Project

OCBC PayAnyone

Designing for growth: from revamp to innovation

OCBC PayAnyone

Designing for growth: from revamp to innovation

OCBC PayAnyone
Designing for growth: from revamp to innovation

As OCBC Bank accelerated its digital transformation, I led the experience design efforts across two key initiatives within its mobile banking ecosystem — a foundational overhaul of the OCBC PayAnyone (PAO) app, and the strategic redesign of its Overseas Transfers feature.


Together, these two efforts mark my transition from scaling a mobile product to sharpening its competitive edge through targeted feature redesign.

Role

Experience Design Lead (2017–2019)

Scope

  • Oversaw end-to-end experience design for multiple versions of the app

  • Conducted ongoing research to support continuous product development

  • Collaborated with product owners, IT, and agencies to align delivery

  • Oversaw end-to-end experience design for multiple versions of the app

  • Conducted ongoing research to support continuous product development

  • Collaborated with product owners, IT, and agencies to align delivery

About

Tazapay is a Singapore-based platform that enables secure B2B payments across borders, offering businesses a global network of currencies and payment methods. It focuses on emerging markets where traditional payment rails are slow, costly, or fragmented.


Project Overview

🧱 Part 1: Building the Foundation — OCBC PayAnyone

Initially launched as a simple peer-to-peer payment tool, PayAnyone needed to evolve into a full-fledged lifestyle app to meet rising expectations and regulatory pushes for digital payment adoption.

🛠 My Role

  • End-to-end experience lead for multiple versions of the app

  • Continuous user research to validate experience shifts

  • Design team coordination across product, tech, and agency partners


🛠 My Role

  • End-to-end experience lead for multiple versions of the app

  • Continuous user research to validate experience shifts

  • Design team coordination across product, tech, and agency partners

🛠 My Role

  • End-to-end experience lead for multiple versions of the app

  • Continuous user research to validate experience shifts

  • Design team coordination across product, tech, and agency partners

V1. Inherited a skeletal version of PayAnyone — minimal features, no clear hierarchy, and lots of room to grow

V2. Reimagined PayAnyone into a more intuitive, lifestyle-friendly experience — clearer hierarchy, richer flows, and a richer, livelier visual language”

Key Milestones

Key Milestones

Active Users

Active Users

400,000 → 3 million

400,000 → 3 million

Transaction Value

Transaction Value

$200 million+ (Jul 2019)

$200 million+ (Jul 2019)

$200 million+ (Jul 2019)

$200 million+ (Jul 2019)

Design Outcomes

Design Outcomes

  • Revamped navigation for scalability

  • Introduced a livelier visual language to support lifestyle positioning

  • Rebalanced simplicity with feature depth through user-led prioritization

  • Revamped navigation for scalability

  • Introduced a livelier visual language to support lifestyle positioning

  • Rebalanced simplicity with feature depth through user-led prioritization


Part 2: Strengthening the Core — Overseas Transfer Redesign


Part 2: Strengthening the Core — Overseas Transfer Redesign

Part 2: Strengthening the Core — Overseas Transfer Redesign

Despite offering competitive rates, OCBC’s Overseas Transfer feature was underused. With fintech competitors like TransferWise gaining ground, the bank needed a user-centered redesign to stay relevant.

The team was tasked to redesign the service to retain and attract a wider customer base.


🛠 My Role

  • Defined new user journeys and pain points

  • Prototyped and tested improved flows

  • Established UI/UX principles that influenced future designs


Discovery

Through 14 interviews across 4 nationalities (Malaysia, Philippines, India, China), we discovered a deeper problem:


  • Low awareness: Users didn’t know the feature existed

  • Perception of neglect: Customers felt OCBC wasn’t targeting them

  • Price inertia: Without trust or visibility, rates didn’t matter




  • Low awareness: Users didn’t know the feature existed

  • Perception of neglect: Customers felt OCBC wasn’t targeting them

  • Price inertia: Without trust or visibility, rates didn’t matter


  • Low awareness: Users didn’t know the feature existed

  • Perception of neglect: Customers felt OCBC wasn’t targeting them

  • Price inertia: Without trust or visibility, rates didn’t matter

“I didn't even know that OCBC does overseas transfers! I've never seen any advertisements about it.”

“I didn't even know that OCBC does overseas transfers! I've never seen any advertisements about it.”

“Most of my money is with DBS (rival bank), the rates are similar. No point maintaining different bank accounts just for a small difference in rates.”

Wireframes & Redesign

Translated to design

Reflections & Learnings

Designing across both initiatives gave me a 360º perspective:

Challenge

Scaling a lifestyle app

Redesigning a niche feature

Balancing business asks

Learnings

Think modularly; build for extensibility

Get under the surface — not all problems are visual

Use user research as your negotiation tool

As PayAnyone expanded its features and partnerships, a key challenge was prioritizing initiatives across business teams. As the design lead for the overall experience, I had to ensure that changes were grounded in user needs — not just stakeholder requests.

By anchoring decisions in research, we were able to make informed tradeoffs and advocate for changes that improved the end-to-end experience. This allowed PayAnyone to evolve with clarity — integrating new payment partners while keeping the experience seamless and relevant, especially for a younger audience.

TIFFANY HO 2025

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• tiffanyho02@gmail.com

• tiffanyho02@gmail.com