Corporate Banking
B2C
Retail
B2B
UX Research
UXUI Redesign
Virtual Accounts
Accounts in Control
Accounts in Control
Designing the Payment Tags Account System for Coronation Merchant
Bank
Empowering CMB's Corporate Clients to Manage Virtual Accounts with Ease and Security
The Impact at a Glance
30%
Time Reduction
Less time spent managing
customer transactions
+70%
Efficiency Gain
Increase in time efficiency
for corporate clients
Fewer
Support Tickets
Improved self-service
reduced support overhead
Higher
Trust
Enhanced through better
transparency & security
"We didn't just build a portal.
We eliminated the spreadsheet."
The Story: A Spreadsheet That Was Holding a Business Together
His name was Emeka. He was the Finance Manager at AOD Company Limited a mid-sized corporate firm that banked with Coronation Merchant Bank. AOD managed hundreds of customer sub-accounts every month: collecting deposits, processing transfers, reconciling incoming payments, and generating reports for compliance. On paper, they were a valued CMB corporate client. In practice, they were quietly drowning in spreadsheets.
Every morning, Emeka would open his laptop and begin the ritual: download the latest CMB statement export, open the master Excel file, manually match incoming transactions against customer reference numbers, flag the discrepancies, chase the ones that didn't add up, and prepare the daily report for his CFO. It took hours hours that should have been spent on actual financial management.
The frustrating part? He knew there had to be a better way. The bank had the data. The transactions were already happening. What was missing was a system that gave him and his team real control over those virtual sub-accounts directly, without the spreadsheet workaround.
He wasn't the only one. Across CMB's corporate client base, finance teams were building the same makeshift systems: offline virtual accounts in spreadsheets, manual reconciliation against statement exports, error-prone processes that increased risk with every transaction. The bank's existing internet banking platform was not built for this. It had no mechanism for corporate clients to create, name, manage, or track multiple virtual accounts linked to a single master account.
CMB needed to solve this not just for Emeka, but for every corporate client in the same position
The Project
The Payment Tags Account System is a secure, responsive web portal integrated directly into CMB's existing internet banking infrastructure that gives corporate clients real-time control over virtual account creation, management, and transaction tracking. It allows businesses to create named sub-accounts (payment tags) for specific customers, campaigns, or purposes; monitor inflows and outflows in real time; filter and search transactions with precision; and receive instant notifications when funds arrive.
Sub-accounts creation
Filter and search transactions with precision
Sub-accounts creation
Filter and search transactions with precision
Discovery & Research: Understanding Before Designing
The Research Sprint
We kicked off the project with a 2-week discovery sprint focused on understanding both the users and the system's technical constraints. I structured the research around three tracks running in parallel to make the most of the compressed timeline.
Stakeholder Interviews
with CMB's Relationship Managers to understand existing operational bottlenecks and the bank's strategic goals for the product
User Interviews
with corporate finance managers and operations teams our primary users to map their current workflows, mental models, and pain points
System Audit
of CMB's existing internet banking platform to identify technical constraints, integration points, and
design patterns already established
The research uncovered a consistent, compelling picture. Corporate clients were not just frustrated they were actively compensating for the platform's limitations with manual workarounds that introduce significant operational risk.
"It's hard to track transactions across all our customers. We manage hundreds of sub-accounts in
a spreadsheet."
- Corporate Finance Manager, User Interview
"We need better visibility into cash inflows and outflows. Right now we find out about problems
after the fact."
- Operations Director, User Interview
"Creating sub-accounts manually is slow and error-prone. We've had reconciliation errors that took days to fix."
- Finance Manager, User Interview
The Key Insight That Changed Everything
One finding stood out above all others and directly shaped the design direction: users were already creating makeshift 'virtual accounts' offline using spreadsheets, then manually reconciling them with CMB's statement exports a slow, error-prone process that could take hours every day.
This was not just a usability problem. It was a business risk. Every manual reconciliation was an opportunity for a misposted transaction, a missed inflow, a compliance error. The insight validated both the urgency of building this system and the specific features it needed to prioritize real-time balance visibility, flexible filtering, and instant notifications for incoming funds.
I began with low-fidelity sketches physical pen on paper mapping different dashboard layouts, account creation flows, and transaction filtering patterns. This stage was deliberately rough. The goal was to explore information flows quickly without the friction of software, and to get ideas in front of the Product Owner and Relationship Managers for early validation.
Sketches from discovery sprint
The Challenge Defined
How might we empower corporate clients to efficiently manage multiple customer accounts securely and without friction within an existing banking platform?
Defining the Solution: Needs, Goals Principles
User Needs
Effortless creation & management of virtual accounts
Real-time transaction tracking and reconciliation
Secure, multi-device access with banking-grade protection
Simplified account and transaction search & filtering
Business Goals
Reduce support overhead by improving self-service capabilities
Retain high-value corporate clients with better tooling
Increase digital engagement and platform stickiness
Maintain regulatory compliance and banking-grade security
Design Principles for Payment Tags
Real-Time Over Retrospective
Users should never have to wait for data. Every balance, every transaction, every alert should reflect the current state of the system
Action-Oriented Dashboard
The home screen is not a report; it is a control panel. Everything surfaced should lead to a clear next action
Precision Filtering
Corporate finance users deal in specifics. The system must allow filtering by account, date range, amount, and customer reference without any friction
Security as Trust
Every action that changes data should have a clear confirmation state. Users must feel in control, not anxious
Design Process
Wireframing & Iteration
After validating the structural direction, I moved into digital wireframes in Figma. The key wireframing decisions at this stage centered on three design problems:
Problem 1: The Dashboard Information Hierarchy
What should a corporate user see the moment they log in? Research showed they needed to answer four questions instantly: What is my available balance? How many virtual accounts do I have? How much has come in today? Are there any alerts I need to act on? The solution was a 4-card metric strip at the top of the dashboard, Inflow (daily transaction total), and New Inflow Alert each card providing the answer to one of those four questions at a glance.
