Product Design

Redesigning the experience of finding a USPS Location

How we modernized the experience of finding a USPS location

Role
Lead Designer
Year
2022
Company
USPS.com
Disciplines
UX Research, Interaction Design, Map based design, Prototyping

The problem

Customers were abandoning their carts at an unusually high rate. Analytics showed the steepest drop-off happened between step 3 (shipping) and step 4 (payment) — a transition that required users to re-enter information they'd already provided.

Discovery

I ran five moderated usability sessions and reviewed session recordings from the past 90 days. Three clear patterns emerged:

  1. Users expected shipping and billing to be combined
  2. The progress indicator created anxiety rather than clarity
  3. Error messages appeared inline but were easy to miss on mobile

Design process

Starting from the existing flow, I mapped every field and its relationship to user intent. The goal was to eliminate anything that didn't directly serve the transaction.

I prototyped three directions: a stepped modal approach, a single-page accordion, and a persistent summary sidebar. After one round of unmoderated testing (n=12), the single-page accordion won clearly — users understood their place and felt in control.

Outcome

After shipping to 100% of traffic, the checkout completion rate increased by 34%. Mobile completion improved by 47%. The support queue for checkout-related issues dropped by 22% in the first month.