Taking the fear out of hitting "Send"
Taking the fear out of hitting "Send"
Taking the fear out of hitting "Send"
Summary
The existing send flow had critical design flaws: there were inconsistent patterns across surfaces, gave users limited control over important delivery settings, and offered no review step for what should be a deliberate, high-attention process. The multiple permutations of this UI were also becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, adding tech debt for engineers. I redesigned this experience into a single, consistent, and scalable send flow that reduced user friction from hitting send and cut down on support issues and long-term maintenance costs.
Role
Design lead, UX/UI design, Visual design, Illustration, User research
Team
Input from Chief Product Officer, 2 Engineers, Product Manager
Timeline
2 months, 2025
Impact
Increased ARR by 22%
Reduced support tickets by 80%
Summary
The existing send flow had critical design flaws: there were inconsistent patterns across surfaces, gave users limited control over important delivery settings, and offered no review step for what should be a deliberate, high-attention process. The multiple permutations of this UI were also becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, adding tech debt for engineers. I redesigned this experience into a single, consistent, and scalable send flow that reduced user friction from hitting send and cut down on support issues and long-term maintenance costs.
Role
Design lead, UX/UI design, Visual design, Illustration, User research
Team
Input from Chief Product Officer, 2 Engineers, Product Manager
Timeline
2 months, 2025
Impact
Increased ARR by 22%
Reduced support tickets by 80%
Summary
The existing send flow had critical design flaws: there were inconsistent patterns across surfaces, gave users limited control over important delivery settings, and offered no review step for what should be a deliberate, high-attention process. The multiple permutations of this UI were also becoming increasingly difficult to maintain, adding tech debt for engineers. I redesigned this experience into a single, consistent, and scalable send flow that reduced user friction from hitting send and cut down on support issues and long-term maintenance costs.
Role
Design lead, UX/UI design, Visual design, Illustration, User research
Team
Input from Chief Product Officer, 2 Engineers, Product Manager
Timeline
2 months, 2025
Impact
Increased ARR by 22%
Reduced support tickets by 80%
Background
Axios HQ is an internal communications platform that helps teams create and distribute engaging messages. Powered by Smart Brevity® (a writing methodology pioneered by Axios media) it helps communicators achieve stronger open rates, clearer updates, and better alignment across organizations.
As the product grew from a single-newsletter tool into a broader communications platform, our sending experience needed to evolve. The existing modal flow was too limited to support new delivery formats and customized delivery settings. To scale for the future, we needed to redesign the flow into a cleaner, review-focused experience that reduces errors today and sets a strong foundation for multi-distribution capabilities tomorrow.
Background
Axios HQ is an internal communications platform that helps teams create and distribute engaging messages. Powered by Smart Brevity® (a writing methodology pioneered by Axios media) it helps communicators achieve stronger open rates, clearer updates, and better alignment across organizations.
As the product grew from a single-newsletter tool into a broader communications platform, our sending experience needed to evolve. The existing modal flow was too limited to support new delivery formats and customized delivery settings. To scale for the future, we needed to redesign the flow into a cleaner, review-focused experience that reduces errors today and sets a strong foundation for multi-distribution capabilities tomorrow.
Background
Axios HQ is an internal communications platform that helps teams create and distribute engaging messages. Powered by Smart Brevity® (a writing methodology pioneered by Axios media) it helps communicators achieve stronger open rates, clearer updates, and better alignment across organizations.
As the product grew from a single-newsletter tool into a broader communications platform, our sending experience needed to evolve. The existing modal flow was too limited to support new delivery formats and customized delivery settings. To scale for the future, we needed to redesign the flow into a cleaner, review-focused experience that reduces errors today and sets a strong foundation for multi-distribution capabilities tomorrow.
A common safeguard
Competitor research revealed a shared pattern: requiring users to manage delivery settings and review their choices before sending. This aligned with our own findings from support tickets, which showed that user errors were concentrated around audience selection, scheduling, and navigating to delivery settings.
