Scope & Planning

Taking ownership of the project mid-flight introduced a unique set of challenges, as several foundational product and technical decisions had already been established prior to my involvement. Stepping into a lead role required quickly assessing the current state of the experience, aligning cross-functional stakeholders, and identifying opportunities to streamline both the user journey and operational workflows without disrupting delivery timelines.

My primary responsibility was driving the initiative through execution and successfully delivering the experience before year-end deadlines. In parallel, I worked closely with product, engineering, and business teams to prioritize high-impact improvements that balanced user needs, compliance requirements, and operational efficiency.

The outcome resulted in an estimated annual savings of $900K for the business while significantly improving the customer experience by reducing fund disbursement timelines from 9 days to 3 days.

Launched in October, a month before this study, I received no update, no email about the new feature, or in app notification. We have seen this many times before, a quick in app onboarding with interactions taking you to and or thought he new process. There was none.

**Resources
https://newsroom.wf.com/press-release/innovation-and-technology/wells-fargo-reimagines-mobile-experience-pay-wells-fargo
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181001005683/en/Wells-Fargo-Launches-Control-Tower-SM-New

Let’s Fix it…..But how?

Icon vs Verbiage

Forgoing wire frames to solve this problem, I focused my attention on the hierarchy of the apps information architecture. It appeared their new features were within the largest navigation on any given screen. I also noticed during testing, the second most used area was the same navigation.

Setting up for more testing I designed new icons for Control Tower some found on the app and some newly designed. Following design patterns found within the app, I knew I would have to pair with verbiage. In addition due to pain points uncovered in the user interviews testing accopainy verbiage that coincided with the feature was crucial.

Ideation

The easiest features to find are located within the secondary navigation on the app. this changes from screen to screen, but has one thing in common, Icons mixed with simple words. I believe this is how we solve this problem.

Verbage

Gamified Testing

Testing would be a pairing game with the icons and verbiage. Users were given the below groups of icons and words. Users were to “Pair the icon with the word you feel best describes it”.

High Fidelity Mockups

Utilizing the r

Recurring Payments in 3 new spots Left: Primary Nav Center: in secondary Nav Right: Hamburger drop down Nav

Conclusion

Wells Fargo’s product has to hit a wide demographic, ranging from the teenager getting their first bank account, to the older generation who can not leave the house to do banking, and everyone in between. Their app is heavy and very word heavy, lot of navigation in various places.

This project started out as a way for me to add a feature to the Wells Fargo app due to a personal life experience and a pain point that I had that was to be validated through testing. Testing uncovered the feature existed and it was a major launch for the company. Buried in a hard to find place this project became less about my personal needs, and turned into a way to help everyone find the newly installed feature for the app.

Ultimately choosing to move on from the term “Control Tower”, even though I know WF has spent time and resources to register this as a service mark. Though early to call, data suggests that this was the right move, more testing would be needed to confirm my hypothesis.

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