Capital One Bank
The screen that tells you your money made it.
Overview
Overview · The moment
You pay the electric bill. If it didn’t go through, the lights go off.
For a moment, the only proof you have is one screen. At Capital One, that screen looked different for every kind of payment, and each one told you different things.
I was given full ownership of fixing it, and began with the payment where doubt costs the most: bills.
Process
Our Design Thinking Process
Empathize
An audit of 10 banks and 3 tech products, and interviews with 8 customers
Define
Three findings, turned into what the screen had to do
Ideate
A first pass cut to the minimum, then a rival: more information against less
Prototype
Both designs in a prototype of the full bill payment flow
Test
50 customers, 25 per design: 46% against 32%
Empathize · The surprise
Customers asked for what almost no bank offered.
I compared confirmation screens across 10 banks and 3 tech products and found no standard to copy. So I restyled the five most common patterns into one neutral design, so people would react to the content and not the brand, and asked 8 customers what they needed.
Almost everyone chose the screens with more detail. With too little, they doubted anything had happened at all.
10 banks and 3 tech products, no standard to copy
The 5 most common patterns, in one neutral design
8 customers, asked what they needed
What I came away with
Both dates matter
When the money leaves, and when it arrives.
Frequency and type don’t
Few people needed them on this screen.
Not “Pay another bill”
They wanted to check that this one landed.
Define · The reframe
How might we create a payment confirmation screen most needed by users at that point in time1 after their specific high-risk money movement flow2, all while building confidence of success3?
What the screen had to do
Show both dates
When the money leaves, and when it arrives.
Say more, without clutter
Enough detail that no one doubts anything happened.
Leave out what no one needed here
Payment frequency and type.
Offer a way to check
This payment’s details, in place of “Pay another bill.”
Ideate · The doubt
My first designs did exactly what eight people told me.
I cut everything they called unnecessary. Then feedback stopped me: eight people are a signal, not a verdict.
I’d been told a second round might not fit in one summer, so I made it fit. I built the protocol with researchers, cleared it with legal, put the cut content back, and designed a rival screen with less information. If I was wrong, 50 customers would show it.
Round 1 · interviews
Round 2 · the test
The question I put to 50 customersAfter a payment, does more information build confidence, or less?
Prototype · Two designs
Two screens, one flow.
Both designs sat at the end of a prototype of the full bill payment flow. I wrote the protocol with UX researchers and cleared it with legal, and both rounds of testing fit in under a month.
Test · The proof
named the confirmation screen as the reason they felt confident the payment went through.
25 customers tried each design inside a prototype of the full bill payment flow. The closer the questions got to the screen itself, the further the two designs pulled apart.
One early finding flipped · what customers wanted next
Solution · The answer
A drawing of the concept from two rounds of research. The real screens are confidential.
Something changed.
A clear statement and an animation confirm it the instant you pay.
More, but easy to read.
A card holds the extra information so it never feels like clutter.
Both dates, side by side.
When the money leaves and when it arrives.
A way to check.
“Go to Payment Details” in place of “Pay another bill.”
This work is under NDA, so some screens and data are withheld.
Next Steps
Carry it to every kind of payment.
Bills came first because that’s where doubt costs the most. What customers needed there is what I’d carry over to the other kinds of payment, so every confirmation tells them the same things.
Reflection
What stayed with me.
Say why you believe it
I still find this hard. My mentors taught me that giving your reasons is how a good discussion starts.
Narrow first
My first protocol tried to answer everything and would have answered nothing. One payment type gave me findings I could carry to the others.
Eight people are a signal, not a verdict
I was eager to start counting answers after the first study. The second round is what made the recommendation hold.
