02 / Project's process

understand

>

prioritize

>

design

>

validate

>

launch

>

evolve

03 / Overview

When cancelling a sale takes more than clicking “Cancel”

For a merchant, cancelling a sale should be simple. However, the previous portal made the journey difficult to navigate and understand and, in some scenarios, led merchants to rely on customer support.

For merchants handling high transaction volumes, this friction became even more significant.

The context was also one of considerable scale: in March 2022, Rede represented 21.3% of the Brazilian acquiring market and was the second-largest player in the segment. The challenge was to transform a complex operation, constrained by a legacy ecosystem, into a simpler, more accessible, and autonomous experience. Key focus areas

• Self-service: reduce reliance on customer support;

• Efficiency: facilitate high-volume operations;

• Clarity: make rules and available actions easier to understand;

• Accessibility: consider different user needs from the MVP onwards;

• Incremental evolution: deliver value without overlooking existing technical constraints.

Recognition

Project with the highest accessibility impact, Design/Product

Highest-performing MVP,
Design/Product

04 / Objective

Increasing merchant autonomy

The objective was to reduce reliance on customer support and make sales cancellation easier through the digital channel, particularly for merchants handling high transaction volumes.

What is a sales cancellation?

A sales cancellation occurs when a merchant requests the cancellation of a completed transaction — for example, after a product return, an exchange for an item with a different value, or the cancellation of a service within the legally established seven-day period.

The operation had to comply with different payment methods, card-scheme rules, and limitations imposed by the systems supporting the process.

The challenge

How might we simplify the experience without artificially simplifying the complexity behind it?

Higher digital adoption + lower reliance on customer support + greater operational efficiency + an accessible experience.

DoD: Definition of Done

05 / My role

Product Designer on the squad

I worked as a Product Designer, collaborating with Product Owners, stakeholders, Tech Leads, Engineering, and QA. My work focused on four main areas:

Discovery

I led the usability testing process, identifying comprehension and interaction issues and incorporating findings into solution iterations.

Usability Testing

I contributed to mapping the existing journey, identifying available functionality, and uncovering opportunities for improvement.

Accessibility

I worked closely with QA before production to validate accessibility requirements and the experience with assistive technologies.

Post-MVP evolution

I led the mapping of features that remained outside the MVP scope, structuring opportunities for subsequent product iterations.

The MVP scope was defined collaboratively with business and stakeholders. My contribution was to bring the Design perspective, research insights, and validation findings into the evolution of the experience.

06 / Strategy & approach

⚠️NDA Note: The screens presented in this case study were recreated exclusively for portfolio purposes. They do not contain confidential information, real customer data, or proprietary business content. Any names, documents, account numbers, and other information are fictional and used solely for illustrative purposes. The layout was based on Desyre, a discontinued Design System, and does not represent Voxel iDS, the current Design System used by Itaú Empresas.

The starting point was not a blank canvas

Before designing a new experience, we mapped the existing journey to understand:

• available functionality;

• process steps and business rules;

• back-end dependencies;

• mainframe-related constraints;

• friction points.

The mapping showed that not every experience problem could be solved through the interface alone. Part of the experience was constrained by the existing architecture.

07 / Discovery & solution evolution

Where was the experience breaking down?

After understanding how the existing flow worked, we needed to understand why it was creating friction. We therefore combined multiple sources of evidence.

The voice of the operation

We analyzed customer support requests and feedback collected through Likert-scale evaluations. This helped us identify recurring issues and situations that led merchants to seek support.

The voice of merchants

To understand the context behind these problems, we selected merchants based on their sales volume and conducted telephone interviews. We explored their main difficulties and blockers when requesting a cancellation through the existing portal.

Support requests showed us where the experience was breaking down. Interviews helped us understand why.

The market as a reference

We also benchmarked sales cancellation flows from other payment providers, including Cielo, Stone, and Safra Pay.

The benchmark helped us identify market patterns, opportunities, and different approaches to structuring the operation.

Materials developed during co-creation sessions with stakeholders.

08 / From Discovery to decision

The MVP was defined collaboratively with business and stakeholders, using an Effort × Value matrix to support prioritization. We considered:

Value

Impact on merchants and the operation.

Effort

Technology

Business

Complexity required to implement each opportunity.

Dependencies on existing and legacy systems.

Operational rules and stakeholder priorities.