Proposed solution for dashboard
Problem 2: Account Table vs. Account Cards
I initially explored two approaches for displaying the list of virtual accounts: a card grid (visually richer, shows less at once) and a sortable data table (information-dense, familiar to finance users). Usability testing with a corporate finance manager resolved this quickly finance users preferred the table. They work with data. They know how to use columns, sort headers, and row actions. A table matched their mental model. The card view was deprioritized.
Proposed solution for account table vs account cards
Problem 3: The New Account Creation Flow
Creating a new virtual account required three pieces of information: a name, a customer ID(will be auto-generated in the database), and optionally a bulk file for mass account creation. A single long form felt risky errors were harder to catch and the form felt overwhelming.
Proposed solution for new account creation flow
Design Principles for Payment Tags
Real-Time Over Retrospective
Users should never have to wait for data. Every balance, every transaction, every alert should reflect the current state of the system
Action-Oriented Dashboard
The home screen is not a report; it is a control panel. Everything surfaced should lead to a clear next action
Precision Filtering
Corporate finance users deal in specifics. The system must allow filtering by account, date range, amount, and customer reference without any friction
Security as Trust
Every action that changes data should have a clear confirmation state. Users must feel in control, not anxious
Usability Testing: Testing Before Building
We ran iterative usability tests on the portal's main screens throughout the design phase not just at the end. This rapid feedback loop, within a 6-week timeline, here’s how specific improvements evolved:
Three testing objectives:
Do users prefer seeing real-time balances per virtual account upfront or is a summary sufficient?
Is a step-by-step 'Create Virtual Account' wizard more intuitive than a single long form?
What filters do users need at the transaction level to make the data actionable?
The results were clear:
Real-time balances per virtual account upfront - users preferred this strongly. Seeing the balance on the account list meant they could assess their portfolio without drilling down
The wizard approach won over the single form - by a significant margin. Users described the wizard as 'less stressful' and 'clearer'
Flexible multi-criteria filtering was essential - users wanted to filter by account, date range, amount, and customer reference simultaneously
Onboarding: Customer Verification Screen
BEFORE
Single long form
AFTER
Step-by-step wizard
Dashboard Landing Screen
BEFORE
No real-time inflow, alert & balances with flexible filter
AFTER
Real-time inflow, alert & balances with flexible filter
Key Design Decisions & Rational
Decision 1: Integrated Within the Existing Banking Platform
The Payment Tags system was not designed as a standalone product it was designed as a feature module integrated directly within CMB's existing internet banking portal. This was a deliberate strategic decision: corporate clients already authenticated into internet banking. Adding Payment Tags as a new destination within that familiar environment reduced the learning curve, avoided a separate login, and positioned the feature as a natural extension of the bank's digital capabilities.
Rationale:
A standalone product would have fragmented the user experience and required separate authentication and session management. Integration preserved the trust and familiarity of the existing banking context while adding new capability.
Payment Tag integrated as “a module” into CMB corporate internet banking
Decision 2: The Sidebar Navigation Architecture
The sidebar navigation Home, Manage Account, New Account, Transfer, Transaction History, Notification, Logout was chosen over a top navigation bar for two specific reasons. First, the feature set warranted clear, persistent navigation that didn't compete with the content area. Second, a sidebar scales better with additional features in the future additional menu items can be added without restructuring the entire layout.
Rationale:
Top nav bars work well for consumer applications with few primary destinations. Corporate finance portals benefit from sidebar navigation because users navigate frequently between sections during a single session reviewing accounts, then checking transactions, then managing notifications and a persistent sidebar makes this faster and more intuitive.
Sidebar Navigation
Decision 3: The 4-Card Metric Strip
The four summary cards at the top of the dashboard Account Number, PayByCMB Accounts count, Inflow (daily transaction total), and New Inflow Alert were the result of directly mapping dashboard content to the four questions every corporate finance user needs to answer immediately on login. Each card answers one question. The New Inflow Alert card uses a red text highlight to draw attention when action is required a clear visual priority signal that respects the user's attention without being intrusive.
Rationale:
Financial dashboards often try to show everything and end up communicating nothing. The deliberate constraint of four cards, each answering a specific question, makes the dashboard scannable in under 10 seconds. Finance users are time-poor. Every second saved on information finding is a second redirected to actual decision-making.
4-Card Metric
Decision 4: Tabbed Content Below the Dashboard Header
The main content area of the dashboard uses a tab system to switch between three views: Accounts Created (the virtual account list), Recent Transaction Inflows (the transaction history), and Account Detail (the selected account view). This three-tab structure keeps all the primary content within a single screen, avoiding deep navigation for the most common user tasks.
Rationale:
Corporate finance users frequently switch between checking their account list and reviewing specific transactions. Tabbed content at the same hierarchy level makes this switching instant no back navigation, no page loads, no context loss. Usability testing confirmed that users preferred this to a multi-page navigation model.
Tabbed contents on the dashboard
Final Design: Major Screens Showcase
The following screens represent the final Payment Tag Account System as designed and handed off.
Onboarding
Dashboard & Account Management
Transaction History, Audit Trail & Notification
Challenges: What Made This Project Genuinely Hard
Challenge 1: Designing Within an Existing System
The Payment Tags system was not a greenfield product it was a new module integrated into CMB's existing internet banking platform. This meant designing within constraints: existing color systems, typography conventions, and authentication flows that I had to respect and extend, not replace. Every design decision had to be evaluated not just on its own merit, but on how it fit within the broader platform context.
My approach:
I started with a thorough audit of the existing internet banking UI before designing a single wireframe. I documented the design patterns, component conventions, and visual language already in use. This audit became the foundation for the Payment Tags design system I extended what existed rather than creating something parallel.
Challenge 2: Balancing Security Requirements With Usability
Corporate financial data is sensitive. Every action that modifies account data creating an account, deleting one required confirmation states, clear feedback, and audit trail awareness. The temptation was to add confirmation dialogs everywhere which would have made the platform feel paranoid and slow.
