Driving cost savings and efficiency with a Help Center redesign.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Help Center Homepage is a vital resource for customers seeking answers to common account questions, receiving around one million visits each month. Of those visitors, 10% scroll to the footer and click the “Contact Us” link, and nearly half of them (46%) proceed to click on a phone number from there. Ideally, the Help Center should function as a comprehensive solution for both simple and complex issues, reducing the need for customers to contact support directly. By making relevant information easily accessible across 130+ help articles, the goal is to minimize calls to customer service while allowing users to resolve their issues independently.

Initially, the project aimed to reuse existing components from the design library. However, as the scope evolved, it became clear that three new components were needed to truly optimize the flow of content — an improved search banner, an illustration card set, and a text link component. These were designed not only to fit the Help Center’s needs but to scale across other future use cases on the platform. The redesign, completed in six weeks, significantly improved the user flow, making the experience more intuitive and visually cohesive while adhering to Capital One’s design system and modern UX standards.

To understand where users were struggling, we analyzed key Help Center metrics, including click rates, call center inquiries, and heatmaps. Several core issues emerged:

• Lack of Continuity: The homepage and category pages lacked a clear connection, making navigation disjointed.

• Low Discoverability: Users had difficulty finding relevant help topics due to long category pages and an inconsistent content hierarchy.

• Inefficient Self-Service: Many users resorted to calling support instead of finding answers on their own, increasing operational costs.

• Ineffective Search: The existing search function was underutilized, likely due to poor visibility and lack of engagement cues.

These findings highlighted the need for a redesign that prioritized clear navigation, improved content discoverability, and a more engaging, self-service experience.

DESIGN CHALLENGES

Redesigning the Help Center brought unique challenges, especially around how content was prioritized and presented. When I first examined the existing design, it felt like the content had been placed into components as an afterthought, with little consideration for how users would actually engage with it. My goal was to create a design where every component felt intentionally crafted to support Help Center content, allowing it to exist more thoughtfully and effectively for users.

The heart of the redesign was balancing simplicity with functionality. I wanted the Help Center to be visually engaging yet practical, providing clear paths to information without overwhelming users. Creating this balance was particularly important for elements like the hero illustration in the search banner, which needed to be inviting and helpful without distracting from the core content.

Another major challenge was working within a tight six-week timeline. To ensure smooth progress, I prioritized establishing effective feedback loops and managing project expectations with stakeholders. This alignment enabled quick feedback turnarounds, keeping the project on track and ultimately contributing to a successful redesign.

RESEARCH

The research phase for the Help Center redesign was both data-driven and collaborative, with close input from the Capital One product team. They provided key insights, sharing metrics like click rates, call center inquiries, and statistics that pinpointed the areas where most users focused when they arrived at the Help Center. This data helped illuminate the pain points and user behaviors that the new design would need to address.

To further inform the redesign, I conducted a comparative analysis, examining best practices and industry standards from a variety of websites with similar business and design goals. This analysis was invaluable, revealing patterns and approaches that could guide our decisions and ensure the new Help Center design met both user needs and Capital One’s objectives. Through this dual approach—leveraging internal data and external standards—I was able to build a more strategic and user-centered foundation for the redesign.

COLLABORATION

Strong collaboration was essential to delivering the Help Center redesign on an accelerated six-week timeline. From the outset, I maintained open communication with product partners to ensure our design decisions aligned with key business goals—reducing call center volume, increasing self-service resolution, and improving overall engagement.

Working closely with product, we refined the scope to balance impact with feasibility, ensuring that the redesign not only addressed user pain points but also delivered measurable operational savings. Regular check-ins allowed us to quickly adapt to evolving priorities and keep leadership aligned on progress.

EXPANDING SCOPE

The initial request for the Help Center redesign was to incorporate all existing content into pre-existing components from the Site Design component library, using whichever components seemed most compatible with the content. However, this approach risked missing the opportunity to address the overall user experience on the page in a more intentional way. Throughout the entirety of the design process, I was asked to create and explore every avenue of potential design solutions. This resulted in an absurd amount of wireframes, full fidelity mockups and screens with real world content plugged in — I created 335 individual mocks across just 5 weeks.

Ultimately, the Help Center required a design that was both visually engaging and straightforward, allowing users to navigate it with ease.

To achieve this, I focused on creating clear, intuitive paths to information by designing three brand-new components specifically tailored to the Help Center’s needs. By exploring every single potential solution and diving deep into what each of these potential solutions looked like, my team was able to provide better feedback for what would be a viable successful design.

RESULTS

The redesign culminated in the creation of three entirely new components, thoughtfully crafted to elevate the Help Center hub page while expanding the component library for broader applications across the site. The response was immediate and exciting: even as the components were still in development, various lines of business began planning unique use cases for them in other sections of the site.

Here’s a closer look at the new components:

1. Illustrated Search Banner: This refreshed banner accommodates hero illustrations, bringing a more dynamic and engaging entry point to the Help Center. The search bar itself was also retrofitted with improved padding and spacing to align with other graphical elements seen across Capital One’s design system.

2. Illustrated Card Set: Designed to display anywhere from 3 to 8 items, this new card component lets users explore different help categories at a glance.

3. Text Link Component: Acting like a condensed FAQ, this component links to popular help topics, making it easier for users to find answers quickly.

The impact of these components extends far beyond their initial implementation, with other teams already eager to leverage them across multiple site areas, bringing consistency and scalability to the design system.

Early testing of the redesign, based on 50,000+ page views, showed a 7.06% reduction in call center volume, a 21% increase in total clicks, and a 294% boost in click-through rate. Given that call center costs range from $26 to $30 per hour for standard support—and up to $50 per hour for specialized services—this reduction translates into significant operational savings while improving self-service efficiency for users.