Wisely by ADP
Wisely members can split their paycheck between bank accounts, but the old setup was confusing. I redesigned it, and now 64% of members who start in the app finish setting up direct deposit.
Awarded a U.S. design patent
The pie chart allocation UI I designed for this flow received U.S. Design Patent D1119952, issued March 24, 2026.
Imagine you’ve just switched to myWisely and want to set up direct deposit. You expect a couple of quick questions. Instead you get a toggle with “$”, “%” and “all” and no explanation, and nothing about early pay, which might be the reason you signed up in the first place. Something that should take a minute ends up taking a lot longer.
That was the old flow, and it was one of Wisely’s most important conversion moments. So I asked myself how to turn a “meh” experience into one that felt clear and empowering. The tricky part was that Wisely doesn’t know how much anyone gets paid, so the design had to work without that number, for first-timers and seasoned users alike.
Partial direct deposit is pretty niche, so I looked at how other fintech products and dashboards show money split by percentage or by a set amount.
At Wisely, we design around Sam, an archetype who represents a lot of our members.
The Wisely member
Financially insecure and often living paycheck to paycheck.
“Wisely is the only card I use to pay all my bills.”
People land in this flow from a few places during onboarding: before logging in, inside the app, or through self-enrollment. From there they can move all of their pay, split it by percentage, or split it by a dollar amount.
Members can move all of their pay, a dollar amount, or a percentage. On the review screen, each account gets a small pie chart showing its share, so people can see exactly where their money is going before they confirm. That little pie chart later earned a U.S. design patent.
Not every member gets the same paycheck every time. We couldn’t ask for their income, so instead I let them pick which account gets whatever’s left over. That way a set dollar amount still works on a bigger-than-usual payday.
I added a couple of guardrails. A note under the amount field explains that early pay only applies to Wisely accounts. And if someone tries to leave halfway through, a quick check-in reminds them they could get paid up to two days early. Small touches, but they stop mistakes before they happen.
Once I had high-fidelity designs, I partnered with a UX researcher to test all three flows with 8 people who get paid by direct deposit. Two things stood out.
People were confused by two buttons that were both called “Edit direct deposit amount” but did different things.
ChangeI worked with a content writer to rename them so each one says what it actually does.
Once they finished, people wanted to know when their change would actually kick in.
ChangeThe success screen now explains pay periods and what happens next.
Here members can see each of their accounts and how much goes to it. The main button moves all of their pay to Wisely, and a second button opens the partial setup.
Direct deposit means moving a lot of money around, and that can feel intimidating. My goal was to make it feel simple without hiding anything. The new flow works for people no matter how, or how often, they get paid.