CASE STUDY 03 - VISA E-COMMERCE
VisaGuided Buying
Reimagining the internal procurement experience for 30,000 Visa employees — transforming a code-based legacy system into a modern, image-driven e-commerce platform.
E-COMMERCE UX
PRODUCT DESIGN
UX RESEARCH
DESIGN SYSTEMS
FIGMA
MAGENTO
ROLES
DELIVERABLES
TOOLS
USER BASE
Figma
ZeplinZZA
01 — OVERVIEW
Not your typical e-commerce project
Visa runs an internal procurement system — Guided Buying — used by all 30,000 of its employees worldwide. Unlike a standard e-commerce site, the catalog spans an extraordinary range: from ballpoint pens and office chairs, to onboarding kits for new hires, server room buildouts, and multi-million dollar advertising placements like an Olympic sponsorship spot. The challenge was designing a single coherent experience that could handle all of it.
THE SCALE
Every Visa employee — from attorneys to data entry technicians to senior managers — depended on this system to procure anything they needed to do their jobs.
THE RANGE
The catalog spanned mundane office supplies all the way to seven-figure advertising investments — requiring a purchasing experience that could handle radically different item types gracefully.
02 — THE PROBLEM
A legacy system built for no one
The original Guided Buying system was entirely text-based — no imagery, no intuitive search, and no metadata on products. It required users to know obscure product codes just to place an order, and frequently timed them out before they could finish.
01
Code-based search
Users had to search for items using internal product codes — not names, descriptions, or features. Searching for "ballpoint pen" returned nothing.
02
No product imagery
The system was entirely text-based. Users had no way to verify size, color, dimensions, or other attributes — leading to frequent wrong orders and returns.
03
Session timeouts
Users were routinely timed out mid-purchase, losing their cart and progress — a particularly painful failure for complex multi-item orders.
04
No shipping information
Total cost of shipping was not surfaced anywhere in the purchase flow, making accurate budget forecasting impossible for managers.
03 — RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
Listening to the people in the system
I spent the first week of the project interviewing management about the current system, then conducted structured usability sessions with 20 employees — a mix of local staff and global teams — covering both qualitative opinion gathering and quantitative task-based testing.
"Try to purchase a new desk, onboarding equipment, and an advertising spot."
METHOD
20 user interviews
Participants were asked to complete representative shopping tasks using the existing system while thinking aloud. Sessions captured both emotional responses and measurable task performance.
KEY FINDINGS
Search was the core failure
Without name-based or feature-based search, users consistently failed to find items. Dense text results with no images made it impossible to evaluate or compare products.
04 — PERSONAS & JOURNEY MAPS
Designing for three distinct shoppers
Based on interview findings, I developed three personas representing the primary user archetypes across Visa's employee population. These anchored design decisions throughout the project — asking "is this how Emma would shop for a chair?" kept the team grounded in real user behavior.
TR
High-frequency purchaser of standard supplies. Values speed and repeatability. Easily frustrated by timeouts and re-entry.
MR
Procures for teams - Needs budget visibility, approval flows, and bulk ordering for onboarding kits.
05 — COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Learning from the best in e-commerce
Make search prominent and intuitive — name-based and feature-based, not code-based.
Provide large, high-quality product images that convey color, size, and context.
Organize the landing page into clear, scannable categories that reduce cognitive load.
Keep users within three taps of any given product at all times.
06 — FINAL DESIGN SOLUTION
A modern shopping experience built for Visa
After multiple rounds of user feedback and iteration, I delivered a fully responsive design — desktop and mobile — built on Visa's style guide. The gold and purple brand palette presented accessibility challenges; all color combinations were validated using the Stark plugin to ensure WCAG-compliant contrast ratios throughout.
07 — USER TESTING RESULTS
A warm reception from users
Participants went through two rounds of structured testing — first with the original system, then weeks later with a clickable prototype of the new design. The results showed dramatic improvements across every measured dimension.
93%
Preferred the new landing screen over the original
96%
Found the new design easier to use and navigate
20
Users interviewed across local and global teams
2x
Rounds of comparative usability testing completed
BEFORE - ORIGINAL SYSTEM
AFTER - REDESIGNED SYSTEM
Text-only results, no product images
Image-driven grid with product attributes
Search required obscure product codes
Name - and feature-based search
Frequent session timeouts, data loss
Extended session limits and cart persistence
No product attributes or shipping costs listed
Shipping costs and product reviews surfaced
08 — BUSINESS OUTCOMES
OKRS addressed
The redesigned Guided Buying system directly addressed all three of Visa's stated business objectives for the project.
OKR 01
Improved ease of use across all purchase types — from office supplies to enterprise-scale advertising placements.
OKR 02
Applied best practices benchmarked from leading
e-commerce platforms, validated through two rounds of user testing.
OKR 03
Delivered a responsive desktop and mobile experience accessible to all 30,000 Visa employees globally.
09 — FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Where the system could go next
User feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but several opportunities for future improvement were identified during testing and stakeholder reviews.
TYPOGRAPHY
Font flexiblity
Constrained by Visa's style guide, the current typeface creates more eye strain than necessary. Future iterations could advocate for a more readable alternative like Open Sans or San Francisco.
IMAGERY
Custom photography
Much of the current catalog relies on vendor stock photography, leading to inconsistent visual quality. Investing in a custom product photography program would significantly elevate the experience.
PERSONALIZATION
"My Guided Buying"
A personalized dashboard — order history, saved lists, recommended items — is a standard e-commerce expectation. Feasibility depends on Magento platform constraints but is worth exploring.
Thank you
Visa Guided Buying Case Study
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