My approach:
I mapped every destructive or consequential action and designed proportionate confirmation experiences. Account creation: a dedicated confirmation screen that showed the generated account details before finalising. Account deletion: a modal confirmation with the account name clearly stated. Security was present without being pervasive.
Challenge 3: Designing for Two User Types in One Interface
The Payment Tags system served both B2B clients (businesses managing accounts for other businesses) and B2C contexts (businesses managing accounts for individual customers). These two user types had subtly different mental models around account naming, reference terminology, and filtering needs. A single interface had to serve both without feeling awkward for either.
My approach:
I focused on shared behaviours both user types needed to create accounts, track transactions, and receive alerts and designed those as the core experience. The flexibility was built into the filtering and search system, which allowed each user type to organize and find their data using the terminology that made sense to them (customer reference, account name, session ID).
Challenge 4: Compressing a Full Design Process Into 6 Weeks
Six weeks from discovery to design handoff, for a system with this many screens and interactions, required rigorous prioritisation. There was no time for multiple rounds of high-fidelity redesign. Every design decision had to be well-informed from the start.
My approach:
I front-loaded the research. The 2-week discovery sprint was not a luxury it was an investment that paid back in reduced iteration later. By going into wireframing with clear, tested insights (table not cards, wizard not form, multi-criteria filtering essential), I avoided the most common cause of design rework: building the wrong thing well.
Outcomes: Impact, Lessons & Takeaways
Measurable Impact
The Payment Tags Account System delivered measurable improvements across the three dimensions that mattered most efficiency, support load, and user trust:
30%
Reduction
in time spent managing
customer transactions
+70%
Increase
in efficiency for managing
customer transactions
Fewer
Support Tickets
due to improved self-
service capabilities
Higher
Trust
through better transparency
and security
Lessons Learned
Early and frequent usability testing proved to be crucial in identifying and eliminating user pain points before
development the table vs. card and wizard vs. form decisions were both resolved by testing, not by design opinion
Striking the balance between security features and ease of use is a nuanced design challenge. Corporate
clients needed to feel both safe and empowered not surveilled or burdened by the security layer
Iterating through multiple design concepts, gathering feedback, and refining based on user needs ensured that the final product met client expectations with minimal post-launch rework
Key Takeaway
The Payment Tags Account System transformed a manual, high-effort process into a secure, intuitive, and scalable solution that empowered corporate clients and strengthened CMB's digital offering. It reinforced my belief that even in compliance-heavy industries, user-centered design can deliver measurable business impact while genuinely delighting users. The spreadsheet workaround that finance teams had built out of necessity became unnecessary not because we told them to stop using it, but because we built something better.
Reflection: What I'd Do Differently
What Worked Well
Front-loading the research sprint 2 weeks of discovery before any wireframe saved weeks of rework later
Testing with lo-fi prototypes early resolving the table vs. card debate before high-fidelity design began
The wizard pattern for account creation user confidence over speed was the right trade-off for this context
Designing within the existing platform system integration felt native rather than bolted on
What I Would Do Differently
Involve more user types in testing earlier we tested primarily with finance managers; operations users surfaced different needs post-handoff
Design the analytics dashboard in parallel it's a Phase 2 feature but users asked for it in every session; having initial concepts ready would have set clearer expectations
Behind the Scenes
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Timeline
6 Weeks (Jan–Feb 2026)
Platform
Web (Responsive)
Scope
B2B & B2C Corporate
My Responsibilities
The project ran for 6 weeks, January to February 2026 from discovery sprint through to final design hand-off. I joined as Lead UX/UI Designer, working within an Agile product team comprising 1 Product Owner, 3 Software Engineers, 1 Scrum Master, and 1 QA Engineer.
I was responsible for defining the design direction, driving user research, crafting prototypes, an ensuring that the user experience aligned with both client needs and banking compliance standards
© 2026 Oluwafunmilola Olukanni. All rights reserved.
Senior Product/UXUI Designer · Lagos, Nigeria
Corporate Banking
B2C
Retail
B2B
UX Research
UXUI Redesign
Virtual Accounts
Accounts in Control
Designing the Payment Tags Account System for Coronation Merchant
Bank
Empowering CMB's Corporate Clients to Manage Virtual Accounts with Ease and Security
The Impact at a Glance
30%
Time Reduction
Less time spent managing
customer transactions
+70%
Efficiency Gain
Increase in time efficiency
for corporate clients
Fewer
Support Tickets
Improved self-service
reduced support overhead
Higher
Trust
Enhanced through better
transparency & security
"We didn't just build a portal.
We eliminated the spreadsheet."
The Story: A Spreadsheet That Was Holding a Business Together
His name was Emeka. He was the Finance Manager at AOD Company Limited a mid-sized corporate firm that banked with Coronation Merchant Bank. AOD managed hundreds of customer sub-accounts every month: collecting deposits, processing transfers, reconciling incoming payments, and generating reports for compliance. On paper, they were a valued CMB corporate client. In practice, they were quietly drowning in spreadsheets.
Every morning, Emeka would open his laptop and begin the ritual: download the latest CMB statement export, open the master Excel file, manually match incoming transactions against customer reference numbers, flag the discrepancies, chase the ones that didn't add up, and prepare the daily report for his CFO. It took hours hours that should have been spent on actual financial management.
The frustrating part? He knew there had to be a better way. The bank had the data. The transactions were already happening. What was missing was a system that gave him and his team real control over those virtual sub-accounts directly, without the spreadsheet workaround.
He wasn't the only one. Across CMB's corporate client base, finance teams were building the same makeshift systems: offline virtual accounts in spreadsheets, manual reconciliation against statement exports, error-prone processes that increased risk with every transaction. The bank's existing internet banking platform was not built for this. It had no mechanism for corporate clients to create, name, manage, or track multiple virtual accounts linked to a single master account.
