Financial Platform Data Import
Accountants and auditors struggled with a frustrating data import process that was slow, confusing, and lacked key features for validating financial data. Users frequently reported errors, experienced timeouts, and often had to contact support to complete the process.
As the Senior UX Designer, I partnered closely with research and product teams to identify pain points and design a more intuitive, efficient import experience.
I led the redesign of the data import flow, introducing user-friendly navigation, built-in data validation tools, and clearer guidance throughout the process. These enhancements significantly reduced friction and improved performance.
The improved experience earned a System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 86, saw a 40% increase in user adoption, and reduced support calls by 30% - demonstrating measurable gains in usability and customer satisfaction.
The Kickoff
Problem Statement
How might we clarify the import process, increase import methods and reduce import failure and support calls?
Target Persona
Jane Fintech is an auditor for Deloitte. Her primary responsibility is importing and mapping the data used to feed the audits for her company's clients and also analyzing that data for risks, errors, fraud and anomalies.
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Jane primarily imports business financial transactions from Excel sheets but sometimes needs to be able to import from QuickBooks and other online accounting platforms. Jane’s files are often larger than 2GB and include 30,000+ records.
Interests
Happy clients
Collaboration
Education
Influences
Business goals
Market research
Fintech industry
Needs
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Easy to use tools
Fast reporting
Saving time
Pain Points
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Multiple tools
Wasted time
Bad data
Assumptions
We’ve made the following assumptions and will validate in our user interviews:
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User can authenticate to the online platform of their choice
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Data will be provided either in an online login or a excel sheet
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Auditors have a specific taxonomy that matches ours
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Data cleansing would be out of scope
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Risk identification would be a separate project
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One user at a time works on the import
The Interview Questions
01
Tell me a bit about your role
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Focused on audit risks
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Too many meetings
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Import needs to be fast, accurate and secure
02
Walk me through a typical import
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Not sure which button to press for my import type
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Not sure why it failed or how to proceed when it fails
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When it works, there's no clear path to the analytics or risks
03
Tell me about a time when you couldn't complete an import
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Risks were not identified
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Resulting reports were delayed
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Cost the company money and client confidence
04
What chunks of data do you usually import
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Monthly
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Quarterly
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Yearly
05
What data would be helpful to see
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Summary snapshots to determine its the right data
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A summary of all imported data
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Tools to work with that data
Brainstorming
We set up several brainstorming sessions with the team and using the research results, reviewed the motivations, touchpoints and emotions of the existing user journey.
Some of the project challenges we faced were:
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Lack of stored data to be able to provide decent messaging to the user on screen
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The variations in the import flow depending on the method
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No way to anticipate all of the import methods our users need
User Journeys
Online Import
Choose Import Type
Based on data provided by the client
Wizard Step 1
Pain Points
Buttons too weird, no order and not sure why some are red
Choose Client
Select the client who’s data will be imported
Wizard Step 2
Pain Points
Make this searcheable, omit if only 1 client is available
Select Data Range
Select a date range, monthly, yearly etc
Wizard Step 3
Pain Points
Needs more options, more details for trial balance
View Import Sumary
View imported data and use tools to identify risks
Summary Screen
Pain Points
Tools not clear enough, more detail on data should be here
File Import
Choose Import Type
Based on data provided by the client
Wizard Step 1
Pain Points
Buttons too weird, no order and not sure why some are red
Upload CSV
Drop in
CSV file
Wizard Step 2
Pain Points
More instructions on file size and type, better error messages
Map Columns
Map columns to company taxonomy
Wizard Step 3
Pain Points
More error identification here such as duplicates
View Import Sumary
View imported data and use tools to identify risks
Summary Screen
Pain Points
Tools not clear enough, more detail on data should be here
Assumptions - validated
After our interviews and analysis we have validated our assumptions:
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User will have the credentials to be able to log in to the platform to extract data such as QuickBooks or Xero
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Data will be provided by the client either as above or an excel sheet or both
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Auditors have a specific taxonomy that matches ours
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Data cleansing would be out of scope
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Risk identification would be a separate project
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One user at a time works on the import
The Design
Prototype Creation
Gathering data from the analysis and research phases, I created a low-fidelity design in Figma. ​
After repeated collaboration for feedback from all stakeholders, we arrived at a hi-fidelity solution which was fleshed using our design system and its components in Figma.
The Design
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Next Steps
To complete this project the team followed these steps:
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Usability test with users
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Hand off to development
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UX Review
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Release
Impact
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
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+50 import types
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+1200 new licenses (revenue increase)
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-50% support calls about import
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)​
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Improve Software Usability Score (SUS) by 30%
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Identify a couple of features for further enhancement
