See full case study below
For confidentiality reasons some content has been intentionally rebranded, modified, or omitted. In the screens, clients names have been renamed to Guardian Bank or Prosper, and the product has been renamed Fintaps.
Payments Co. is a leading payments platform with over 150 million users in the U.S., looking to expand into the digital wallet space. With digital payments becoming the dominant method of transaction, this market is projected to see significant growth in the coming years.
The in-person digital wallet space has been historically dominated by Apple Pay due to the ease NFC transactions via built-in hardware. However, in 2024, due to regulatory pressure, Apple opened access to provisioning cards onto the Secure Element (SE) with the release of iOS 18.1. This change allows developers to enable βdouble-tap to payβ functionality within their own applications, significantly lowering the barriers to competition. Multiple companies have publicly announced plans to compete with ApplePay on NFC, including: PayPal and Elon Muskβs X (which is partnering with Visa).
Payments Co. saw this as a strategic opportunity to enter the market with a new, bank-backed digital wallet, leveraging its extensive financial network to create a viable alternative to existing payment solutions.
Entering the NFC Payments / Digital Wallets space is difficult when competing against dominate and entrenched players like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. Payments Co. faced 3 main challenges designing a product that would not only compete in this crowded landscape but also differentiate itself while avoiding the pitfalls of past bank-backed wallets:
Apple, Google, and Samsung Pay have set expectations for what a digital wallet is. Bank-backed wallets have historically struggled with poor user experience, lack of adoption, or insufficient differentiation.
The payment ecosystem is incredibly competitiveβnot only are there dominant players, but new challengers are constantly emerging (e.g., PayPal and Xβs Visa-backed wallet).
The banks within the Payments Co. consortium collectively represent the majority of bank holders in the U.S.βmeaning the potential user base is essentially everyone with a bank account. However, designing for "everyone" is not an effective approach.
In total, we designed and handed off 20+ high fidelity prototypes of 600+ total screens and mapped out all of the features for a launch that is expected to generate 180M in expected transactions by 2028.
Before defining our product strategy, we needed to understand the broader financial landscapeβnot just in terms of digital wallets, but also how people think about banking, technology, trust, and security.
To do this, we took a 3-avenue research approach:
15 Qualitative User Interviews
Method: One-on-one interviews via Respondent.io
Participants: 18+ balanced by age / gender / income
Goal: To deeply understand user perspectives, behaviors, and attitudes
What we gained: A rich, personal look into how users perceive financial security, trust banks, and make everyday money decisions.
Ethnographic Study with 13 participants
Method: Ethnographic study via Indeemo
Participants: Users with mixed digital wallet usage
Goal: To observe how users interact with payments in real-world scenario
What we gained: Users filmed themselves in-store before and after purchases for a week, allowing us see how users actually behaved in the moment instead of having to rely solely on what they said, uncovering frustrations and habits they might not have been consciously aware of.
Click to hear from some of our users below!
Large-Scale Quant Survey with ~3,000 Participants
Method: Nationwide survey of US adults
Participants: 18+ balanced by age / gender / income
Goal: To validate qual. findings and ensure insights are statistically representative
What we gained: A data-backed validation of insights from interviews / ethnographic research ββ proving that the experience we heard about weren't just anecdotal, they reflected broader national trends.
Next, we synthesized our findings to identify user segments, ensuring the product would meet the needs of specific, high-value usersβrather than trying to serve a nationwide user base and diluting features. Through Latent Class Analysis and qualitative synthesis we identified 5 key behavioral patterns.
Because this wallet was bank-backed, it made the most sense to lean into trust and security. The Protectionist already sees banks as a safe financial partner, meaning they were more likely to adopt an institution-led alternative to Apple or Google Pay.
Mindset: Deeply anchored in trust and security, values financial stability and prefers banks to third-party solutions.
Behavior: Uses digital tools cautiously, preferring bank-affiliated financial products over tech-led wallets.
Pain Points: Worries about data privacy, security breaches, or lack of financial oversight.
With a clear understanding of our target user (The Protectionist), the next step was to define which features mattered most and how they aligned with business goals and technical feasibility.
We began by analyzing our user interviews to create a feature desirability map, evaluating each potential feature based on user demand, business uniqueness, and ability to meet an unmet need.
To validate these findings, we conducted synchronized remote testing with 100 users using Remesh.ai, a tool that allows for live, large-scale user feedback collection.
Three Lessons Learned
1 β Trust and security were the strongest adoption drivers
Most users felt significantly more comfortable using a bank-backed wallet than a tech-led alternative. Having the wallet integrated within their banking app was a major trust signal.
