I led content design for a redesign of Zelle's search and add recipient flow. The existing experience split a simple task — finding or adding someone to pay — across multiple disconnected screens. The redesign consolidated it into a single integrated search feature that reduced drop-offs by 59% and cut average task duration by 42%.
Zelle's recipient selection flow required users to navigate between two separate pages — one for searching recent contacts and another for device contacts. A three-icon toolbar (search, add, scan QR code) served as the entry point for these actions.
Adding a new recipient meant leaving the screen entirely, navigating to a separate manual add page, and entering details from scratch. For a flow users repeat frequently, the extra navigation added time and cognitive overhead to what should be quick and familiar.
The fragmented experience created measurable drop-offs between screens. Users who intended to search, add, or select a recipient were abandoning the flow before completing the task.
I conducted an audit of the existing recipient selection flow to identify where and why users were dropping off. I evaluated how users moved between searching, browsing, and adding recipients, where the flow introduced unnecessary navigation, and what information users needed at each step to complete the task.
Two things stood out. Users were forced to context-switch between pages for closely related tasks — searching vs. browsing contacts. And the separate manual add screen created an additional step that interrupted flow for new recipients.
This shaped a clear job to be done: when someone needs to send money to a person through Zelle, they want to quickly find or add them from a single screen, so they can get to the payment step without navigating between pages.
I owned end-to-end UX content for the redesigned flow. That meant content strategy for the search bar label and contextual help, writing and iteration of all user-facing copy, and defining how the search field communicated its dual purpose — find existing contacts and add new ones via mobile number, email, or Zelle tag from a single entry point.
Beyond writing, I influenced the structure of the redesigned flow itself, including the decision to consolidate search and add into a single screen. I partnered with product and design to evaluate the existing experience, worked with engineering on how the search bar could pull from both recent and device contacts simultaneously, and aligned with EWS on token-based recipient name auto-population to bypass the manual add screen entirely.
The content strategy prioritized clarity without over-explaining. I used the search bar label as a content design tool and layered contextual guidance that adapted to the user's state.
The experience was shaped by three key content decisions.
Users navigated between separate screens for searching contacts and adding new recipients. A three-icon toolbar treated these as distinct actions when they were really part of the same task: getting to the person you want to pay.
The redesign replaced the toolbar with a single search bar that pulls from recent and device contacts simultaneously and enables adding new recipients directly.
The search bar needed to signal that it handled both searching existing contacts and adding new recipients — a departure from how Zelle search previously worked. Users associated the search icon with a single action. Now it was doing two things.
I used "Add / search" as the field label, leading with the less obvious action to signal expanded functionality. An info icon on the search bar, when tapped, brings up a contextual help bottom sheet: "To select or add recipients, search by name, phone, or email." When the field is active, this guidance moves to inline subtext below the search bar.
The label signals the action, the contextual help explains the process, and the active-state subtext keeps guidance visible at the moment of action.
Adding a new recipient previously required navigating to a separate screen and manually filling multiple fields. The solution was a quick, inline action.
The redesign enabled the search bar to add a new token that auto-populates the recipient name, bypassing the manual add screen. The added functionality allowed us to remove an entire screen from the flow.
The redesigned experience consolidated a fragmented multi-page flow into a single integrated search feature. A unified search bar replaced the three-icon toolbar, search results pull from recent and device contacts simultaneously, and new recipients can be added directly through the search bar via mobile number, email, or Zelle tag auto-population.
Drop-offs decreased by 59% across the recipient selection flow and average task duration went from 33 seconds to 19 seconds. Two screens were eliminated from the flow entirely.
The biggest content challenge was the search bar label. It needed to communicate expanded functionality without confusing users who associated Zelle search with a single action. "Add / search" worked because it led with the new capability.
Contextual help placement required iteration. The bottom sheet to inline subtext transition worked because it surfaced support when it would be helpful to all users, and kept it behind an info icon for those who needed it.
Next time, I'd push to validate the "Add / search" label with broader usability testing across different user segments, explore how the search experience scales as users accumulate larger contact lists, and investigate whether the contextual bottom sheet is still needed after users become familiar with the enhanced search.