Challenge
A decade-old platform had grown beyond its original structure, accumulating new modules, complex workflows, and inconsistent experiences.
Issuers found the platform difficult to use, with some tasks requiring too many clicks and no clear path to action from the dashboard.
The experience had also fallen out of step with Verve's design system and the standards expected of a modern digital product.
Approach
I restructured the information architecture and workflows to make actions easier to find and complete.
I reorganized functionality around user workflows, bringing related actions closer together.
I validated and refined the redesign through usability testing and user interviews, while aligning the experience with Verve's design system.
Outcome
Over 120M Verve-enabled cards are supported through the platform.
₦19B in bypass funds have been recovered through Verve's monthly member reporting.
FX Rate enables accurate settlement for cross-border transactions.
For most people, Verve begins and ends with a payment card. For financial institutions, it's an operational partnership. That partnership depends on dozens of operational workflows happening behind the scenes.
Verve Access is the platform that enables banks, issuers, and other financial institutions to manage these operations through a secure self-service experience.
For more than a decade, Verve Access had supported the institutions behind Verve’s card network. But while the platform remained central to their operations, the expectations around it were changing.
Digital products had moved forward, and the experience of using Verve Access was beginning to feel out of step. Issuers were starting to voice their frustrations, and the gap between the product they relied on and the experiences they expected was becoming harder to ignore.
DASHBOARD, VERVE ACCESS (OLD)
Working from stakeholder requirements, I reviewed the existing platform to understand how its evolving set of functions translated into the day-to-day experience.
One pattern quickly stood out: getting things done often meant navigating through several layers of the platform. The dashboard provided visibility into the system, but didn't give users a clear starting point for the actions they needed to take.
How could the platform help users move from simply seeing what was happening to actually getting things done?
I led the redesign of Verve Access, working from stakeholder requirements to restructure information architecture and workflows, design around user roles, and bring the platform into alignment with Verve’s design system.
Having understood where the experience was falling short, I reworked the product around a clearer, more coherent way of getting things done
Making Actions Easier to Find
Previously, all requests lived under one place, making it harder to identify and act on specific types of work.
I reorganized them around the workflows they belonged to, making relevant actions easier to find and complete.
Creating a Clearer Information Structure
The side navigation was reorganized to group related activities more logically, while moving lower-priority modules into a secondary navigation under Settings. This created a more focused experience while keeping frequently used tools accessible in predictable locations.
Designing around User Roles
Verve Access serves multiple user types with distinct goals and permissions. Rather than designing a one-size-fits-all experience, I structured the experience around each user's responsibilities, surfacing the actions, information, and workflows most relevant to them.
Create a Cohesive Product Experience
The redesign also brought Verve Access into alignment with the wider Verve design system. Existing patterns were brought into a more consistent visual language across navigation, components, tables, forms, and other core interactions, giving the platform a more cohesive and elevated experience.
With the core experience reworked, we put the initial designs in front of users to understand how well the new workflows and interactions worked in practice.
We conducted usability testing and interviewed users to gather feedback on the redesigned experience. Their feedback revealed areas that still needed refinement before moving forward.
The testing surfaced areas where the experience could be clearer, so I refined the designs based on what users struggled with and the feedback they shared.
Clarity of Terminology impacted Task Understanding
Usability testing revealed gaps in clarity and interpretation across key dashboard elements. The “BIN Calculator” CTA was renamed to “Calculate Card Issuance” to better reflect the intended task and reduce ambiguity. The requests distribution was also changed from a bar chart to a pie chart to better match how users expected comparative data to be represented.
First-time and Returning Users needed Better Guidance
Users highlighted the need for more support when navigating and completing tasks, particularly for first-time users and those returning after periods of inactivity. This informed recommendations for guided tours, coach marks, and feature announcement modals to improve discoverability and product adoption.
Verve Access emerged as a more focused, cohesive platform, with clearer workflows and a more consistent experience across the product.
Verve Access sits behind critical operations across Verve's ecosystem. The platform supports the issuance of over 120M Verve-enabled cards, while modules such as VMMR and FX Rate contribute directly to the wider business—recovering ₦19B in bypass funds and enabling accurate settlement for cross-border transactions.
Verve-Enabled Cards
Bypass funds recovered through VMMR
Accurate cross-border settlement
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