CMB needed to solve this not just for Emeka, but for every corporate client in the same position
The Project
The Payment Tags Account System is a secure, responsive web portal integrated directly into CMB's existing internet banking infrastructure that gives corporate clients real-time control over virtual account creation, management, and transaction tracking. It allows businesses to create named sub-accounts (payment tags) for specific customers, campaigns, or purposes; monitor inflows and outflows in real time; filter and search transactions with precision; and receive instant notifications when funds arrive.
Sub-accounts creation
Filter and search transactions with precision
Sub-accounts creation
Filter and search transactions with precision
Discovery & Research: Understanding Before Designing
The Research Sprint
We kicked off the project with a 2-week discovery sprint focused on understanding both the users and the system's technical constraints. I structured the research around three tracks running in parallel to make the most of the compressed timeline.
Stakeholder Interviews
with CMB's Relationship Managers to understand existing operational bottlenecks and the bank's strategic goals for the product
User Interviews
with corporate finance managers and operations teams our primary users to map their current workflows, mental models, and pain points
System Audit
of CMB's existing internet banking platform to identify technical constraints, integration points, and
design patterns already established
The research uncovered a consistent, compelling picture. Corporate clients were not just frustrated they were actively compensating for the platform's limitations with manual workarounds that introduce significant operational risk.
"It's hard to track transactions across all our customers. We manage hundreds of sub-accounts in
a spreadsheet."
- Corporate Finance Manager, User Interview
"We need better visibility into cash inflows and outflows. Right now we find out about problems
after the fact."
- Operations Director, User Interview
"Creating sub-accounts manually is slow and error-prone. We've had reconciliation errors that took days to fix."
- Finance Manager, User Interview
The Key Insight That Changed Everything
One finding stood out above all others and directly shaped the design direction: users were already creating makeshift 'virtual accounts' offline using spreadsheets, then manually reconciling them with CMB's statement exports a slow, error-prone process that could take hours every day.
This was not just a usability problem. It was a business risk. Every manual reconciliation was an opportunity for a misposted transaction, a missed inflow, a compliance error. The insight validated both the urgency of building this system and the specific features it needed to prioritize real-time balance visibility, flexible filtering, and instant notifications for incoming funds.
I began with low-fidelity sketches physical pen on paper mapping different dashboard layouts, account creation flows, and transaction filtering patterns. This stage was deliberately rough. The goal was to explore information flows quickly without the friction of software, and to get ideas in front of the Product Owner and Relationship Managers for early validation.
Sketches from discovery sprint
The Challenge Defined
How might we empower corporate clients to efficiently manage multiple customer accounts securely and without friction within an existing banking platform?
Defining the Solution: Needs, Goals Principles
User Needs
Effortless creation & management of virtual accounts
Real-time transaction tracking and reconciliation
Secure, multi-device access with banking-grade protection
Simplified account and transaction search & filtering
Business Goals
Reduce support overhead by improving self-service capabilities
Retain high-value corporate clients with better tooling
Increase digital engagement and platform stickiness
Maintain regulatory compliance and banking-grade security
Design Principles for Payment Tags
Real-Time Over Retrospective
Users should never have to wait for data. Every balance, every transaction, every alert should reflect the current state of the system
Action-Oriented Dashboard
The home screen is not a report; it is a control panel. Everything surfaced should lead to a clear next action
Precision Filtering
Corporate finance users deal in specifics. The system must allow filtering by account, date range, amount, and customer reference without any friction
Security as Trust
Every action that changes data should have a clear confirmation state. Users must feel in control, not anxious
Design Process
Wireframing & Iteration
After validating the structural direction, I moved into digital wireframes in Figma. The key wireframing decisions at this stage centered on three design problems:
Problem 1: The Dashboard Information Hierarchy
What should a corporate user see the moment they log in? Research showed they needed to answer four questions instantly: What is my available balance? How many virtual accounts do I have? How much has come in today? Are there any alerts I need to act on? The solution was a 4-card metric strip at the top of the dashboard, Inflow (daily transaction total), and New Inflow Alert each card providing the answer to one of those four questions at a glance.
Proposed solution for dashboard
Problem 2: Account Table vs. Account Cards
I initially explored two approaches for displaying the list of virtual accounts: a card grid (visually richer, shows less at once) and a sortable data table (information-dense, familiar to finance users). Usability testing with a corporate finance manager resolved this quickly finance users preferred the table. They work with data. They know how to use columns, sort headers, and row actions. A table matched their mental model. The card view was deprioritized.
Proposed solution for account table vs account cards
Problem 3: The New Account Creation Flow
Creating a new virtual account required three pieces of information: a name, a customer ID(will be auto-generated in the database), and optionally a bulk file for mass account creation. A single long form felt risky errors were harder to catch and the form felt overwhelming.
Proposed solution for new account creation flow
Design Principles for Payment Tags
Real-Time Over Retrospective
Users should never have to wait for data. Every balance, every transaction, every alert should reflect the current state of the system
Action-Oriented Dashboard
The home screen is not a report; it is a control panel. Everything surfaced should lead to a clear next action
Precision Filtering
Corporate finance users deal in specifics. The system must allow filtering by account, date range, amount, and customer reference without any friction
Security as Trust
Every action that changes data should have a clear confirmation state. Users must feel in control, not anxious
Usability Testing: Testing Before Building
We ran iterative usability tests on the portal's main screens throughout the design phase not just at the end. This rapid feedback loop, within a 6-week timeline, here’s how specific improvements evolved:
Three testing objectives:
Do users prefer seeing real-time balances per virtual account upfront or is a summary sufficient?
Is a step-by-step 'Create Virtual Account' wizard more intuitive than a single long form?
What filters do users need at the transaction level to make the data actionable?
