Work: Currently a Design Manager at Meta.
Education: Currently a Ph.D. student in Design at Carnegie Mellon University. I earned a Master's in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons School of Design. I also earned a BS in Entrepreneurship and a BA in International Studies from the University of Utah.
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How might we use design to leverage the partnerships within the financial industry to create a unifying global standard for data sharing that will empower consumers with access and transparency to make better financial decisions?
In today’s consumer-centric, digitally-driven era, some of the most notable names in the financial data ecosystem are coming together to help consumers and businesses make informed financial decisions by sharing their financial data safely and conveniently.
Cocreated with industry partner --intuit Mint -- and their design teams through design-led research. Leveraged insights to develop an information design MVP app that engages consumer needs, builds trust through effective progressive disclosure and leads to clear and direct control over how data is shared.
Apr - June 2019
In an era where data is the new oil, financial institutions and user base platforms have made an immense push to safeguard consumers' data. Banks need to build trust with their customers and help keep them informed and educated about the decisions they make with financial data. This is especially true when third parties ask users for “consent” to access users’ financial information.
Financial Data Exchange was designed to empower consumers with access and transparency to make informed financial decisions. FDX unifies leading financial institutions and fintech to set a new global standard for secure financial data sharing.
The goal was to create a design interface that empowers users with greater control of their financial data, evokes confidence in the safe and seamless process of data exchange, and allows users to give and protect consent to use their data.
Through the hierarchy in information design, the app will help protects users’ credentials and data during transactions that involve their financial data. It will inform users of financial risks, giving them fine-tuning control of the banking data they allow financial apps to access.
In today’s consumer-centric, digitally-driven era, some of the most notable names in the financial data ecosystem are coming together to help consumers and businesses make informed financial decisions by sharing their financial data safely and conveniently.
Experience design interfaces help financial apps disclose to the user which data is required and how it will be used. Once the user's consent is obtained, the financial apps may then gather the information on the user's behalf, generally in one of two primary ways: screen scraping or Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Let’s say two companies want to share account and transaction information for Janet. Using the FDX API, they know how to request data and what it will look like coming back. The conversation between two computer systems might look like this if they were using the FDX API:
Financial App: Hi, Bank ABC, I’m looking for all of Janet’s available accounts.
Bank ABC: Here is a list of her accounts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Financial App: For account 1, can I get her account details?
Bank ABC: Account 1 is a checking account with current balance of $100.
Financial App: For account 1, can I get transactions for the last 7 days?
Bank ABC: Account 1 had 10 transactions:
1) Check 1091 for $20 on May 5th
2) ATM withdrawal for $30 on May 6th
3) etc. ….
APIs allow apps to borrow functionality and data from one another and become reusable building blocks to new apps. For example, Uber leverages several APIs to offer its service, including payment apps such as PayPal to pay its drivers, Google Maps to pin point where drivers and passengers are, and instant messaging APIs to communicate with them.
When another app requests financial data, the FDX App automatically detects which banks’ apps are already installed on your phone. It offers the option to select one of those apps to share data (bank account or routing numbers, etc)
The FDX app communicates which data is relevant or necessary to complete the transaction request. Users can clearly understand what data they need to share and can offer consent -- while protecting all data not needed for the transaction.
Once users allow consent to use financial data, they can select which bank account to use for the transaction.
As in face-to-face banking, the idea of credibility is central; users are offering third parties consent for financial data exchange. Therefore, the user interface itself needs to communicate confidence. Everything from colors to fonts to visual hierarchy needed to convey credibility, stability, and security.
The app itself is text-heavy, which was also a design challenge. However, most user interactions with the app occur in the form of pop-up screens when another app requests data access. Therefore, the challenge was not how to draw attention, but how to direct users’ attention to the most important pieces of information on each app screen.
Old methods of financial data sharing allowed financial apps to complete access to users’ financial data, including passwords, account numbers, and balances, financial history, etc. Now, with Financial Data Exchange, users of apps can interact safely with apps that request financial data. Users can select a bank to link with an app, fine-tune what data that bank shares, and truly offer informed consent. Banks receive the opportunity to build a relationship of trust with users.
Financial Data Exchange offered a specific set of guidelines due to industry regulations. The principle of designing with constraint was in effect on almost every aspect of this project: we took a few steps then stopped, validated, and waited for lawyers to check if solutions were in line with industry guidelines and the law. This thorough process lengthened the project; however, it enabled me to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.