I joined U.S. Bank to lead UX for their small business mobile banking app — at the time ranked 9th nationally. My mission was to improve usability, strengthen feature clarity, and elevate the overall experience for business owners managing finances on the go.
The Challenge:
Small business owners have unique needs — juggling transactions, payroll, and cash flow while often on tight schedules. The app was functionally strong, but the user experience lacked clarity and felt too much like a scaled-down consumer product.
We needed to rebuild trust and utility by creating a tool truly designed for business workflows.
My Process:
Conducted contextual interviews with small business owners across industries to understand day-to-day banking behavior
Led UX audits and journey mapping sessions to pinpoint bottlenecks in the existing experience
Facilitated cross-functional design sprints to prototype solutions for pain points like transfer visibility and transaction tracking
Tested and iterated on new flows with real users to validate improvements in speed and satisfaction.
Key Design Decisions:
Redesigned the dashboard experience to surface critical business info: cash flow, upcoming payments, and recent activity at a glance
Introduced role-based quick actions tailored to business types (e.g., invoice shortcuts for service providers)
Designed Streamlined the funds transfer flow to reduce taps and cognitive load
Added a Improved transaction labeling and added smart filters for better clarity and categorization
What I Learned:
Designing for small business users means respecting their time, complexity, and unpredictability. best tools don’t just look good — they reduce friction, anticipate needs, and adapt to different types of users without overwhelming them.
