FastLink 4.0
B2B SaaS
Mobile-first
ADA Review
Legal & Compliance
Designing for Configurability
Introduction
Overview
This case study explores the renovation of Envestnet | Yodlee's widely-used account linking software (FastLink 3.0 to 4.0). The project was driven by competitive threats, ADA compliance requirements, and complex Open Banking regulations. Over the course of 3 years, FastLink 4.0 aimed to set a new standard in account linking while introducing new features requested by Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and more.
Key challenges
An outdated UI and complex configuration process were causing client churn and exposing the company to major regulatory risk.
Quantified Outcomes
Our update ultimately reduced client setup time from weeks to under one day, and engineered a consent flow that became an industry standard for open banking compliance.
Role
Team
1 Product Designer, 3 Product Managers, 100+ Developers, 2 Legal consults
Problems & Contraints
Problem 1: Technical & Competitive Debt
FastLink 3.0 was widely used, but fell behind competitors like Plaid in visual styling and product versatility.
This gap began to jeopardize relationships with top-tier clients (e.g., Bank of America, Morgan Stanley) and required a significant update to reach new market standards.
Problem 2: Onboarding Time & Capability Barriers
FastLink 2.0 and 3.0 required a Yodlee representative to manually onboard clients, taking weeks to set up a rigid solution with limited configurability.
Due to this lack of automation, the cost of integrating FastLink remained high but necessary. The goal was to eliminate this cost-center by creating a Configuration tool that clients could use themselves to create a flexible and customized experience outside of technological and personnel restraints.
FastLink 3.0 Configuration Tool
Problem 3: Legal & Regulatory Risk
As FastLink 4.0 was preparing to launch, Plaid, its main competitor was dealt a brutal class action blow. Legal disputes over financial privacy and consent led to a mess that cost Plaid a lot and taught us in FastLink even more.
Determined to create an airtight experience, the FastLink product team spent weeks meeting with legal and compliance teams to craft a transparent and informative experience that would not impede the user flow.
Design Process & Decision Making
Initial Synthesis & Redesign
Wireframes
We started by creating a new interface style for 4.0 in basic wrieframes. The goal was to make it simple, easy to brand, and easy to configure. No matter how clients configured FastLink 3.0, it maintained a dated and clunky appearance, always identifiable as a lagging third-party software. We created the new designs to be white-label friendly while simplifying the layout for task efficiency.
Branding & Accessibility Accomodations
ADA Requirements
One of the requirements for FastLink 4.0 was that it needed to be fully accessible and in line with ADA Standards. For several of our clients, this was a make-or-break feature.
To ensure this, our team worked with Level Access, who performed a thorough assessment of our designs earlier on and provided feedback on possible accessibility issues. We made several design changes based on the review, as seen here.
Level Access Accessibility Alterations & Additions
Background Style Addition
Most concerns had easy fixes, but one problem drew most of our attention. While the original wireframes provided a good basis for formatting, we discovered that meeting ADA standards with a customizable color background was very challenging and sometimes impossible.
The WCAG contrast ratio could never be guaranteed with a color background + white text, and the background colors that passed were limited and uncommon for financial branding.
The solution was to build 2 interface styles for clients to choose from, all configurable in the new Styling Tool.
Solving for Configurability (The Key Innovation)
Prioritizing Styling
To make sure each FastLink 4.0 screen could be customized in every feasible way, we simultaneously built the Styling Tool, a new specialized option focused solely on styling FastLink 4.0.
Building the Ultimate Configuration Tool
Once the FastLink 4.0 screens and Styling Tool reached stable development, we moved to integrate it into an even larger tool. The Configuration Tool provided a platform to manage different FastLink 4.0 flows. From the dashboard, you can enter the Styling Tool to alter visuals and text per flow, but you can also access high level settings like language, API preferences, developer configurations, and more.
Risk Mitigation: Legal & Compliance
While aesthetics did play a major role, we had to make sure we didn’t make the same mistakes as Plaid. With traditional Screen Scraping, data consent was too unclear; users assumed they were inputting login credentials to their bank, because most linking flows use login screens that display misleading logos and no disclaimer information.
Adding Disclaimers to Credential screens
Our goal was to ultimately move towards Open Banking which would direct a user directly to their financial institution, but we still needed a way to make Screen Scraping compliant.
Working with our legal team, we added a Terms of Use statement, and, to avoid any and all confusion or legal trouble, we also included a branded statement to clarify the data sharing partnership, adding transparency to who is receiving the data.
Open Banking Consent
Open Banking, new and complex, required a more detailed and active consent. After many rounds of language workshopping and edits, some shown below, we finalized a collapsible consent screen that would appear after login to confirm the sharing of data.
This design of this consent screen, the first of its kind, consequently set an industry trend. You can see variations of the layout and content in many experiences today, in FastLink and beyond.
Brainstorming with Legal - Live Sessions
Handoff, Testing, and Iteration
As they were finalized, screens were handed off to developers releasing on a quarterly schedule. Through daily scrum calls and constant communication, we made rapid progress, taking FastLink 4.0 and the Configuration Tool to MVP in 1 year. Once live, we received requests for additional features.
Button Configuration for Bank of America
We had positive feedback but also requests. Bank of America wanted the ability to change the button alignment and fill type.
I designed a new section in the global settings of the Styling Tool with more button options, including orientation change and fill type with live preview.
In this update, we were also able to include an additional hover color customization.
These features were both a technical and creative challenge, but they boosted functionality in a unique and helpful way.
Custom Footers for Morgan Stanley and Australia Banking
Morgan Stanley, one of our biggest clients, requested a custom footer feature.
Footer functions added to fulfill this and future footer requirements:
Enable/disable global footer
Upload custom global footer image
Add custom footer text
Change footer text styling
Every change executed shows in the live preview of the styling tool and appears accordingly on all published flows.
At the same time, we were designing flows for Open Banking in Australia. Per their rules, Envestnet | Yodlee needed to have a footer on every page. Already creating a similar feature for Morgan Stanley, we were able to easily add in a toggle for Australia Open Banking Flows to enable.
Outcomes & Reflection
Streamlined Onboarding
Setting up FastLink used to require several weeks and a service team. Now, one person can set it up and publish one or more flows in less than an hour.
Client Retention
With a newly competitive experience and willingness to create custom features, we maintained our relationships with our largest clients and gained a lot of new interest.
Legal Security
By proactively designing consent screens for both traditional and Open Banking flows, we effectively mitigated up to $56M in potential regulatory risk.
Lessons
I started FastLink new to FinTech, but I jumped in and tackled it, learning as I went. Taking so preventative measures in FastLink 4.0 could be tedious, but ultimately it’s what made the product succeed; we could sell it confidently proclaiming its safety and reliability.
FastLink also taught me and Envestnet a valuable lesson: a pleasant visual experience matters to users. ALL users. FastLink was on its way out the door, but after this face-lift, it became a new and exciting product, almost completely due to a visual restyling.
My promotion gave me the ability to push for the best experience we could make. It also reinforced the value of moving beyond UX execution to strategic cross-functional leadership in legal, engineering, and product planning.
FastLink 3.0
FastLink 4.0