The results were clear:
Real-time balances per virtual account upfront - users preferred this strongly. Seeing the balance on the account list meant they could assess their portfolio without drilling down
The wizard approach won over the single form - by a significant margin. Users described the wizard as 'less stressful' and 'clearer'
Flexible multi-criteria filtering was essential - users wanted to filter by account, date range, amount, and customer reference simultaneously
Onboarding: Customer Verification Screen
BEFORE
Single long form
AFTER
Step-by-step wizard
Dashboard Landing Screen
BEFORE
No real-time inflow, alert & balances with flexible filter
AFTER
Real-time inflow, alert & balances with flexible filter
Key Design Decisions & Rational
Decision 1: Integrated Within the Existing Banking Platform
The Payment Tags system was not designed as a standalone product it was designed as a feature module integrated directly within CMB's existing internet banking portal. This was a deliberate strategic decision: corporate clients already authenticated into internet banking. Adding Payment Tags as a new destination within that familiar environment reduced the learning curve, avoided a separate login, and positioned the feature as a natural extension of the bank's digital capabilities.
Rationale:
A standalone product would have fragmented the user experience and required separate authentication and session management. Integration preserved the trust and familiarity of the existing banking context while adding new capability.
Payment Tag integrated as “a module” into CMB corporate internet banking
Decision 2: The Sidebar Navigation Architecture
The sidebar navigation Home, Manage Account, New Account, Transfer, Transaction History, Notification, Logout was chosen over a top navigation bar for two specific reasons. First, the feature set warranted clear, persistent navigation that didn't compete with the content area. Second, a sidebar scales better with additional features in the future additional menu items can be added without restructuring the entire layout.
Rationale:
Top nav bars work well for consumer applications with few primary destinations. Corporate finance portals benefit from sidebar navigation because users navigate frequently between sections during a single session reviewing accounts, then checking transactions, then managing notifications and a persistent sidebar makes this faster and more intuitive.
Sidebar Navigation
Decision 3: The 4-Card Metric Strip
The four summary cards at the top of the dashboard Account Number, PayByCMB Accounts count, Inflow (daily transaction total), and New Inflow Alert were the result of directly mapping dashboard content to the four questions every corporate finance user needs to answer immediately on login. Each card answers one question. The New Inflow Alert card uses a red text highlight to draw attention when action is required a clear visual priority signal that respects the user's attention without being intrusive.
Rationale:
Financial dashboards often try to show everything and end up communicating nothing. The deliberate constraint of four cards, each answering a specific question, makes the dashboard scannable in under 10 seconds. Finance users are time-poor. Every second saved on information finding is a second redirected to actual decision-making.
4-Card Metric
Decision 4: Tabbed Content Below the Dashboard Header
The main content area of the dashboard uses a tab system to switch between three views: Accounts Created (the virtual account list), Recent Transaction Inflows (the transaction history), and Account Detail (the selected account view). This three-tab structure keeps all the primary content within a single screen, avoiding deep navigation for the most common user tasks.
Rationale:
Corporate finance users frequently switch between checking their account list and reviewing specific transactions. Tabbed content at the same hierarchy level makes this switching instant no back navigation, no page loads, no context loss. Usability testing confirmed that users preferred this to a multi-page navigation model.
Tabbed contents on the dashboard
Final Design: Major Screens Showcase
The following screens represent the final Payment Tag Account System as designed and handed off.
Onboarding
Dashboard & Account Management
Transaction History, Audit Trail & Notification
Challenges: What Made This Project Genuinely Hard
Challenge 1: Designing Within an Existing System
The Payment Tags system was not a greenfield product it was a new module integrated into CMB's existing internet banking platform. This meant designing within constraints: existing color systems, typography conventions, and authentication flows that I had to respect and extend, not replace. Every design decision had to be evaluated not just on its own merit, but on how it fit within the broader platform context.
My approach:
I started with a thorough audit of the existing internet banking UI before designing a single wireframe. I documented the design patterns, component conventions, and visual language already in use. This audit became the foundation for the Payment Tags design system I extended what existed rather than creating something parallel.
Challenge 2: Balancing Security Requirements With Usability
Corporate financial data is sensitive. Every action that modifies account data creating an account, deleting one required confirmation states, clear feedback, and audit trail awareness. The temptation was to add confirmation dialogs everywhere which would have made the platform feel paranoid and slow.
My approach:
I mapped every destructive or consequential action and designed proportionate confirmation experiences. Account creation: a dedicated confirmation screen that showed the generated account details before finalising. Account deletion: a modal confirmation with the account name clearly stated. Security was present without being pervasive.
Challenge 3: Designing for Two User Types in One Interface
The Payment Tags system served both B2B clients (businesses managing accounts for other businesses) and B2C contexts (businesses managing accounts for individual customers). These two user types had subtly different mental models around account naming, reference terminology, and filtering needs. A single interface had to serve both without feeling awkward for either.
My approach:
I focused on shared behaviours both user types needed to create accounts, track transactions, and receive alerts and designed those as the core experience. The flexibility was built into the filtering and search system, which allowed each user type to organize and find their data using the terminology that made sense to them (customer reference, account name, session ID).
Challenge 4: Compressing a Full Design Process Into 6 Weeks
Six weeks from discovery to design handoff, for a system with this many screens and interactions, required rigorous prioritisation. There was no time for multiple rounds of high-fidelity redesign. Every design decision had to be well-informed from the start.
My approach:
I front-loaded the research. The 2-week discovery sprint was not a luxury it was an investment that paid back in reduced iteration later. By going into wireframing with clear, tested insights (table not cards, wizard not form, multi-criteria filtering essential), I avoided the most common cause of design rework: building the wrong thing well.
