Zelle - Case Study

OVERVIEW

Sending money should be simple. Making it simple at 150M+ users? That's the hard part.

Role

UX Designer

Timeline

January 2022 – Present

Company

Early Warning Services, Zelle®

Location

New York City, NY

Zelle doesn't exist as a standalone app for most people. It lives inside their bank. So the experience I design doesn't ship once, it ships across thousands of financial institutions, on mobile and desktop, each with their own implementation. My job is making all of that feel like one product.

#01 THE PROBLEM

A design system built for a different era

When I joined, the design system was still in Sketch. Components were built on older platform standards. Teams were starting to improvise because the system wasn't keeping up, and in a regulated financial product, that's a real problem.

It needed more than an update. It needed a full migration and rethink.

#02 WHAT I DID

Rebuilt the design system from the ground up

I led the migration to Figma and upgraded every component to current platform standards. But honestly, the bigger piece was figuring out how the system actually gets maintained. Who reviews components, how they get adopted, what happens when a partner needs something custom.

01

Scalable components

Rebuilt to work across platforms and screen sizes. Less back-and-forth with engineering, cleaner handoffs.

02

Modern interaction patterns

Updated to align with current mobile conventions and accessibility standards, both visually and structurally.

03

Governance that sticks

Set up review and adoption workflows so the system doesn't just look consistent on day one, it actually stays that way.

04

Desktop-ready foundation

Designed with cross-platform in mind from the start, knowing desktop was next.

#03 THE NEXT CHALLENGE

Desktop was the blind spot

Mobile had a system. Desktop didn't. As Zelle expanded into new use cases like bill payments and financial services, that gap started showing. Users on desktop were getting wildly different experiences depending on which bank they used.

So I started from the beginning: what does the desktop experience actually look like right now?

1

Benchmarking // Audited how the desktop experience currently lives across different types of financial institutions

2

Desktop design system // Built foundational components tailored for desktop, not just resized mobile screens

3

UX guidelines // Partner-facing documentation so implementations are consistent and accessible across the network

The point wasn't to make desktop look like mobile. It was to make sure someone paying a bill on their laptop has the same clarity and confidence as someone splitting dinner on their phone.

#04 THE SENSITIVE STUFF

Fraud flows, where design gets really hard

Here's the thing about designing fraud prevention: legal wants more warnings, product wants fewer steps, and the user just wants to pay their friend back for lunch. Everyone's right. And the requirements often contradict each other.

I worked with product, engineering, research, and risk to figure out where friction actually helps and where it just annoys people.

01

Prototype first, debate later

Abstract requirements go in circles. Tangible prototypes get people aligned. I learned to put something concrete in front of stakeholders early.

02

Friction is a design tool

A well-placed warning at the right moment can prevent a scam. A poorly placed one just annoys people. The difference is context and timing.

03

Compliance shapes the design

Regulatory requirements aren't things to work around, they're inputs. Some of my tightest solutions came from the tightest restrictions.

04

Speak everyone's language

In these projects, I'm in rooms with legal, risk, engineering, and product. Documented design rationale and clear flows became my best tools for alignment.

LOOKING BACK

4+ years in, what I've taken away

01

Think in systems, not screens

When your work ships to thousands of partners, individual screens matter less than the patterns that hold them together.

02

Constraints make you sharper

Regulatory, technical, and organizational constraints narrow the problem. That usually leads to better, more focused solutions.

03

Trust is fragile

In payments, every interaction either builds trust or chips at it. There's no "neutral" touchpoint.

04

Be the translator

The most valuable skill I've picked up here isn't in Figma. It's knowing how to advocate for users when I'm in rooms with engineering, legal, risk, and product.

Good UX at this scale isn't about being clever. It's about being clear, consistent, and reliable. Every time, everywhere.