U.S. Bank — External Transfers

U.S. Bank's only external transfer product was a legacy Fiserv vendor tool — desktop-only, visually outdated, and scheduled to be sunset. With transferring funds being the #2 task for digital customers right after checking balances, the urgency for a polished in-house replacement was clear. I led end-to-end design of the new external transfers experience across responsive web and native-feel mobile, from initial user flows through the November 2021 launch.

#2 most-used task for U.S. Bank digital customers
2 platforms — responsive web & adaptive mobile
+85% DIY transfer completion rates post-launch

Challenge

The Fiserv partnership was planned to sunset, leaving no external transfer capability for millions of customers. The legacy tool was desktop-only and full of friction. The brief called for a seamless experience to quickly move funds between U.S. Bank and outside financial institutions — with a strategic push from design leadership to merge the product with Internal Transfers for a one-stop money-movement hub. I was design lead alongside one junior designer, with content strategy shared across team resources.

Just after viewing balances, transferring funds is the 2nd most common task for our digital customers.

Two concept directions for the External Transfers flow — Concept A vs. Concept B — tested before committing to a direction

Approach

Requirements & Flows

Worked with product and business lines to define the core requirement set, then created low-fidelity user flows and two distinct concept directions around different interaction patterns.

Concept Testing

Ran moderated usability sessions to evaluate both concepts before committing. Navigation and internal vs. external account differentiation surfaced as the biggest friction points.

Iteration & Design System

Designed a landing page to solve the mobile navigation problem, improved the review screen, and contributed new 'radio row with icon' components back to the design system — fully adopted by 2023.

Cross-team Alignment

Facilitated recurring 'Money-Movement Alignment' syncs across product teams to share patterns — resulting in reused components across account selection, dollar inputs, and review screens.

External Transfers landing page — mobile and desktop — The landing page solution — organizing money movement around customer mental models

Key Insight

Navigation was the top pain point — users on mobile had to scan an overwhelming native sheet menu to find external transfers. The solution was a purpose-built landing page that organized the entire money movement portfolio around customer mental models, not internal product siloes. It was approved in design review and shipped as part of the MVP.

Design system contribution — radio row with icon component — The "radio row with icon" component contributed to the design system, fully adopted org-wide by 2023

Outcome

The new external transfers product shipped in November 2021. Post-launch metrics showed a +5% lift in CSAT scores, approximately 20,000 new customer engagements, and an +85% improvement in DIY transfer completion rates. The radio-button-with-icon design system contribution became a fully adopted component across the Money Movement org by 2023.