Context
Final Result
Design Moments
Impact
Reflections
Context

Why It Exists

Pricing pages are the final gatekeeper before conversion. I rebuilt Mailchimp's pricing architecture to replace friction and confusion with psychology-backed clarity — turning a technical hurdle into a decision engine.

Even as an industry giant, Mailchimp's pricing page felt like a hurdle rather than a help. I wanted to turn that feature list into a decision-making tool that actually made sense for a growing business.

The Cost of Confusion
Pricing confusion Pricing confusion Pricing confusion Pricing confusion Pricing confusion

I scoured Reddit threads, forums, and search queries for patterns in how users discussed Mailchimp's billing. Users were reverse-engineering pricing instead of being guided toward a decision — there was no strong value anchoring, and even experienced users leaned on the community to understand cost implications.

Its pricing page does not help users answer the most basic question: "How much will this cost me as I grow?"

Who We're Designing For

Growing small businesses and early-stage marketing teams, with:

  • 2–10 person teams
  • 5,000–10,000 contacts
  • Past the hobby stage
  • Actively running campaigns and basic automation
  • Cost-aware but not price-obsessed
Why this segment?
They generate the most paid conversions (per secondary research)
They experience the highest pricing confusion
Free users are not the conversion target; enterprises are sales-led
Result

Final Redesigned Screen

The finished pricing page: growth-stage framing instead of a spec table, a decoy-adjusted mid-tier, overage costs surfaced early, and a progressively disclosed feature list.

Final high-fidelity redesign
Open Interactive Prototype in Figma
Process

Key Design Moments

Four moments shaped the final screen: auditing the existing page, mapping how it made users feel, applying behavioral-economics principles, and iterating the wireframes until the feature list stopped overwhelming skimmers.

01 Auditing the Friction

Identifying the Friction

With the primary user and conversion goals defined, I performed an audit of the existing pricing page to identify UI-level friction contributing to decision paralysis. Pain points were later grouped to identify similar patterns.

Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit Existing webpage audit
02 Mapping the Emotional Journey

The Friction in Motion

Mapping the user's emotional journey through the existing pricing page revealed exactly where and why decisions stall.

😀
Initial attraction
"Great, Standard plan is 50% off."
  • The discount creates immediate interest and "price-drop" urgency.
🧐
Pricing uncertainty
"Hmm… what will I actually end up paying?"
  • "Overages apply" appears only in fine print, and the feature list doesn't reflect the added costs.
  • Staircase contact slabs (2,600 contacts vs. a 5,000 tier) make users feel they're paying for unused capacity.
😣
Plan comparison friction
"Okay… which one should I pick? They look similar."
  • Every plan carries the 50% off, so Standard's hero highlight loses meaning and Essentials doesn't feel meaningfully different.
  • Dense technical specs and checkmarks on everything fail to show the differences that matter.
😕
Trust breaks down
"This would have helped earlier… and these answers don't reassure me."
  • Helpful guidance (the personalized tour) arrives too late and isn't available on every plan.
  • FAQs at the end fail to reduce uncertainty or rebuild confidence at the decision point.
03 Applying Behavioral Economics

Design Decisions Driven by Behavioral Economics

Plans aligned to business growth stages Principle: Anchoring

I framed tiers around growth stages — 'Starting,' 'Scaling,' 'Optimizing' — rather than technical specs. This shifts the user's internal dialogue from 'what does this cost?' to 'what does my business need?'

Standard positioned as the natural upgrade Principle: The Decoy Effect

I repositioned the Essentials plan as a transitional tool. By narrowing the gap between Essentials and Standard, the mid-tier becomes the obvious choice for growing teams.

Comparison fatigue reduced Principle: Progressive Disclosure

Detailed specs were moved to secondary toggles. By surfacing only the 'winning differences' upfront, I protected skimmers from cognitive overload while retaining depth for power users.

Extra capacity reframed as flexibility Principle: The Framing Effect

I reframed contact capacity as 'room to scale' rather than 'unused storage.' This turns a perceived sunk cost into an investment in business stability.

Choice architecture in guidance Principle: The Goal Gradient Effect

Clicking a persona gives users a sense of progress, increasing the likelihood of completing the CTA. This reduces the interaction cost associated with finding the right plan.

Hidden costs made explicit early Principle: Social Proof & Proximity Bias

I brought overage explanations out of the fine print and onto the main stage. Moving trust signals near CTAs builds the trust necessary to reassure users at the decision point.

04 Iterating the Layout

Wireframes & Iterations

My biggest hurdle was the feature list. I was struggling to give skimmers the speed they wanted without leaving detail-oriented skeptics in the dark. I eventually decided that winning differences must be the only thing visible at first glance, with everything else progressively disclosed.

Wireframe iteration 1
Iteration 01

Moved the personalized product tour message to the hero section, so it lets users know and naturally points them to the Standard plan beside it.

Wireframe iteration 2
Iteration 02

Added choice architecture beside the "Find My Plan" button to make users feel 20% done before they've even started — triggering the goal gradient effect.

Wireframe iteration 3
Iteration 03

Shifted trust tokens and social proof near high CTA areas at the top, so confidence-building content appears at the exact moment users are deciding.

Wireframe iteration 4
Iteration 04

Removed staircase pricing and let users enter their preferred contact count naturally. Rephrased the copy so users feel they have room to scale rather than paying for wasted capacity.

Wireframe iteration 5
Iteration 05

Curated the feature list to only surface what directly pushes users toward Standard, with all remaining features tucked behind a "Compare all features" toggle for power users.

Impact

What This Redesign Targets

As an independent concept project, this wasn't shipped or A/B tested — so "impact" here means design intent: the outcomes the new structure is built to drive.

Primary conversion goal

Increase conversion to the mid-tier Standard plan by reducing decision friction and strengthening value anchoring.

Secondary goals

Reduce bounce on the pricing page, reduce reliance on the "Find my plan" quiz, and increase confidence at the point of CTA.

LEARNINGS

Reflections

Marketing can't solve a product problem

The 50% discount was a great hook, but it couldn't convert users who were fundamentally confused by the pricing logic. I learned that urgency only works if the value is clear first.

Curation is better than deletion

Stripping dense B2B specs for a minimalist look alienates detail-oriented buyers. Real clarity comes from layering — surfacing the primary decision path upfront while keeping technical depth accessible on demand.

Addressing the fear of change, not just price

Users aren't just worried about cost — they're afraid of outgrowing the plan or the system breaking mid-switch. Showing that their business never stops during an upgrade gave them a safety net that made switching feel less risky.

More Work