FedNow
Case study
Designing an immersive user experience for the financial service offered by the US Federal Reserve
Overview
Project duration
10 months
Services
UX Research
Experience Concept Development
User Journey Definition
Information Structuring & Content Mapping
Wireframing & Interactive Prototyping
Stakeholder & Creative Collaboration
My role
UX Designer responsible for defining the experience concept, user journeys, and prototypes in collaboration with the creative team, helping translate ideas into actionable and technically feasible solutions.
Brief
Educating and supporting adoption of a national instant payment service
FedNow, the Federal Reserve’s instant payment service, aimed to educate and support adoption across the United States. The challenge was to clearly explain the service to a wide range of audiences with different levels of technical knowledge, while increasing awareness and encouraging adoption nationwide.
Challenges
Communicating complex information to diverse audiences
FedNow needed to serve multiple user groups, including banks, businesses, government agencies, and individuals, each with distinct needs and levels of understanding. Explaining a new and complex payment system in a way that felt clear, relevant, and trustworthy was a key challenge.
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In addition, the platform needed to support ongoing updates as the service evolved, while convincing financial institutions to see FedNow as a transformative solution rather than just another payment option.
Approach
Structuring complexity into a guided, exploratory experience
Drawing on user research insights, we explored ways to organise large amounts of information into a structure that felt intuitive and engaging. The solution focused on guiding users through content based on their stage of adoption and level of familiarity with the service.
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Concept development, journey definition, and rapid prototyping were used to test how users could move through information progressively, without feeling overwhelmed. Wireframes and interactive prototypes helped visualise the experience and align stakeholders around a clear direction.
Visuals
Concept development, journeys, and prototyping
These visuals show key artefacts from the project, including wireframes, journey starting points, and interactive prototypes. They illustrate how research insights were translated into a structured, exploratory experience designed to support different user needs and learning paths.
Outcomes
A clearer and more engaging way to understand FedNow
The final concept, “The Pioneers of the Now,” introduced an immersive city-of-the-future experience where users could explore buildings representing different information areas. This structure reduced complexity by organising content into clear, guided journeys aligned with adoption stages.
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The interactive experience improved engagement, helped users navigate information more easily, and supported a national campaign through personalised ads that directed visitors to tailored journeys within the platform.
