American Express

Digital Experience Strategy - Card Acquisition

Role: Digital Experience Strategy Lead | Deliverables: Data analysis, current page audit, user behaviors, user needs, ideal state strategy, competitive audit, UX/design brief


Increased application rate ~10%


Challenge: The acquisition page for American Express’s Hilton credit card was not performing well. Bounce rate was high, and conversion was low. The experience needed to be overhauled to increase acquisition.

Approach: I grounded work in data by analyzing site metrics to understand user behavior. I then identified user needs and created an ideal state strategy for meeting them, partnering with UX and design teams to create a new desktop (shown below) and mobile experience.

Old vs. New Digital Experience:

User Need: Card Education

Old page

New page

Key changes:

  • Exposed all 4 credit cards, utilizing hover functionality to show individual card details

  • Instilled design and messaging hierarchy, including travel imagery for contextual cues


User Need: Card Selection

Old page

Functionality exposed questions one at a time, requiring users to click to the next one or back nav if they wanted to change responses

New page

Key changes:

  • Added filter functionality with all criteria exposed; users could change and clear filters with one click

  • Narrowed recommended cards in real time to reflect selected criteria


Old page

User Need: Card Comparison

New page

Key changes:

  • Added compare functionality so users could choose up to 3 cards for detailed benefit comparison

  • Used accordion functionality to truncate list of card benefits, giving users the option to see more information if/when desired