Carli Miller is an inclusive design leader, social practitioner, and grant writer based in Austin, TX.

With people first and play as practice, she helps design partners consider human interactions with complex systems, software, services, and each other by shaping vision projects, crafting story narratives, and creating the future state of product experiences, creative processes, and spaces.

Previously working as a Senior Product Designer at Razorfish, with 10 years of expertise in experience design, design systems, and dynamic user interfaces and deep experience in cross-functional collaboration, research, and creative community development.

Project Work

Citi Retail Services empowers retail partners to deliver value and inspire innovative products, services, and systems that create better, tangible paths for consumers' and aspirant retail cardholders' day-to-day needs. As a senior product designer dedicated to the CRS account, my work spanned the entire retail credit experience: from information architecture and discovery, iterations of major customer journeys, a robust design system with comprehensive guidelines and partner assets, to a fully reimagined mobile-first digital acquisitions and servicing experience. If that sounds like a complex scope of initiatives—it was! I was proud of our output and the significantly improved collaboration between design and the other disciplines while I was there. 

What follows are highlights of some of the efforts I led and contributed to during my time on the account. I've found it challenging to summarize my time on Citi Retail Services due to the wide range of functions and projects I was involved in. If you're curious about more details, I'm happy to discuss them in person.

Simplifying the retail credit process for a new generation of applicants.

Year

2020-2023

Category

financial, responsive web app

Contribution

product design, design systems, prototyping, user experience

Citi Retail Services is one of North America's largest and most experienced retail credit solution providers. Over six months, we worked with Citi to create an intuitive, mobile-first experience that helps our next generation of shoppers apply for retail credit in minutes and use their card immediately, leveraging a conversational UI.

*To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, some information has been omitted.

Frame-24

Hey there

Envisioning a next-generation mobile acquisitions and servicing experience.

Citi's online and mobile acquisitions experience was updated in 2017 with a focus on delivering seamless integration with partner experiences and a mobile-optimized application process across all channels. During that time, mobile itself had grown to become one of the primary mediums of communication and consumer-oriented financial services. Though it was a fast-growing segment, the 2020 pandemic spiked a higher demand for more tools and capabilities.

With these shifts, Citi saw an increase in users starting mobile applications - but completion and engagement were still low, which signaled an opportunity for us to evaluate the existing infrastructure.

By adopting a forward-thinking conversational banking strategy, Citi could stay ahead of the curve and meet consumers' evolving expectations and behavior, ultimately leapfrogging its competition.

Hey there

Conversations to Boost Conversion.

Our vision work laid out guiding principles and explored features that could enhance and expand the CRS ecosystem. Considering the unique role of AI in the conversational banking experience, we envisioned a solution to allow for more complex user interactions in future releases, building a foundation for a scalable, hybrid AI approach. 

Release one served as both a discovery phase and the pilot launch of our minimum viable product. It laid the foundation for Fusion Acquisitions 2.0– mimicking the existing mobile application process with manual data entry but presenting it in a streamlined conversational format.

As a lead designer on the project, our team took a fresh look at Citi's application and registration process, built with legacy code and proving hard to maintain. We created a framework that allowed the experience to shape the form, ensuring the best possible user experience across all devices by taking a mobile-first approach that is adaptive to evolve the experience for larger screens.

We also compared our new conversational UI with our existing customer flows and identified what worked and what needed improvement. From the acquisition account setup to the various registration types, there were multiple entry points for users to create online accounts and activate their cards. So, we focused on evolving the current application and registration experiences with flows that simplify the registration process to support CUI and minimize barriers to accomplishing customers' goals.

Using these learnings, I created experiential prototypes for stakeholders. I led the design of high-fidelity, interactive prototypes for key UX flows on mobile and desktop - registration following approval during acquisition and returning customer registration.

Hey there

One team. Working a new way.

We created a new design and collaboration model using Agile development principles, implementing enhancements based on a true, data-driven, test-and-learn approach. Our focus was to make it easier for our internal teams to be more creative and flexible when working on new solutions.

To support 35+ retail partners, we created a robust design library that can be styled to match their unique brand. I worked closely with our design team to develop a new component library composed of reusable, adaptable components that can easily fit different forms of content while maintaining a cohesive structure and minimizing design and development efforts.

