresh eyes.

It became clear: The real problem wasn’t missing payment methods. It was confusion.

Through research and critiques, four user questions kept resurfacing:

• What is the actual total I’m paying?

• How much do I still owe?

• What payment options can cover that balance?

• Did my payment actually go through?

I proposed expanding the scope—from “adding payments” to fixing the checkout experience itself. That meant:

• Restructuring the payment flow and information hierarchy

• Making balances and outstanding amounts explicit

• Adding redeem functionality alongside Apple Pay and Google Pay

• Redesigning success and error states to reinforce trust

Shipping a clearer checkout experience

After multiple rounds of usability testing, accessibility reviews, and stakeholder walkthroughs, the redesigned payment flow shipped in June 2025—Porter’s first major app release of the year.

Keeping accessibility top of mind, I made sure to:

• Review designs with our Digital Accessibility Specialist

• Add detailed annotations for developers and QA

• Validate the accessibility hand-off process post-launch with Fable testers, earning an above-average Accessibility Usability Score (AUS)

Impact & next steps

• 94K+ checkout entries by 28K+ users as of February 2026

• 87% transaction completion rate and 9% cart abandonment rate (average for e-commerce apps is 47% transaction completion and 80% cart abandonment)

• Clear foundation for scaling future payment methods

Leading metrics like transaction completion rate and cart abandonment rate as well as lagging metrics such as customer satisfaction and app store reviews are being closely monitored monthly for future improvement.

Apple Pay and Google Pay require further technical work, but the redesigned flow now supports faster, more flexible payment options without rethinking the core experience again.