Card Security: Locking & Reporting

Process

1. 1. Understand

   Stakeholder discovery with credit unions and tech partners

   • Conducted discovery sessions with credit union clients (Collective) and technology partners (EverLink) to map real user pain points and align on scope.
   • Clients included Prospera Credit Union, Gulf & Fraser, BlueShore Financial, and Vancity — each with different user bases and risk tolerances.
   • Defined two core goals: granular card-locking options for security control, and a simplified flow for reporting lost or stolen cards.

2. 2. Research

   Competitor analysis to anchor design in familiar patterns

   • Analyzed card security features across Scotiabank, TD, CIBC, RBC, and PayPal.
   • Identified common UI patterns — toggle-based locking, modal confirmation flows, and card management hubs — that Canadian users already understood.
   • Used findings to avoid friction: don't reinvent card security, improve it.

3. 3. Information Architecture

   Navigating constraints to find the right home for the feature

   • Identified a structural gap: the existing app had no account-specific page where card security logically belonged.
   • Ran internal brainstorming to test labels. Landed on 'Account Security' as a clear, familiar term that matched industry conventions.
   • Result: seamless integration of both features under a single, intuitive hub — reducing navigation complexity without restructuring the whole app.

4. 4. Design — Card Locking

   Expanding locking options while staying within implementation constraints

   • Extended the existing Lock'N'Block mechanism with granular controls: block by transaction type (ATM, international, contactless, e-commerce) rather than all-or-nothing.
   • Used toggle switches and checkboxes to make complex configurations scannable and reversible — users felt in control without feeling overwhelmed.
   • Built a high-fidelity Figma prototype for stakeholder review, scoping features against what the dev team could ship.

5. 5. Design — Lost/Stolen Reporting

   A single hub for card security emergencies

   • Designed the lost/stolen card reporting flow to sit alongside the locking feature in the new Card Security section.
   • Addressed the user concern of being able to report a card issue quickly — without hunting through multiple menus.
   • The unified hub reduced cognitive load: users could lock, report, and manage cards without leaving the same section.

6. 6. Feedback & Handoff

   Walkthrough sessions and detailed spec delivery

   • Presented the prototype to stakeholders and collected actionable feedback that was incorporated before final spec.
   • Held walkthrough sessions with the engineering team to address implementation questions and prevent handoff drift.
   • Detailed documentation minimized discrepancies during development and preserved design intent through to production.