Advanced Biller Search for Citi Bill Pay
Upgrade a 3 years old adding bill payee experience with expanded database
Project Overview
Citi recognized that customers were struggling to manage their bill payments effectively. The existing search function often failed to surface the correct biller, leading to user frustration and increased support requests. To address this, Citi aimed to introduce an advanced search capability that not only improves biller discoverability but also reduces errors when adding new payees.
By categorizing billers into industries and business segments and aligning this structure with the backend database, the redesign would allow customers to browse, filter, and select the correct biller with ease. The ultimate goal was to simplify bill management, improve customer satisfaction, and create a seamless, morden experience across Citi’s mobile app and web platform.
Note: The new design went live in November 2024 — feel free to explore it if you have a Citi account.
By categorizing billers into industries and business segments and aligning this structure with the backend database, the redesign would allow customers to browse, filter, and select the correct biller with ease. The ultimate goal was to simplify bill management, improve customer satisfaction, and create a seamless, morden experience across Citi’s mobile app and web platform.
Note: The new design went live in November 2024 — feel free to explore it if you have a Citi account.
My Contribution
- Led the end-to-end design of an advanced biller search experience, creating a customizable search directory powered by a database of 60K+ billers
- Creates prototypes and high-fidelity designs for web and mobile applications
- Participates in stakeholder reviews for feedback and oversights the QA for design implementation
- Tests applications for usability, in partnership with user researchers
Role & Timeline
Leading UX Designer
Dec 2023 - May 2024
Tools
Figma, Jira
Team
Creative team (creative director, designers, copywriter, producer, and research/strategist), product owners, cross platform developers, legal and compliance
Project Highlights
Faster payee search
Streamlined CX
More accurate results
The Challenge
User Pain Points:
- Customers struggled to find the right biller due to inconsistent naming or multiple variations of the same business.
- The existing search relied heavily on keyword matching, often leading to mismatched or inaccurate results.
- Users struggle to enter or recall the correct account number, leading to frequent setup errors and frustration.
Business Needs:
- Reduce call center support requests caused by bill pay setup issues.
- Improve biller discoverability to increase usage of Citi’s Bill Pay service.
- Process as many electronic payments as possible instead of paper checks.
- Establish a standardized backend categorization for billers.
Research & Insights
Key Insights:
- Many users were unsure of the “official” biller name and preferred browsing by recognizable categories (e.g., “Utilities → Electricity → Seattle City Light”).
- Other banks (Chase, Wells Fargo) offered filters by industry but lacked clarity in multi-step navigation.
Key Insights:
- Users expect a search experience similar to e-commerce—search plus category filtering.
Design Goals
- Improve Findability – Enable users to locate billers quickly through categories and predictive search.
- Reduce Errors – Minimize incorrect payee setup by guiding users to the right biller.
- Simplify Adding – Make it easy to add payee information without losing track.
UX Approach
Existing flow
Select → Search → Results list → Payee Info → Payee Validation→ Add
New flow
Search OR Browse by Category → Filtered Results→ Payee Validation→ Payee Info→ Add
Final Solution
Current Experience
Inconsistent naming and multiple variations of the same business/No details of payees
No guidelines or alternative options for customer to move forward if they don't have account number
Lack of review screen and details of the payee added
Updated Experience
Filter Panel
Faster payee search using category filters, biller alias recognition and an improved search algorithm
Faster payee search using category filters, biller alias recognition and an improved search algorithm
Auto-suggest
Predictive search that shows top categories and biller names as the user types
Predictive search that shows top categories and biller names as the user types
Result List
Improved CX and search results which include details like address and category
Improved CX and search results which include details like address and category
Design Impact
User Benefits:
- User have much more confidence in finding the correct payee with less frustration and errors
- A faster and more accurate biller discovery experience
- A smoother journey to add payee digitally without dealing with paper check
Business Benefits:
- Call center support requests lower down by 13%
- 4.8% decrease in monthly check volume
- Establish a standardized backend categorization for billers.