A common safeguard
Competitor research revealed a shared pattern: requiring users to manage delivery settings and review their choices before sending. This aligned with our own findings from support tickets, which showed that user errors were concentrated around audience selection, scheduling, and navigating to delivery settings.
A common safeguard
Competitor research revealed a shared pattern: requiring users to manage delivery settings and review their choices before sending. This aligned with our own findings from support tickets, which showed that user errors were concentrated around audience selection, scheduling, and navigating to delivery settings.
Design audit
I conducted an audit of the current send flow to uncover redesign and enhancement opportunities.
Design audit
I conducted an audit of the current send flow to uncover redesign and enhancement opportunities.
The Send dropdown in the Editor
Unclear button copy
“Send” sets the false expectation that the email will go out immediately, when in reality it opens an intermediate step. This mismatch causes user anxiety and hesitation.
Send settings on the series Settings page
Settings are removed from its context
Critical delivery settings like send-from and reply-to live in Settings, away from the actual send flow. This separation assumes they rarely change, when in reality, they often do. Forcing users to leave the context of sending to update their settings slows them down and increases the risk of error.
Schedule and Send now modals for content type A
Inconsistent patterns
The send path for each type of content has its own unique structure and set of controls, which forces users to relearn the flow every time. This inconsistency between send flows creates friction in what should be a familiar, repeatable task.
Send modal triggered from the Editor
Limited scalability
The modal format doesn’t provide enough space to support an expanding set of delivery settings. As more features are added, the layout could force excessive scrolling, causing important fields to be easily missed.
Send modal triggered from the Editor
Unintuitive audience picker
The audience picker introduced preventable errors, mainly due to the tab component that separated audiences based on source and data entry type. This caused users to accidentally choose the wrong audience when duplicate segment names showed up across tabs, while non-persistent functionality caused users to unknowingly lose their selection when switching views.
Settings are removed from its context
Critical delivery settings like send-from and reply-to live in Settings, away from the actual send flow. This separation assumes they rarely change, when in reality, they often do. Forcing users to leave the context of sending to update their settings slows them down and increases the risk of error.
Send settings on the series Settings page
Schedule and Send now modals for content type A
Inconsistent patterns
The send path for each type of content has its own unique structure and set of controls, which forces users to relearn the flow every time. This inconsistency between send flows creates friction in what should be a familiar, repeatable task.
Limited scalability
The modal format doesn’t provide enough space to support an expanding set of delivery settings. As more features are added, the layout could force excessive scrolling, causing important fields to be easily missed.
Send modal triggered from the Editor
Audience picker in send modal for content type B
Unintuitive audience picker
The tab component in the audience picker separated audiences based on source and data entry type. This caused users to accidentally choose the wrong audience when duplicate segment names showed up across tabs, while its non-persistent functionality caused users to unknowingly lose their selection when switching views.
The Send dropdown in the Editor
Unclear button copy
“Send” sets the false expectation that the email will go out immediately, when in reality it opens an intermediate step. This mismatch causes user anxiety and hesitation.
Focus on user needs over number of clicks
To gain buy-in from Product on the proposed redesign, I reframed the conversation around user needs and their emotions rather than the number of clicks it takes to complete the task.
The original assumption was that fewer clicks in a single modal would mean faster task completion and therefore higher volume of sends. However, modals are designed for lightweight tasks, not high-stakes actions like sending professional communications, which require concentration and time to review. In this case, reducing clicks doesn’t necessarily reduce friction—if anything, it increases user anxiety when they don’t feel in control. I drew a parallel to e-commerce checkout flows, where extra steps actually build confidence by giving users a chance to review and confirm before completing the high-risk action.
By positioning the redesign as a way to reduce stress and errors, we aligned on moving the send flow out of a modal and into a focused page experience.