Outcomes: Impact, Lessons & Takeaways
Measurable Impact
The Payment Tags Account System delivered measurable improvements across the three dimensions that mattered most efficiency, support load, and user trust:
30%
Reduction
in time spent managing
customer transactions
+70%
Increase
in efficiency for managing
customer transactions
Fewer
Support Tickets
due to improved self-
service capabilities
Higher
Trust
through better transparency
and security
Lessons Learned
Early and frequent usability testing proved to be crucial in identifying and eliminating user pain points before
development the table vs. card and wizard vs. form decisions were both resolved by testing, not by design opinion
Striking the balance between security features and ease of use is a nuanced design challenge. Corporate
clients needed to feel both safe and empowered not surveilled or burdened by the security layer
Iterating through multiple design concepts, gathering feedback, and refining based on user needs ensured that the final product met client expectations with minimal post-launch rework
Key Takeaway
The Payment Tags Account System transformed a manual, high-effort process into a secure, intuitive, and scalable solution that empowered corporate clients and strengthened CMB's digital offering. It reinforced my belief that even in compliance-heavy industries, user-centered design can deliver measurable business impact while genuinely delighting users. The spreadsheet workaround that finance teams had built out of necessity became unnecessary not because we told them to stop using it, but because we built something better.
Reflection: What I'd Do Differently
What Worked Well
Front-loading the research sprint 2 weeks of discovery before any wireframe saved weeks of rework later
Testing with lo-fi prototypes early resolving the table vs. card debate before high-fidelity design began
The wizard pattern for account creation user confidence over speed was the right trade-off for this context
Designing within the existing platform system integration felt native rather than bolted on
What I Would Do Differently
Involve more user types in testing earlier we tested primarily with finance managers; operations users surfaced different needs post-handoff
Design the analytics dashboard in parallel it's a Phase 2 feature but users asked for it in every session; having initial concepts ready would have set clearer expectations
Behind the Scenes
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Timeline
6 Weeks (Jan–Feb 2026)
Platform
Web (Responsive)
Scope
B2B & B2C Corporate
My Responsibilities
The project ran for 6 weeks, January to February 2026 from discovery sprint through to final design hand-off. I joined as Lead UX/UI Designer, working within an Agile product team comprising 1 Product Owner, 3 Software Engineers, 1 Scrum Master, and 1 QA Engineer.
I was responsible for defining the design direction, driving user research, crafting prototypes, an ensuring that the user experience aligned with both client needs and banking compliance standards
© 2026 Oluwafunmilola Olukanni. All rights reserved.
Senior Product/UXUI Designer · Lagos, Nigeria
Corporate Banking
B2C
Retail
B2B
UX Research
UXUI Redesign
Virtual Accounts
Accounts in Control
Designing the Payment Tags Account System for Coronation Merchant
Bank
Empowering CMB's Corporate Clients to Manage Virtual Accounts with Ease and Security
The Impact at a Glance
30%
Time Reduction
Less time spent managing
customer transactions
+70%
Efficiency Gain
Increase in time efficiency
for corporate clients
Fewer
Support Tickets
Improved self-service
reduced support overhead
Higher
Trust
Enhanced through better
transparency & security
"We didn't just build a portal.
We eliminated the spreadsheet."
The Story: A Spreadsheet That Was Holding a Business Together
His name was Emeka. He was the Finance Manager at AOD Company Limited a mid-sized corporate firm that banked with Coronation Merchant Bank. AOD managed hundreds of customer sub-accounts every month: collecting deposits, processing transfers, reconciling incoming payments, and generating reports for compliance. On paper, they were a valued CMB corporate client. In practice, they were quietly drowning in spreadsheets.
Every morning, Emeka would open his laptop and begin the ritual: download the latest CMB statement export, open the master Excel file, manually match incoming transactions against customer reference numbers, flag the discrepancies, chase the ones that didn't add up, and prepare the daily report for his CFO. It took hours hours that should have been spent on actual financial management.
The frustrating part? He knew there had to be a better way. The bank had the data. The transactions were already happening. What was missing was a system that gave him and his team real control over those virtual sub-accounts directly, without the spreadsheet workaround.
He wasn't the only one. Across CMB's corporate client base, finance teams were building the same makeshift systems: offline virtual accounts in spreadsheets, manual reconciliation against statement exports, error-prone processes that increased risk with every transaction. The bank's existing internet banking platform was not built for this. It had no mechanism for corporate clients to create, name, manage, or track multiple virtual accounts linked to a single master account.
CMB needed to solve this not just for Emeka, but for every corporate client in the same position
The Project
The Payment Tags Account System is a secure, responsive web portal integrated directly into CMB's existing internet banking infrastructure that gives corporate clients real-time control over virtual account creation, management, and transaction tracking. It allows businesses to create named sub-accounts (payment tags) for specific customers, campaigns, or purposes; monitor inflows and outflows in real time; filter and search transactions with precision; and receive instant notifications when funds arrive.
Sub-accounts creation
Filter and search transactions with precision
Sub-accounts creation
Filter and search transactions with precision
Discovery & Research: Understanding Before Designing
The Research Sprint
We kicked off the project with a 2-week discovery sprint focused on understanding both the users and the system's technical constraints. I structured the research around three tracks running in parallel to make the most of the compressed timeline.
Stakeholder Interviews
with CMB's Relationship Managers to understand existing operational bottlenecks and the bank's strategic goals for the product
User Interviews
with corporate finance managers and operations teams our primary users to map their current workflows, mental models, and pain points
System Audit
of CMB's existing internet banking platform to identify technical constraints, integration points, and
design patterns already established
The research uncovered a consistent, compelling picture. Corporate clients were not just frustrated they were actively compensating for the platform's limitations with manual workarounds that introduce significant operational risk.
"It's hard to track transactions across all our customers. We manage hundreds of sub-accounts in
a spreadsheet."
- Corporate Finance Manager, User Interview
"We need better visibility into cash inflows and outflows. Right now we find out about problems
after the fact."
- Operations Director, User Interview
"Creating sub-accounts manually is slow and error-prone. We've had reconciliation errors that took days to fix."
- Finance Manager, User Interview
The Key Insight That Changed Everything
One finding stood out above all others and directly shaped the design direction: users were already creating makeshift 'virtual accounts' offline using spreadsheets, then manually reconciling them with CMB's statement exports a slow, error-prone process that could take hours every day.
This was not just a usability problem. It was a business risk. Every manual reconciliation was an opportunity for a misposted transaction, a missed inflow, a compliance error. The insight validated both the urgency of building this system and the specific features it needed to prioritize real-time balance visibility, flexible filtering, and instant notifications for incoming funds.
