A comparison tool that reads live exchange rates, fees, and promos across every major provider at once, then ranks them by what your recipient actually receives. No math, no guesswork, no overpaying.
Sending money abroad means opening provider after provider and decoding hidden fees and marked-up exchange rates just to estimate what a transfer really costs. Comparison is so tedious that most people give up and quietly overpay, every single month.
Collapse a messy, multi-tab comparison into a single screen that ranks providers by what the recipient actually receives. Choosing the cheapest, fastest option should take seconds, not half an hour.
Pocket Transfer aggregates live quotes and reduces each option to a single "recipient gets" amount that already folds in rate markup, fees, and promotions. It's built for the people who feel this most: international students, travellers, and anyone sending money home.
I ran remote interviews and surveys with 12 people who send money abroad at least once a month. I went in certain the exchange rate was what mattered. It wasn't. What people actually wrestled with was total cost, the tangle of rate markup, fees, and promotions spread across a dozen sites, and they flatly distrusted "zero fee" marketing. That single insight reframed the product around one honest "recipient gets" number per provider.
"I just want to know which service gets the most money to my family, without doing math across five different websites."
Mapping Amara's monthly remittance surfaced most of the friction before the transfer even begins: gathering quotes, re-checking rates that keep expiring, and hunting for promo codes. The comparison stage carried the heaviest emotional load, so that's where I focused the design.
| Stage | Actions | Feeling | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Decide to send | Checks family needs, payday timing | Motivated | Show live rate for her saved corridor |
| 2 · Gather quotes | Opens 5+ provider sites, notes rates and fees | Frustrated | Aggregate live quotes in one view |
| 3 · Compare costs | Builds mental math of rate + fee − promo | Overwhelmed | One "recipient gets" number incl. everything |
| 4 · Choose provider | Second-guesses "zero fee" claims, re-checks | Anxious | Transparent breakdown + trust signals |
| 5 · Send & confirm | Completes transfer, tells family | Relieved | Deep-link handoff with locked-in quote |
I structured the app around what people came to do. A Compare path with a short quiz and filters (total, lowest rate, lowest fee, fastest, safest) sits at the center, with Deals, Rate alerts, and Account as supporting branches. Every path resolves to one ranked result that deep-links straight to the provider.
I sketched six versions of the results screen, testing each against what research said mattered most. The version I carried forward leads with the amount the recipient actually gets and keeps fee, rate, promo, and delivery time visible without a single extra click.
Providers sort by amount received, so the best overall value always lands first. Each card puts the fee, exchange rate, and applied promo up front, with nothing hidden below the fold.
The prototype wires up the main journey end to end: enter an amount and destination, compare live quotes, review the cost breakdown, and hand off to the chosen provider. No account needed to start comparing.
From six paper explorations of the results screen, to a connected low-fidelity flow, to the high-fidelity build, one principle held: every screen leads with the amount the recipient actually gets and keeps fee, rate, promo, and delivery time in view without extra clicks. Click any screen to enlarge.
I ran two rounds of moderated usability testing, five participants each. Round 1 pressure-tested the low-fidelity prototype; round 2 validated the high-fidelity mockups. Each round's findings fed directly into the next iteration.
Pocket Transfer turns cost transparency from a chore into the default. In testing, participants reached a confident choice in a fraction of the time their old routine took.
"I can finally see what a transfer really costs. This would save me money every month."
— Usability study participant
Trust is designed, not claimed. Showing the math behind each quote moved people more than any amount of visual polish. And my sharpest early assumption, that rate was everything, didn't survive the first few interviews. Talking to real users early saved me from designing the wrong product.