Focus on user needs over number of clicks
To gain buy-in from Product on the proposed redesign, I reframed the conversation around user needs and their emotions rather than the number of clicks it takes to complete the task.
The original assumption was that fewer clicks in a single modal would mean faster task completion and therefore higher volume of sends. However, modals are designed for lightweight tasks, not high-stakes actions like sending professional communications, which require concentration and time to review. In this case, reducing clicks doesn’t necessarily reduce friction—if anything, it increases user anxiety when they don’t feel in control. I drew a parallel to e-commerce checkout flows, where extra steps actually build confidence by giving users a chance to review and confirm before completing the high-risk action.
By positioning the redesign as a way to reduce stress and errors, we aligned on moving the send flow out of a modal and into a focused page experience.
Focus on user needs over number of clicks
To gain buy-in from Product on the proposed redesign, I reframed the conversation around user needs and their emotions rather than the number of clicks it takes to complete the task.
The original assumption was that fewer clicks in a single modal would mean faster task completion and therefore higher volume of sends. However, modals are designed for lightweight tasks, not high-stakes actions like sending professional communications, which require concentration and time to review. In this case, reducing clicks doesn’t necessarily reduce friction—if anything, it increases user anxiety when they don’t feel in control. I drew a parallel to e-commerce checkout flows, where extra steps actually build confidence by giving users a chance to review and confirm before completing the high-risk action.
By positioning the redesign as a way to reduce stress and errors, we aligned on moving the send flow out of a modal and into a focused page experience.
Solution
The final scope delivered a unified send flow with clearer copy, a scalable page layout, an added review step, access to delivery settings at send time, and a more intuitive way to select audiences.
Solution
The final scope delivered a unified send flow with clearer copy, a scalable page layout, an added review step, access to delivery settings at send time, and a more intuitive way to select audiences.
Solution
The final scope delivered a unified send flow with clearer copy, a scalable page layout, an added review step, access to delivery settings at send time, and a more intuitive way to select audiences.
The new send flow in production 🚀
A simple yet powerful audience picker
The redesigned audience picker takes inspiration from the “To” field in email clients, giving users an instantly recognizable and intuitive pattern. Instead of navigating confusing tabs tied to databases, audiences are now organized by context, allowing users to search for segments and recipients across sources in one place. The input also supports adding new emails directly or uploading a CSV for quick bulk entry.
A simple yet powerful audience picker
The redesigned audience picker takes inspiration from the “To” field in email clients, giving users an instantly recognizable and intuitive pattern. Instead of navigating confusing tabs tied to databases, audiences are now organized by context, allowing users to search for segments and recipients across sources in one place. The input also supports adding new emails directly or uploading a CSV for quick bulk entry.
A simple yet powerful audience picker
The redesigned audience picker takes inspiration from the “To” field in email clients, giving users an instantly recognizable and intuitive pattern. Instead of navigating confusing tabs tied to databases, audiences are now organized by context, allowing users to search for segments and recipients across sources in one place. The input also supports adding new emails directly or uploading a CSV for quick bulk entry.
Key settings in context to its action
We brought over critical delivery settings like Sender name, Send-from, and Reply-to into the send flow, enabling users to quickly update them without disruption. Replacing the modal with a page not only improves usability today but also sets up a scalable framework for future delivery controls.
Key settings in context to its action
We brought over critical delivery settings like Sender name, Send-from, and Reply-to into the send flow, enabling users to quickly update them without disruption. Replacing the modal with a page not only improves usability today but also sets up a scalable framework for future delivery controls.
Key settings in context to its action
We brought over critical delivery settings like Sender name, Send-from, and Reply-to into the send flow, enabling users to quickly update them without disruption. Replacing the modal with a page not only improves usability today but also sets up a scalable framework for future delivery controls.
Turning stress into delight
We reimagined the send flow with a postcard-inspired design, with stamp illustrations and tactile form elements. By leaning into this metaphor, we gave users a friendly, familiar frame of reference that eased the tension of sending and introduced a more delightful visual layer to the product.