Our new design system simplifies sharing with the Citi team, replacing outdated documentation with technical annotations, transitions, and behaviors. My team and I could iterate and ensure the system guidelines were designed for mobile and digital experiences and address feedback on the product in real-time. We could also experiment with various design concepts and interface options and ensure adherence to ADA standards by constructing an HTML prototype with the same components.

Hey there

The path to frictionless.

After our Pilot release, my team re-evaluated the existing application form patterns–specifically data inputs and outputs and how the content was structured. In our initial iteration, the long-form process was divided into a separate input and response for each data point to make the content more digestible. Despite this effort, we discovered that users were frustrated with this format because it disrupted the flow of the experience.

Multiple inputs meant multiple instances of keyboard opening. Additionally, using a composition bar presented layout challenges and conflicts with native autofill features, significantly affecting completion time. The redesign to multi-field inputs and summarized outputs of customers' responses make the experience smoother and more streamlined. Grouping related information and keeping a conversational tone that encourages trust and engagement. My team and I reduced the number of inputs from 31 to 11, resulting in a 65% decrease in outputs and a shorter application completion time in one sprint.

Hey there

Building on what we know.

For CUI to be a viable solution, it needed to continue improving our mandated key performance indicators: increase application submissions, online account sign-up, and paperless election. In our second release, we focused on combining the application and registration processes, allowing users to create an account, enroll in bill pay, and go paperless simultaneously. In the legacy registration experience, almost a third of users needed help in the initial account creation and authentication steps. To address one of our biggest fallouts, we experimented with presenting bite-size information using simple, clear, and consistent language and a streamlined flow that indicates the task being accomplished, with the ability to fix any required inputs. Encouraging forward progress when the user is in control and knows what they’re completing.

Hey there

Results.

Citi is the only financial services company providing a conversational credit application experience. Utilizing a conversational tone and experience, Fusion 2.0 presents complex information in an understandable and digestible way. The new experience builds on best practices while catering to all current requirements, with enhancements and new features continuing. Customers can apply in less than 60 seconds.

6 Months

From vision to launch

60 Seconds

To Apply

30+

Retail Partners

5%

Increase in new target customers
(3.7% target)

9%

Increase in online accounts
(4.5% target)

11%

Increase in paperless statements
(3.3% target)

The year also marked a new era in our decade partnership. To continue helping with CRS's biggest bets, we activated dedicated scrum teams comprising of Razorfish + Citi experts to prioritize initiatives teams across our 18 products. Taking the framework of Fusion 2.0 and applying it across all project channels.

Evolving a complex financial services ecosystem and design language at scale for Citi Retail Services.

Year

2017-2023

Category

Financial, Design Language

Contribution

product design, design systems, design ops

Citi Retail Services' digital transformation centerpiece is built on a modular foundation and universal design that allows CRS to better share, configure, and customize content relevant to each of its 35+ retail partners' needs. These design elements were the underpinnings of all that we did in creating innovative financial services products and experiences.

Frame-25

Hey there

Evolving the CRS Design System

CRS is a retail financial services ecosystem that spans a web service, an application and servicing platform, an enterprise design system, and an omni-channel consumer experience. We define its digital products based on the customer journeys we provide and customer account activities and touch-points we support. Within our workflow, each team focused on its own journeys in multiple channels across 18 supported products within CRS. When I joined the team in October 2017, the design system was in its infancy, and the web application was undergoing an overhaul to a single digital servicing platform with more enhanced features. My goals were to influence and evolve the design language and partner retail-credit experience, work towards a central source of truth for all of our design artifacts and creative team processes —internally and externally, and creatively oversee and impact user-centric design development of mid-to-large size projects of the entire suite of products.

Hey there

Defining new experiences.

coming soon.

Hey there

Defining new experiences.

[innovation?] influence and evolve the design language and partner retail-credit experience
The new experience builds on best practices while caring for all current requirements. Utilizing a conversational tone and experience, Fusion 2.0 presents complex information in an understandable and digestible way. Our partnership continues through iterative releases, with Citi as the only financial services company that offers a conversational credit application.

