 SQUARE

Outage mode

a Critical fallback feature FOR when Payment services are disrupted.

The PROJECT

Design an experience that shifts sellers who are being impacted by a Square service outage into offline mode so they can continue taking payments with minimal disruption until the issue is resolved.

MY ROLE

Lead UX Designer
Lead Content Designer

MY process

Key parts of my process and a sample of my work can be found below. For a full case study, contact me.

UNDERSTAND THE JOURNEY

I used a user journey map to pinpoint areas for improvement and discovered that users were attempting to leverage offline mode during outages.

conduct an audit

I audited the offline experience to identify improvements for outages and reviewed competitor offline flows to gain deeper insights into industry standards.

DESIGN the solution

MAP OUT THE USER FLOW

Intentional and thoughtful flow of information was the focal point of the experience. To build the UX, I created a flowchart by considering possible variants and technical feasibility.

PARTNER WITH PRODUCT DESIGN

I partnered with product design to nail down content and determine UI, such as banner placements and color, modal layouts, and determining the right amount of friction. We went through several rounds of iterations until landing on our final solution. See below for design explorations.

Iteration 1: Surface disablement toggle & field to edit limits.

Iteration 2: Deep link to feature management in settings

Final design

Iteration 3: Offline mode auto-enabled if settings already on. Feature management deep linked.

Final design

Iteration 3: Prompted to enable offline mode & set a limit if offline settings are turned off.

COLLABORATE CROSS-FUNCTIONALLY

We partnered with product and engineering to refine the design, tackling edge cases, country-specific limitations, and platform differences between iOS and Android. We also collaborated with localization, legal, and communications teams to align on broader stakeholder needs.

Post-launch ITERATIONS

After the next outage, we gathered data and feedback on the experience. While it was successful, we identified small but impactful opportunities for design improvements. To enhance the experience and address confusion, we iterated on the designs. See an example below.

IMPACT

increase in User trust
described as “the smoothest outage we’ve ever had.”
rated highly in usability & feature usefulness
prevents payment loss during an outage