Recurring Investments — CommBank App Everyday Investing
New investors dropped off because every deposit was manual. I designed CommBank's recurring investments, which contributed to Everyday Investing account growth.
The problem
New investors in the CommBank app were dropping off. Research showed why: every deposit had to be started by hand, so building a regular investing habit was hard. That limited what customers got out of investing, and limited how much money CommBank managed for them (its funds under management).
Recurring investments were already standard in Australian micro-investing apps like Raiz, Stake, Sharesies, Vanguard and Pearler. CommBank's Everyday Investing didn't have them. Shipping the feature was the minimum to stay competitive, and a lever to grow accounts and funds under management.
Three products, one experience
Everyday Investing spans three separately built products: CommSec Pocket, Australian shares, and the newer investing experience built on Lumen, CommBank's design system. Recurring investments had to work the same way in all three.
Financial product rules
The flows had to meet Australia's Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO), the rules on who a financial product is designed for and offered to.
A habit, not a one-off
The question we set out to answer: “How might we help new investors form a regular investing habit?”
The result
The work contributed to increased Everyday Investing account growth in the CommBank app.
Recurring investments look and work the same across all three products, built on CommBank's new design system.
Simpler inputs and a modern frequency picker replaced the dated click-wheel controls found in the audit.
One pattern for any recurring money action, ready to scale to future Everyday Investing products.
Native iOS and Android flows in the CommBank app, reached from the Buy flow and the Manage section.
What I did
I led UI design, working with a UX designer and a cross-functional team across product, research and delivery.
- Set the goal with stakeholders — discovery workshops aligned everyone on one question: how to help new investors form a regular investing habit.
- Audited the current flows and six competitors — Stake, Vanguard, Raiz, Pearler, Betashares and Sharesies. The audit flagged the old click-wheel controls for picking how often to invest.
- Tested with real users — I built Figma prototypes, observed the sessions alongside the team, then changed the UX and UI based on what we found.
- Presented in design critiques — I presented the work myself in CommBank's design critique sessions, getting feedback from colleagues and validation from design leads.
- Designed it once for three products — production-ready screens for all three, using reusable patterns that work for any of them.
- Handed over to engineering — design specs for native iOS and Android, using CommBank's design system components and meeting its accessibility standards.
A note on confidentiality
Due to CBA confidentiality guidelines, I'm unable to share detailed mockups or process artefacts from this project. Selected discovery artefacts are shown here with sensitive information removed.