This coincided with a completely new end-to-end design system (insert link), in which we significantly simplified the user flows, making the improved application and registration process more straightforward, purposeful, and accessible while maintaining a cohesive structure and minimizing design and development efforts. I partnered with our design team to develop new, reusable, adaptable shared components, patterns, and styles that work as a common language across multiple platforms, enabling our teams to collaborate more efficiently and scale faster.

Hey there

Ways of working.

coming soon.

Hey there

Ways of working.

[ways of working - test and learn, ada, new partnerships)]work towards a central source of truth for all of our design artifacts and creative team processes —internally and externally
The new experience builds on best practices while caring for all current requirements. Utilizing a conversational tone and experience, Fusion 2.0 presents complex information in an understandable and digestible way. Our partnership continues through iterative releases, with Citi as the only financial services company that offers a conversational credit application.

This coincided with a completely new end-to-end design system (insert link), in which we significantly simplified the user flows, making the improved application and registration process more straightforward, purposeful, and accessible while maintaining a cohesive structure and minimizing design and development efforts. I partnered with our design team to develop new, reusable, adaptable shared components, patterns, and styles that work as a common language across multiple platforms, enabling our teams to collaborate more efficiently and scale faster.

Hey there

Enhancing existing partnerships.

coming soon.

Hey there

Enhancing existing partnerships.

[creatively oversee and impact user-centric design development of mid-to-large size projects of the entire suite of products]
The new experience builds on best practices while caring for all current requirements. Utilizing a conversational tone and experience, Fusion 2.0 presents complex information in an understandable and digestible way. Our partnership continues through iterative releases, with Citi as the only financial services company that offers a conversational credit application.

This coincided with a completely new end-to-end design system (insert link), in which we significantly simplified the user flows, making the improved application and registration process more straightforward, purposeful, and accessible while maintaining a cohesive structure and minimizing design and development efforts. I partnered with our design team to develop new, reusable, adaptable shared components, patterns, and styles that work as a common language across multiple platforms, enabling our teams to collaborate more efficiently and scale faster.

6 Months

From vision to launch

60 Seconds

To Apply

35+

Retail Partners

5%

Increase in new target customers
(3.7% target)

9%

Increase in online accounts
(4.5% target)

11%

Increase in paperless statements
(3.3% target)

Carli Miller is a inclusive designer leader, social practitioner, grant writer, and neighbor based in East Austin, working to build nourished, connected communities through design, food, creative expression, advocacy, and storytelling. Her projects are rooted in a strong commitment to driving meaningful change through creative conception and participatory design. 

As a designer, she encourages design partners to consider people's interactions with complex systems, software, and services by spearheading vision projects, crafting story narratives, and creating the future state of product experiences, creative processes, and spaces. She works and learns quickly and independently and feels most at home collaborating with a group— both in-person and digitally. As an emerging grant writer and researcher, she cultivates resources and funding for artists and art-based projects through her insightful approach to research, generative questions, and storytelling. Most recently, securing funding for "I Need Space Documentary".

As a social practice artist and neighbor, she's deeply engaged in work that advances positive social impact and community connection through creative expression and direct community service. Carli thrives on creating spaces of belonging, building purposeful cultures, and elevating social good. Her exploration of community food systems and alternative community infrastructure catalyzed a deep investment in farming for a sustainable future. Her storytelling toolbox threads interdependence through qualitative studies, teaming, dynamic interfaces, workshops, mapping, mediations, design systems, celebrations, breaking bread, sustainability, and organic conversations. Currently, she's involved as a Community Ambassador at Urban Roots, Austin’s only farm-based youth leadership organization.

For this reason, she is often invited to work with a range of collaborators. Recent partners include Community by Design x Schmidt Futures, Presidential Innovation Fellows, and the United States General Services Administration. Carli holds certificates in Grant Writing from Austin Community College, Human-Centered Design from IDEO, User Experience Design from General Assembly, and a BFA in Advertising Design from Savannah College of Art and Design.

She welcomes collaborative opportunities to explore areas of interest in both her personal and professional curiosities that ultimately work towards a sustainable future benefiting community and culture. 

Product Designer & Social Practitioner
Based in Austin, Texas
✳︎ Currently open to work ✳︎ Currently open to work ✳︎ Currently open to work
resume
a.miller.carli@gmail.com
/in/carlimiller

© Carli Miller 2024

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