Designing for trust at a distance.
Preventing “Why Didn’t This Go Through?”
I redesigned scheduled transactions so future payments are easier to set up and easier to trust. That means fewer surprise failures and fewer calls.
- Role
- Senior Product Designer
- Year
- 2024
- Company
- USAA
- Focus
- Scheduled and future-dated payments
The short version
30-second readProblem
When a scheduled payment failed, members were blindsided. No warning, no explanation, no easy fix.
What I did
I mapped the information architecture, tested with members, and split the redesign into a build-now release and a next round, plus a future vision.
Result
Clearer setup, alerts before the payment date, fewer service calls, and higher satisfaction with the feature.
The challenge
Scheduled payments that confused more than they helped
Members relied on scheduled transactions, like future bill payments, transfers, and recurring sends, to manage their money with confidence. But when one didn’t go through, they found out too late. No warning, no explanation, and no easy way to fix it.
The service calls were costly, but the real damage was to trust. Many of these members are military families managing money from a distance, and the experience was letting them down.
Scope of work
What I focused on
Setup
Clear dates, amount confirmation, and honest expectations, so members can schedule with confidence.
Failure states
Useful alerts when a payment can’t process, sent before it fails, not after.
Visibility
A clear view of upcoming payments, so members can plan and catch problems early.
My approach
Designing for trust at a distance
Many USAA members are deployed, stationed abroad, or simply can’t deal with money problems in real time. For them, scheduled payments aren’t a convenience. They’re a lifeline.
So every decision had to make the experience predictable, explicit, and proactive. Members needed to trust that what they set up would happen, and that if it couldn’t, they’d hear about it in time to act.
These members can’t afford to find out something failed after the fact.
Proactive over reactive
Flag issues before the payment date so members have time to act.
Explicit over implicit
Show what will happen, when, and what the member needs to do.
Easy recovery
When something goes wrong, make the way forward obvious.
The right message at the right time
Not every failure needs the same response. Match the tone to the stakes.
Information architecture
Mapping the flow before redesigning it
Before touching any UI, I mapped the full flow: what existed, the entry points we added, and the steps we removed because they caused confusion. It became the shared source of truth for Product and Engineering.
Release 1: build now
High-confidence changes first
We started with what we could improve without new functional requirements:
- Clearer icon labels
- A “What are reminders?” explanation screen
- Projected balance, front and center
- Matching a reminder in one step instead of two
Release 2: next round
The changes that needed engineering investment
- Better error states
- Drag to reorder transactions
- Notification opt-in and opt-out
- A new account summary that shows scheduled activity at a glance
Future vision
The ceiling we designed toward
Beyond the immediate fixes, I mapped a blue-sky vision: scheduling that predicts and recommends, one-click management, and proactive nudges about financial health. It gave the team a north star to pitch and plan toward.
Outcomes
Easier to trust, less likely to fail
Members got the visibility and early warnings they needed. Calls about failed scheduled payments went down, and satisfaction with the feature went up.
Clearer setup
Members know exactly what will happen and when.
Proactive alerts
Issues show up before the payment date, with time to act.
Fewer service calls
Less confusion means fewer calls about failed payments.