2 β Support for Multiple Financial Institutions Multi-FI) was a must
Users strongly preferred the ability to store multiple bank cards rather than being limited to a single financial institution.
3 β The most impactful features were aligned with The Protectionist's core values
The most well-received features were those closely tied to security, financial management, and trust, including balance tracking, fraud alerts, transaction history, and rewards integration. In contrast, "nice-to-have" featuresβsuch as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), detailed analytics, and pay-with-points optionsβwere less impactful and ranked lower in desirability.
Based on this analysis, we made the decision to launch with a wallet that focused on core financial functionality:
Payment (seamless tap-to-pay)
Management (adding/removing cards, setting cards to default)
Enrollment (easy onboarding and security setup)
To create a seamless, intuitive test experience, we built detailed, high-fidelity prototypes in Figma, leveraging variants, conditional logic, and looping states.
To ensure our final designs were intuitive, efficient, and aligned with user expectations, we conducted a mix of asynchronous large-scale testing and in-depth qualitative interviews. This allowed us to validate our assumptions while maintaining fast sprint velocityβcontinuing development while collecting real user feedback.
300 Asynchronous usability tests
To test usability at scale, we launched three surveys using Ballpark, a platform that enables asynchronous remote user testing. Users could click through the prototype, and the platform collected key performance data, including:
Misclick percentage β Identifying areas of confusion or frustration.
Time-on-task β Measuring efficiency and usability bottlenecks.
20 User interviews
Beyond large-scale testing, we conducted 20+ additional user interviews, allowing us to:
Gather contextual feedback on user behaviors and preferences.
Validate why certain tasks took longer or where confusion arose.
Refine security messaging and onboarding flows.
Challenge 1: Time-consuming tasks
Most tasks were completed efficiently, but enrollment times were significantly longer than expected. Users felt overwhelmed by the number of steps and the complexity of information presented.
Usability change:
β Paring down enrollment steps by merging screens where possible.
β Simplifying language to use bank-specific terminology, as users trust and understand their own bankβs vocabulary better than generic fintech jargon.
Challenge 2: Users did not grasp tasks at hand
Users were not understanding the real-world trust and clarity implications when there were mock names. People have very visceral and emotional relationships wit banking institutions, and we wanted to make sure that aspect was captured when they used our tool
Usability change:
β Creating bank-specific views for testing, allowing users to see their own institutionβs branding.
β Non-sanitized prototypes to illustrate real authentication experiences, preventing misinterpretation.
In total, we designed and handed off 20+ high fidelity prototypes of 600+ total screens and mapped out all of the features for a launch that is expected to generate 180M in expected transactions by 2028. We interviewed 40+ users, facilitated concept testing with 400 users via large-N testing, and reached another ~3,000 users via a survey.
This project was incredibly rewarding, both in terms of impact and personal growth. Seeing how the Protectionist segment responded to our designs reinforced that this product has real potential to succeed in the market.
βThe Fintaps app had a very simple interface which made it easy to navigate and reduces confusion and cognitive load.β
"Frank", Ballpark Testing User
"I love that Fintaps is easily accessible through my bank app, so it feels trusted and user friendly so far."
"Jessica", User Interview
π‘ A digital wallet I'm excited to download for myself
I truly believe that when this launches in late 2025, it will be a game-changer for users who prioritize bank-backed security and I canβt wait to replace Apple Pay on my own device.
πΌ Confidence in a differentiated solution
This was a high-impact project that I feel incredibly proud ofβone that tackled a competitive space with a truly differentiated solution.
π Personal growth as a design and people leader
Leading a complex design effort like this reinforced my ability to drive strategy, mentor others, and push for high-quality execution.
The team was truly amazing: Max, Aish, Justinβif youβre reading this, I am still so proud of the work we did. This wouldnβt have been possible without such a collaborative, brilliant team.
Looking forward to seeing this live in the wildβand to whateverβs next! π
What the team said about working with meβ¦
"Jennifer understood complex design tasks with minimal oversight, quickly implementing the client's and team's vision to create high effective prototypes. She consistently approached new iterations with a strong hypothesis on answer first, proactively aligning user journey flows and logic with supervisors while flagging critical gaps early for timely decision-making. She took ownership of workstream planning and coordinating with stakeholders, effectively presented prototypes with the working team, and was a fantastic team player. Jenn has consistently performed at a high level and should be incredibly proud of her contributions ββ her dedication, expertise, and proactive approach have made meaningful impact."
β Consultant, Bain & Company