Turning stress into delight
We reimagined the send flow with a postcard-inspired design, with stamp illustrations and tactile form elements. By leaning into this metaphor, we gave users a friendly, familiar frame of reference that eased the tension of sending and introduced a more delightful visual layer to the product.
Turning stress into delight
We reimagined the send flow with a postcard-inspired design, with stamp illustrations and tactile form elements. By leaning into this metaphor, we gave users a friendly, familiar frame of reference that eased the tension of sending and introduced a more delightful visual layer to the product.
Building confidence with an extra step
We introduced a dedicated review step to help users confirm key details like audience and delivery time before finalizing a send. What could have felt like an extra hurdle for users instead reduced mistakes and gave them more confidence in the process.
Building confidence with an extra step
We introduced a dedicated review step to help users confirm key details like audience and delivery time before finalizing a send. What could have felt like an extra hurdle for users instead reduced mistakes and gave them more confidence in the process.
Building confidence with an extra step
We introduced a dedicated review step to help users confirm key details like audience and delivery time before finalizing a send. What could have felt like an extra hurdle for users instead reduced mistakes and gave them more confidence in the process.
Impact
1
Drove 22% growth in ARR and increased revenue by improving customer retention.
2
Cut support tickets by 80% by delivering a clearer, review-focused send flow that reduced errors at send time.
3
Reduced maintenance costs and accelerated development by simplifying the codebase and consolidating redundant product surfaces.
4
Advanced the product vision by introducing a scalable, brand-elevating pattern that set the foundation for multi-format, multi-distribution capabilities.
Impact
1
Drove 22% growth in ARR and increased revenue by improving customer retention.
2
Cut support tickets by 80% by delivering a clearer, review-focused send flow that reduced errors at send time.
3
Reduced maintenance costs and accelerated development by simplifying the codebase and consolidating redundant product surfaces.
4
Advanced the product vision by introducing a scalable, brand-elevating pattern that set the foundation for multi-format, multi-distribution capabilities.
Impact
1
Drove 22% growth in ARR and increased revenue by improving customer retention.
2
Cut support tickets by 80% by delivering a clearer, review-focused send flow that reduced errors at send time.
3
Reduced maintenance costs and accelerated development by simplifying the codebase and consolidating redundant product surfaces.
4
Advanced the product vision by introducing a scalable, brand-elevating pattern that set the foundation for multi-format, multi-distribution capabilities.
Design audit
I conducted an audit of the current send flow to uncover redesign and enhancement opportunities.
Design audit
I conducted an audit of the current send flow to uncover redesign and enhancement opportunities.
Send settings on the series Settings page
Settings are removed from its context
Critical delivery settings like send-from and reply-to live in Settings, away from the actual send flow. This separation assumes they rarely change, when in reality, they often do. Forcing users to leave the context of sending to update their settings slows them down and increases the risk of error.
Schedule and Send now modals for content type A
Inconsistent patterns
The send path for each type of content has its own unique structure and set of controls, which forces users to relearn the flow every time. This inconsistency between send flows creates friction in what should be a familiar, repeatable task.
Send modal triggered from the Editor
Limited scalability
The modal format doesn’t provide enough space to support an expanding set of delivery settings. As more features are added, the layout could force excessive scrolling, causing important fields to be easily missed.
Send modal triggered from the Editor
Unintuitive audience picker
The audience picker introduced preventable errors, mainly due to the tab component that separated audiences based on source and data entry type. This caused users to accidentally choose the wrong audience when duplicate segment names showed up across tabs, while non-persistent functionality caused users to unknowingly lose their selection when switching views.
The Send dropdown in the Editor
Unclear button copy
“Send” sets the false expectation that the email will go out immediately, when in reality it opens an intermediate step. This mismatch causes user anxiety and hesitation.
