Work/Case Studies
Financial institutions rely on fintech partnerships and APIs to power digital banking. However, developers integrating banking APIs often struggle with fragmented documentation, slow onboarding, and poor debugging visibility. The goal of this project was to design a Developer Dashboard that streamlines API discovery, onboarding, and monitoring — creating a centralized Developer Control Center for US Bank's partner ecosystem and not limit to keep adding new API capabilities.
US Bank wanted to expand and roll out API capabilities to fintech partners — but the mandate was clear before a single screen was designed: understand the real experience first. We interviewed stakeholders and developers, ran competitive analysis against peer bank portals, and conducted usability tests on existing legacy tools. What emerged wasn't surprising, but it was striking in scale. Developer interviews revealed a strong preference for interactive documentation and flagged sandbox setup as a consistent blocker. Support ticket analysis pointed to the same friction zones — authentication setup, API key generation, and zero testing visibility. Competitive analysis made it even sharper: portals like Stripe and Plaid had set a high bar that US Bank's offering wasn't close to meeting. Taken together, these findings defined the problem statement — not a single usability issue, but a systemic gap: no dashboard, no self-service, no transparency, and no process that a developer could navigate independently.
Key Gaps Identified
- No centralized dashboard — developers had no single place to manage APIs, credentials, or monitor usage
- Competitor portals (Stripe, Plaid, Chase) offered guided onboarding and live sandboxes; US Bank had neither
- No self-service — every step required admin involvement via email or support tickets
- Lack of interactive documentation made it hard to explore or test APIs in context
What Developers Needed
- A guided, self-serve onboarding flow with clear steps and no manual dependencies
- Real-time visibility into API health, usage, and error states
- Sandbox environments that were easy to access and understand
- Documentation they could interact with — not just read
Developers integrating banking APIs were blocked at every step. Entirely manual, admin-dependent workflows — scattered across disconnected portals and endless support tickets — made API onboarding a slow, opaque process with no clear path forward and no visibility when things broke.
The core concept was a centralized Developer Control Center — a single place to discover APIs, generate credentials, test APIs, and monitor API performance. The solution featured an API Marketplace for structured discovery, a guided onboarding flow to replace admin-heavy email processes, and a real-time monitoring dashboard to build developer trust through transparency. Contextual help was embedded throughout to reduce friction, and the modern interface delivered a frictionless integration experience that led to a 40% increase in successful app registrations.
Financial institutions rely on a legacy desktop-based payment administration system to configure and manage payment channels for thousands of customers across multiple banks. Administrative users use this system to set up configurations that determine how reseller platforms present payment options and experiences to their end users. The existing interface — originally designed for desktop — was dense, difficult to scale, and incompatible with modern web-based reseller platforms. This project focused on transforming that legacy workflow into a modern web-based experience that simplifies complex configurations and improves usability for administrators while maintaining flexibility for banks and resellers.
The legacy interface contained dense configuration settings, limited guidance, and outdated interaction patterns that increased cognitive load for administrators. This led to slower setup times, potential configuration errors, and a system that was difficult to maintain or integrate with modern platforms. The core challenge was redesigning a specific configuration screen — for adding or editing payment channels — that directly influences how reseller platforms display payment options and flows for end customers.
We began with internal research and stakeholder discussions with the admin team that had been working with the desktop application for several years. We mapped existing workflows and system architecture by creating flow diagrams for key administrative tasks including payment channel setup, adding contacts and banks, configuring account numbers, and other related configurations. We then conducted interviews with two distinct user groups to capture the full picture.
Experienced Administrators
- Had used the desktop interface for years
- Developed personal workarounds to manage complexity
- Understood hidden dependencies through trial and error
- Resistant to change but acknowledged deep inefficiencies
Newly Trained Administrators
- Understood the system from training materials only
- Lacked real-world experience with the interface
- Struggled with unclear terminology and fragmented layouts
- Highlighted learning barriers invisible to veteran users
Configuration & Navigation Issues
- Disorganized settings scattered across different sections
- Related information placed on separate, disconnected pages
- Fragmented account setup spread across multiple screens
- Users forced to repeatedly navigate between pages for one task
System & Terminology Issues
- Hidden dependencies — fields appeared without clear context
- Some configurations handled via SQL scripts, not the UI
- Admins needed engineering support for routine tasks
- Outdated terminology increased the learning curve for new users
The core redesign strategy was built around five opportunity areas. Configuration settings were reorganized into logical groupings, eliminating the need to navigate between disconnected pages. Dependent account configuration fields were consolidated into a unified flow, reducing unnecessary back-and-forth. Dynamic show/hide behaviors were introduced to surface system dependencies in real time, replacing the need to rely on tribal knowledge. Where possible, SQL-based configurations were converted into accessible UI controls so administrators could complete tasks independently. Finally, in collaboration with content designers, terminology was modernized to reflect current payment workflows and reduce the learning curve for new users.
