Redesigned a B2B banking platform for enterprise clients at commercial bank
Improved workflow clarity and reduced friction, resulting in 40% fewer drop-offs and 52% less support inquiries.
CUBEnterprise is Cathay’s enterprise banking platform used by global finance teams to manage accounts and execute high-risk fund operations. I redesigned the platform’s core workflows to reduce friction, increase clarity, and support scalable operations for teams across regions and roles.
40%
Reduction in workflow drop-off
3x
Faster task initiation
52%
Fewer duplicate support inquiries
Skip to Final Design
Team
1 UX Designer, 1 UI Designer, 3 Engineers, 1 Project Manager, 1 Design Director
Project Type
B2B, Enterprise Banking, Web & App Redesign
Role
UX Design Intern (Web Wireframes, IA, Workflow Redesign)
Timeline
3 months (Sep–Nov 2023)
The Challenge
What challenges was Cathay United Bank facing?
As Cathay expanded globally, the platform struggled to support more users and more complex workflows.
The core problem: Teams could not see everything they needed in one place. Balances, tasks, and approvals were split across different modules, so every role had to click around and guess where to begin. This slowed down daily work and created inconsistent processes across regions.
System Map
Understanding how each role moves through the system
To understand why workflows kept breaking, I mapped how finance managers, accountants, and operators moved through the system. The workflow revealed the current platofrm lack of unified entry point connecting tasks, balances, and approvals.
My Role
My role in the redesign
As a UX design intern at a design consultancy, I worked between two teams: my external design team and Cathay’s internal cross-functional teams.
My primary responsibility was the web experience, focusing on redesigning the platform’s first touchpoints, clarifying workflows, re-structuring the information architecture, and creating wireframes.
Internal Team
(Cathay United Bank)
Director / Senior Manager
Project Manager
UX Designers
Engineers
Business
Operation Side
Supporting Stakeholders
Data / Security
Compliance / Risk
Core Project Team
External Team
(Hi-Media Interactive Design)
Me
(UX Designer)
Design Director
UI Designer
Engineers
Project Manager
Key Research Insights
3 main insights from the research
Through user research, I found that users knew what they wanted to do, but scattered information and unclear validation made simple tasks harder than they needed to be.
Cluttered homepage made it unclear where to begin
Repeated loops caused by unclear validation
Missing balance visibility created unnecessary back-and-forth
Research Deep Dive
How do enterprise clients navigate daily banking tasks?
To dig deeper into the problems surfaced in the system map, I partnered with Cathay’s internal teams to uncover where workflows break down and what slows users the most.
3
Stakeholder Workshops
6
User Interviews
10+
Global Banking Benchmarks
20+
Competitor Flows Audited
Pain Point #1
Visual clutter made the first touchpoint overwhelming
Users often paused at the first touchpoint because key actions weren’t surfaced and the page lacked a clear visual hierarchy.
Unclear actions and CTA
Cluttered contact information
Hidden Announcement
Pain Point #2
Users looped between steps due to unclear validation
I noticed when users kept looping back, they lost confidence in the platform and spent much longer completing a simple transfer.
Submit
Fill details
Unclear validation caused repeated loops in one step
Start transfer
Check balance
In interviews, users described the flow as “trial and error,” because the system never explained what went wrong or what to do next.
Pain Point #3
Users couldn't see their balance when they needed it most
Among the competitor platforms, Cathay was the only platform that didn’t show balance upfront, forcing users to open multiple pages before they could even start a transfer.
📊 Competitor Benchmark
Platform
Balance Visible
Quick Actions
Task Hierarchy
Device Consistency
Global Bank A
✔
✔
✔
✔
Global Bank B
✔
✖
✔
✔
Taiwan Bank
✔
✖
✖
✖
Cathay (Before)
✖
✔
✖
✖
Lack of balance visibility
I found that the homepage didn’t answer users’ first question: “Do I have enough balance?” Since this wasn’t visible upfront, users had to jump across pages just to start a simple task.