I began with low-fidelity sketches physical pen on paper mapping different dashboard layouts, account creation flows, and transaction filtering patterns. This stage was deliberately rough. The goal was to explore information flows quickly without the friction of software, and to get ideas in front of the Product Owner and Relationship Managers for early validation.
Sketches from discovery sprint
The Challenge Defined
How might we empower corporate clients to efficiently manage multiple customer accounts securely and without friction within an existing banking platform?
Defining the Solution: Needs, Goals Principles
User Needs
Effortless creation & management of virtual accounts
Real-time transaction tracking and reconciliation
Secure, multi-device access with banking-grade protection
Simplified account and transaction search & filtering
Business Goals
Reduce support overhead by improving self-service capabilities
Retain high-value corporate clients with better tooling
Increase digital engagement and platform stickiness
Maintain regulatory compliance and banking-grade security
Design Principles for Payment Tags
Real-Time Over Retrospective
Users should never have to wait for data. Every balance, every transaction, every alert should reflect the current state of the system
Action-Oriented Dashboard
The home screen is not a report; it is a control panel. Everything surfaced should lead to a clear next action
Precision Filtering
Corporate finance users deal in specifics. The system must allow filtering by account, date range, amount, and customer reference without any friction
Security as Trust
Every action that changes data should have a clear confirmation state. Users must feel in control, not anxious
Design Process
Wireframing & Iteration
After validating the structural direction, I moved into digital wireframes in Figma. The key wireframing decisions at this stage centered on three design problems:
Problem 1: The Dashboard Information Hierarchy
What should a corporate user see the moment they log in? Research showed they needed to answer four questions instantly: What is my available balance? How many virtual accounts do I have? How much has come in today? Are there any alerts I need to act on? The solution was a 4-card metric strip at the top of the dashboard, Inflow (daily transaction total), and New Inflow Alert each card providing the answer to one of those four questions at a glance.
Proposed solution for dashboard
Problem 2: Account Table vs. Account Cards
I initially explored two approaches for displaying the list of virtual accounts: a card grid (visually richer, shows less at once) and a sortable data table (information-dense, familiar to finance users). Usability testing with a corporate finance manager resolved this quickly finance users preferred the table. They work with data. They know how to use columns, sort headers, and row actions. A table matched their mental model. The card view was deprioritized.
Proposed solution for account table vs account cards
Problem 3: The New Account Creation Flow
Creating a new virtual account required three pieces of information: a name, a customer ID(will be auto-generated in the database), and optionally a bulk file for mass account creation. A single long form felt risky errors were harder to catch and the form felt overwhelming.
Proposed solution for new account creation flow
Design Principles for Payment Tags
Real-Time Over Retrospective
Users should never have to wait for data. Every balance, every transaction, every alert should reflect the current state of the system
Action-Oriented Dashboard
The home screen is not a report; it is a control panel. Everything surfaced should lead to a clear next action
Precision Filtering
Corporate finance users deal in specifics. The system must allow filtering by account, date range, amount, and customer reference without any friction
Security as Trust
Every action that changes data should have a clear confirmation state. Users must feel in control, not anxious
Usability Testing: Testing Before Building
We ran iterative usability tests on the portal's main screens throughout the design phase not just at the end. This rapid feedback loop, within a 6-week timeline, here’s how specific improvements evolved:
Three testing objectives:
Do users prefer seeing real-time balances per virtual account upfront or is a summary sufficient?
Is a step-by-step 'Create Virtual Account' wizard more intuitive than a single long form?
What filters do users need at the transaction level to make the data actionable?
The results were clear:
Real-time balances per virtual account upfront - users preferred this strongly. Seeing the balance on the account list meant they could assess their portfolio without drilling down
The wizard approach won over the single form - by a significant margin. Users described the wizard as 'less stressful' and 'clearer'
Flexible multi-criteria filtering was essential - users wanted to filter by account, date range, amount, and customer reference simultaneously
Onboarding: Customer Verification Screen
BEFORE
Single long form
AFTER
Step-by-step wizard
Dashboard Landing Screen
BEFORE
No real-time inflow, alert & balances with flexible filter
AFTER
Real-time inflow, alert & balances with flexible filter
Key Design Decisions & Rational
Decision 1: Integrated Within the Existing Banking Platform
The Payment Tags system was not designed as a standalone product it was designed as a feature module integrated directly within CMB's existing internet banking portal. This was a deliberate strategic decision: corporate clients already authenticated into internet banking. Adding Payment Tags as a new destination within that familiar environment reduced the learning curve, avoided a separate login, and positioned the feature as a natural extension of the bank's digital capabilities.
Rationale:
A standalone product would have fragmented the user experience and required separate authentication and session management. Integration preserved the trust and familiarity of the existing banking context while adding new capability.
Payment Tag integrated as “a module” into CMB corporate internet banking
Decision 2: The Sidebar Navigation Architecture
The sidebar navigation Home, Manage Account, New Account, Transfer, Transaction History, Notification, Logout was chosen over a top navigation bar for two specific reasons. First, the feature set warranted clear, persistent navigation that didn't compete with the content area. Second, a sidebar scales better with additional features in the future additional menu items can be added without restructuring the entire layout.
Rationale:
Top nav bars work well for consumer applications with few primary destinations. Corporate finance portals benefit from sidebar navigation because users navigate frequently between sections during a single session reviewing accounts, then checking transactions, then managing notifications and a persistent sidebar makes this faster and more intuitive.
Sidebar Navigation
Decision 3: The 4-Card Metric Strip
The four summary cards at the top of the dashboard Account Number, PayByCMB Accounts count, Inflow (daily transaction total), and New Inflow Alert were the result of directly mapping dashboard content to the four questions every corporate finance user needs to answer immediately on login. Each card answers one question. The New Inflow Alert card uses a red text highlight to draw attention when action is required a clear visual priority signal that respects the user's attention without being intrusive.