The complexity was in the system: it didn't have to be in the interface

We could not immediately eliminate existing rules or replace the legacy architecture.

The opportunity was to simplify the experience wherever we had control, without compromising the underlying operation. This principle guided the organization of the flows, information architecture, and MVP functionality.

Designing for different transaction volumes

One relevant need involved merchants handling high transaction volumes. For these users, cancelling transactions individually could represent significant operational effort. Therefore, support for bulk cancellations was prioritized in the solution evolution.

The question was no longer simply: “How do we cancel a sale?”
It became: “How do we make this operation efficient when there are many sales to cancel?”

From the existing flow to the new experience

The solution reorganized the experience around four key moments: Locate → Understand → Decide → Execute without transferring unnecessary system complexity to the user

Previous experience, < 2019
Legacy portal

New experience, > 2022
Redesigned flow for greater autonomy and efficiency

The outcome

A more structured experience for:

• locating transactions;

• understanding available options;

• executing cancellations;

• performing bulk operations;

• reducing the need for customer support.

Validate before production

As a Product Designer, I led the usability testing process to identify comprehension, navigation, and interaction issues before production. The findings informed subsequent iterations of the solution. I also worked with QA to validate accessibility, including the experience with assistive technologies and VoiceOver. If the goal was to increase autonomy, the experience needed to be accessible for that autonomy to be real.

The MVP was not the end

After launch, we continued monitoring operational signals. Features that remained outside the MVP were mapped for subsequent iterations, keeping the product on a continuous improvement path.

From portal to mobile

The solution was also adapted for mobile devices, taking into account the different interaction patterns and usage contexts of the channel. The flow was reorganized to preserve the core principles of the portal experience while adapting the interface to mobile constraints. Rather than simply reproducing desktop screens on a smaller viewport, the challenge was to identify which information and actions were essential in each context of use.

New experience > 2022
Flow adapted for the mobile experience.

09 / Key design decisions

Prioritize autonomy

Structure the experience so merchants could complete the operation without relying on customer support.

Design for high volume

Prioritize bulk cancellations to support larger-scale operations.

Hide unnecessary complexity

Preserve the business rules required by the operation without transferring their complexity to the user.

Evolve incrementally

Work within legacy constraints while prioritizing high-value deliveries.

Validate before production

Accessibility as a requirement

Use Usability Testing to identify and address issues before launch.

Embed accessibility into the Design process and validate it with QA before production.

10 / Results & recognition

The project received two internal recognitions in 2022:

Project with the highest accessibility impact
Design/Product

Highest-performing MVP
Design/Product

But the strongest impact appeared in the operational metrics

89%

of the main pain points identified through customer support requests were addressed.

70%

reduction in customer support requests.

12%

digital-channel adoption for sales cancellations.

The journey was responsible for more than:

From problem to outcome

The initial challenge was to reduce reliance on customer support and increase merchant autonomy. After the evolution: 89% of cancellations were performed through the digital channel. The impact therefore went beyond an interface redesign: the experience changed how a critical business operation was performed.

83K requests.

11 / Learnings

Not every UX problem is an interface problem

Experience problems can emerge from the combination of processes, technology, business rules, architecture, and user behavior. Product Designers need to understand these relationships before proposing a solution.

Technical complexity doesn't have to become user complexity

Working with legacy systems showed that we can evolve an experience without waiting for a completely new architecture. The key is understanding what can be changed, what cannot, and where Design can absorb that complexity.

Discovery needs to drive decisions

Research only creates value when it helps the team make decisions. In this project, support requests + feedback + interviews + benchmark + technical constraints helped determine where to focus the MVP effort.

Accessibility is also autonomy

In a self-service experience, accessibility is directly connected to the user's ability to complete a task without depending on someone else.

12 / Honorable mention: Chargeback

A Discovery recognized by the Design & Product team

In addition to Sales Cancellation, I participated in the Chargeback Product Discovery within the payments ecosystem. The project received the “Most Complete Discovery” recognition, ranking among the top three projects in the category. My contribution focused on the initial Discovery and prototype design. The challenge involved suspected fraud scenarios, business rules, information analysis, and decision-making.

The Chargeback project was among the top three projects recognized for having the most comprehensive Discovery.

Two projects, one principle.

Sales Cancellation and Chargeback were different journeys, but they shared the same challenge: transform complex operations into experiences that help users make decisions and complete their tasks with greater clarity and autonomy.

Thank you.