​Objective

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Enable travel sellers to accept online payments through a hosted experience that:

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• Shifted PCI responsibility to our platform    

• Isolated card data from client systems    

• Supported white-labeled deployments    

• Worked across desktop and mobile    

• Integrated into existing checkout flows    

• Scaled across multiple tenants within a shared infrastructure

• Enabled extensive customization of the payment experience

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Role

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UX Lead for the Hosted Payment Page project.

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Owned the end-to-end shopper payment experience across desktop and mobile, including layout, validation, error handling, and transaction states.

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Defined the white-label theming model and layout guardrails to support branded deployments without compromising structural consistency.

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Partnered with Product and Engineering to establish integration patterns that kept the hosted page compliant and technically isolated while fitting into client checkout flows.

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Documented interaction patterns, configuration logic, and edge cases to support implementation.

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Project Outcome

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The Hosted Payment Page did not launch prior to my departure.

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By the time I transitioned off the project:

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• Core shopper flows and responsive designs were complete    

•  White-label theming and layout guardrails were defined    

• The rules-based payment configuration model was established    

• Integration and transaction handling patterns were documented    

• Engineering was actively building against the defined experience    

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The initiative had moved from strategy and design into active development.

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Business Context & Constraints

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The Hosted Payment Page operated within strict PCI and architectural boundaries. Cardholder data had to remain isolated from client systems, which shaped integration patterns, redirects, and transaction state handling.

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At the same time, clients required strong branding continuity to protect conversion. The hosted experience needed to appear native to each airline or hotel while remaining structurally controlled for compliance.

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The solution also needed to support:

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• White-labeled deployments    

• Rules-based configuration of payment options    

• Conditional logic based on fraud risk, device type, location, and seasonality    

• Integration with existing payment processors    

• Consistent behavior across desktop and mobile

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The primary challenge was supporting white-label customization and dynamic payment features while maintaining a streamlined checkout experience that preserved conversion.

Research & Insights

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This initiative was informed by research conducted by our UX Research team, along with ongoing conversations with primary clients.

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Research explored:

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• How travel sellers currently handled payment acceptance

• Configuration needs, including frequency, type, and time

• Operational concerns related to PCI compliance    

• Shopper expectations during travel checkout flows    

• Trust signals in high-value transactions    

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Travel sellers were highly sensitive to conversion risk. If shoppers perceived that they had been redirected to a third-party site during checkout, trust could drop and abandonment could increase. Even subtle visual differences could create hesitation.  This made branding flexibility a core requirement, not a cosmetic preference.

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Key insights included:

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• Clients needed strong visual continuity with their primary booking experience.    

• The hosted page had to feel like part of the airline or hotel site, even though it was technically isolated.  

• Layout flexibility mattered, particularly around order summary placement.    

• Even small changes to the wording of form field labels or error messages could have measurable effects on conversion

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These insights directly influenced how we approached theming, layout structure, configuration and implementation.

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​Business Context & Constraints

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The Hosted Payment Page sat within a regulated payments environment and a multi-tenant travel platform.

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Cardholder data had to remain fully isolated from client systems to maintain PCI boundaries. This dictated how the page was hosted, how redirects worked, and how transaction state was communicated back to the merchant.

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At the same time, clients required:

• White-label branding that preserved checkout continuity    

• A rules-based system to dynamically control payment options    

• Conditional logic based on fraud risk, device type, location, and seasonality    

• Integration with existing processors and backend systems    

• Consistent behavior across desktop and mobile    

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The core challenge was supporting branding and configurable payment logic while keeping the checkout flow short, clear, and conversion-focused.

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Exploration & Trade-offs

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White-label customization was a business requirement. Clients needed strong visual continuity to avoid the perception of a third-party checkout experience, which could impact trust and conversion. We enabled customization of colors, fonts, stroke weights, corner radius, form labels, error messaging, and certain control placements to support brand and trade dress requirements.

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At the same time, customization could not increase the length or complexity of the checkout. Regardless of styling or configuration, the core flow had to remain short and predictable.

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The rules-based system introduced conditional behavior. In some scenarios, additional information could be collected to support fraud checks. In others, the rules were used to optimize presentation, such as prioritizing Apple Pay for iPhone users or hiding Google Pay when not relevant. Promo pricing and other business-driven adjustments could also be applied.

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These configurations were resolved before the shopper interacted with the page. The design challenge was ensuring that conditional logic supported business strategy without expanding the visible scope or cognitive load of the checkout.

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The hosted page also had to remain technically isolated for PCI compliance while feeling integrated within the client’s booking experience.

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Final Solution

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The Hosted Payment Page delivered a responsive, white-labeled checkout experience for desktop and mobile that allowed travel sellers to accept payments without expanding their PCI scope.

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The solution included:

• A structured, responsive payment layout adaptable across device types    

• A theming system supporting brand-level customization of colors, typography, form labels, error messaging, and key UI treatments    

• Flexible placement of certain controls to support client trade dress requirements    

• A rules-based configuration engine that determined payment method availability and ordering before page load    

• Conditional logic to support fraud checks, promotional pricing, and device- or location-specific payment optimization    

• Clear validation, transaction state handling, and integration patterns for secure communication with client systems

    

The result was a hosted payment experience that preserved brand continuity, supported dynamic business logic, and maintained a short, conversion-focused checkout flow.