Rationale:
Financial dashboards often try to show everything and end up communicating nothing. The deliberate constraint of four cards, each answering a specific question, makes the dashboard scannable in under 10 seconds. Finance users are time-poor. Every second saved on information finding is a second redirected to actual decision-making.
4-Card Metric
Decision 4: Tabbed Content Below the Dashboard Header
The main content area of the dashboard uses a tab system to switch between three views: Accounts Created (the virtual account list), Recent Transaction Inflows (the transaction history), and Account Detail (the selected account view). This three-tab structure keeps all the primary content within a single screen, avoiding deep navigation for the most common user tasks.
Rationale:
Corporate finance users frequently switch between checking their account list and reviewing specific transactions. Tabbed content at the same hierarchy level makes this switching instant no back navigation, no page loads, no context loss. Usability testing confirmed that users preferred this to a multi-page navigation model.
Tabbed contents on the dashboard
Final Design: Major Screens Showcase
The following screens represent the final Payment Tag Account System as designed and handed off.
Onboarding
Dashboard & Account Management
Transaction History, Audit Trail & Notification
Challenges: What Made This Project Genuinely Hard
Challenge 1: Designing Within an Existing System
The Payment Tags system was not a greenfield product it was a new module integrated into CMB's existing internet banking platform. This meant designing within constraints: existing color systems, typography conventions, and authentication flows that I had to respect and extend, not replace. Every design decision had to be evaluated not just on its own merit, but on how it fit within the broader platform context.
My approach:
I started with a thorough audit of the existing internet banking UI before designing a single wireframe. I documented the design patterns, component conventions, and visual language already in use. This audit became the foundation for the Payment Tags design system I extended what existed rather than creating something parallel.
Challenge 2: Balancing Security Requirements With Usability
Corporate financial data is sensitive. Every action that modifies account data creating an account, deleting one required confirmation states, clear feedback, and audit trail awareness. The temptation was to add confirmation dialogs everywhere which would have made the platform feel paranoid and slow.
My approach:
I mapped every destructive or consequential action and designed proportionate confirmation experiences. Account creation: a dedicated confirmation screen that showed the generated account details before finalising. Account deletion: a modal confirmation with the account name clearly stated. Security was present without being pervasive.
Challenge 3: Designing for Two User Types in One Interface
The Payment Tags system served both B2B clients (businesses managing accounts for other businesses) and B2C contexts (businesses managing accounts for individual customers). These two user types had subtly different mental models around account naming, reference terminology, and filtering needs. A single interface had to serve both without feeling awkward for either.
My approach:
I focused on shared behaviours both user types needed to create accounts, track transactions, and receive alerts and designed those as the core experience. The flexibility was built into the filtering and search system, which allowed each user type to organize and find their data using the terminology that made sense to them (customer reference, account name, session ID).
Challenge 4: Compressing a Full Design Process Into 6 Weeks
Six weeks from discovery to design handoff, for a system with this many screens and interactions, required rigorous prioritisation. There was no time for multiple rounds of high-fidelity redesign. Every design decision had to be well-informed from the start.
My approach:
I front-loaded the research. The 2-week discovery sprint was not a luxury it was an investment that paid back in reduced iteration later. By going into wireframing with clear, tested insights (table not cards, wizard not form, multi-criteria filtering essential), I avoided the most common cause of design rework: building the wrong thing well.
Outcomes: Impact, Lessons & Takeaways
Measurable Impact
The Payment Tags Account System delivered measurable improvements across the three dimensions that mattered most efficiency, support load, and user trust:
30%
Reduction
in time spent managing
customer transactions
+70%
Increase
in efficiency for managing
customer transactions
Fewer
Support Tickets
due to improved self-
service capabilities
Higher
Trust
through better transparency
and security
Lessons Learned
Early and frequent usability testing proved to be crucial in identifying and eliminating user pain points before
development the table vs. card and wizard vs. form decisions were both resolved by testing, not by design opinion
Striking the balance between security features and ease of use is a nuanced design challenge. Corporate
clients needed to feel both safe and empowered not surveilled or burdened by the security layer
Iterating through multiple design concepts, gathering feedback, and refining based on user needs ensured that the final product met client expectations with minimal post-launch rework
Key Takeaway
The Payment Tags Account System transformed a manual, high-effort process into a secure, intuitive, and scalable solution that empowered corporate clients and strengthened CMB's digital offering. It reinforced my belief that even in compliance-heavy industries, user-centered design can deliver measurable business impact while genuinely delighting users. The spreadsheet workaround that finance teams had built out of necessity became unnecessary not because we told them to stop using it, but because we built something better.
Reflection: What I'd Do Differently
What Worked Well
Front-loading the research sprint 2 weeks of discovery before any wireframe saved weeks of rework later
Testing with lo-fi prototypes early resolving the table vs. card debate before high-fidelity design began
The wizard pattern for account creation user confidence over speed was the right trade-off for this context
Designing within the existing platform system integration felt native rather than bolted on
What I Would Do Differently
Involve more user types in testing earlier we tested primarily with finance managers; operations users surfaced different needs post-handoff
Design the analytics dashboard in parallel it's a Phase 2 feature but users asked for it in every session; having initial concepts ready would have set clearer expectations
Behind the Scenes
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Timeline
6 Weeks (Jan–Feb 2026)
Platform
Web (Responsive)
Scope
B2B & B2C Corporate
My Responsibilities
The project ran for 6 weeks, January to February 2026 from discovery sprint through to final design hand-off. I joined as Lead UX/UI Designer, working within an Agile product team comprising 1 Product Owner, 3 Software Engineers, 1 Scrum Master, and 1 QA Engineer.
I was responsible for defining the design direction, driving user research, crafting prototypes, an ensuring that the user experience aligned with both client needs and banking compliance standards
© 2026 Oluwafunmilola Olukanni. All rights reserved.
Senior Product/UXUI Designer · Lagos, Nigeria