Design Goals
Refining complexity into a system users can trust
As CUBEnterprise supports 100 + global entities and multi-layer account structures, the redesign set out to:
1
Give each role a clearer starting point
2
Reduce task completion time from 8 steps to ≤4 steps
3
Build a scalable structure for 30+ banking actions
Design Exploration #1 - Hompage Redesign
Eliminating visual clutter to rebuild trust at the first touchpoint
The previous homepage mixed too many modules and outdated UI patterns, making it difficult for finance teams to quickly understand balances or know where to start.
I prioritized the login and key actions to make the entry point clearer and make daily operations feel faster.
Restructuring and prioritizing features
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Establishing visual hierarchy
Primary:
Login panel
Secondary:
Quick links/
Announcements
Tertiary:
Contact info/
App promotion
Design Exploration #2 - Information Architecture
Making 30+ scattered banking actions easier to find
The original IA had 30+ actions scattered across multiple categories, making it difficult to locate simple tasks.
I restructured the balance page to match how finance teams review accounts in the real world. Surfacing key metrics upfront helps users validate important information immediately before moving into any transaction.
Reorganized 30+ features into clearer task-based groups
Trade-off: We intentionally prioritized frequently used, low-risk actions (Login, Quick Transfers) as Primary, even though the Business team pushed for a high-value but low-frequency feature (e.g., FX Trading Tools) to be placed there. We based this decision on user interview data showing that 80% of daily logins were for routine monitoring.
Design Exploration #3 - Balance page + Transfer Flow
Rebuilding the balance and transfer experience
Users needed to confirm their balance before starting any transfer, unclear validation caused users to loop between steps.
I reorganized the transfer flow so users see sender information, validations, and required checks in the same order they think about them to reduce back-and-forth.
Trade-off: We faced rigid regulatory constraints requiring multi-level security. We did not attempt to remove these mandatory steps, but focused on optimizing the process by integrating validation prompts contextually, thereby maintaining full compliance while still reducing user friction.
Final Design
Delivering a clearer, more consistent enterprise experience
We developed a cohesive design system that strengthened brand consistency and made the entire platform easier to navigate. The new structure helps users quickly recognize functions and manage accounts with confidence.
After
Before
Solution #1 - Homepage
Clarified the entry point so users immediately know where to start and what matters most.
1
Login prioritized clearly
2
Strengthened
brand presence
3
Key actions
surfaced upfront
4
Visual hierarchy
cleaned up
Solution #2 - Dashboard
Introduced dashboard and organized balances so users can scan, compare, and act without hesitation.
1
Clear account
hierarchy
2
Key metrics displayed
3
Structured updates
4
Clear CTAs
Solution #3 - Transfer Flow
Simplified the transfer steps and surfaced key details upfront so users can move through the process confidently.
Impact
Introducing 2.0: a faster workflow for global enterprise clients
We launched redesign on app (IOS, Android) and web. Our redesign delivered measurable improvements across clarity, task efficiency, and user confidence:
Reduction in workflow drop-off
By creating a single entry point, users located their required tasks in under 2 seconds.
Faster task initiation
Balance page and reorganized transfer flow cut the previous 8-step loop into ≤4 predictable steps.
Fewer duplicate support inquiries
Restructured IA surfaced balances, tasks, and approvals in one place, allowing internal support to scale without adding headcount.
“This layout makes approvals and account relationships instantly clear.”
— Finance Ops Lead, Enterprise Team
“We can ship features faster now that the system architecture is simplified.”
— Engineering Manager, Enterprise Team
Reflection
Communication builds trust, especially in ambiguity.
Throughout this project, I learned how much clarity accelerates teamwork. Early on, I assumed everyone shared the same understanding, but misalignment showed up quickly. I shifted my approach to sharing drafts earlier, and asking more focused questions. It made decisions faster and collaboration noticeably smoother.
Data > opinions.
Instead of relying on intuition, I pushed myself to ground every design choice in evidence. This made cross-team discussions easier: conversations shifted from “I think…” to “Here’s what we’re seeing, and here’s what solves it.” It taught me how to align design with measurable impact, not just aesthetics.
Iterate with intention.
I started sharing messy drafts, validating assumptions earlier, and asking for the type of feedback that would unblock me fastest. This taught me that progress often comes from short, quick loops.
