International Transfers Flow Redesign
Rauva's international transfers flow creates friction and confusion for business owners and freelancers. Users struggle to complete transfers with confidence due to unclear steps, opaque fee structures, and limited flexibility when entering amounts in different currencies.
The flow lacks transparency at critical moments. Fees are not visible upfront, exchange rates are not clearly communicated, and the steps feel disconnected from each other.
Beyond the sending experience, users who need to receive international transfers are often unsure of what information to share with the other party. This leads to increased support requests and a growing loss of trust in the product.
Before moving into primary research, the team looked at existing data on how Rauva's international transfer feature is actually being used. The majority of transfers are made in EUR, USD, and GBP, which helped shape decisions around currency prioritization. Platform usage data revealed that while mobile leads with 84 users, desktop follows closely with 44. The near-equal split made it clear that a consistent experience across both platforms needed to be a core consideration throughout the redesign process.
Redesign Rauva's international transfers experience to reduce friction, improve transparency, and help users complete transfers with confidence.
Goals
- Make international transfers clear, simple, and easy to follow for business owners and freelancers
- Provide full transparency on fees before and during the transfer
- Support flexible currency input (EUR or foreign currency)
- Deliver a consistent experience across desktop and mobile
- Help users confidently share their banking details to receive international transfers
- Align the redesigned flow to Rauva's new brand guidelines
- Provide full transparency on the transaction details in the transactions list after sending or receiving an international transfer
Technical Constraints & Considerations
- Recipient savingRecipients can only be saved per currency; this limitation must be clearly communicated in the UI
- Required fieldsFields on the new recipient form change dynamically based on currency, country, and payment method selected
- Payment methodsSWIFT, IBAN, or local rails are available depending on the destination currency
- Restricted countriesSome countries cannot send or receive money; validation must happen early in the flow (ideally at recipient/country selection)
- FX ratesLive rates must be time-stamped and a rate expiry/refresh mechanism must be made visible to users
Working with a real product brief meant every design decision had to balance user needs with technical limitations. These constraints were not obstacles. They were part of the solution.
Through competitive analysis and three user interviews with SME owners and freelancers, consistent themes emerged across every conversation. Users feel confident about Rauva as a platform, but the international transfer flow creates uncertainty at every step. They do not know where their money is once a transfer is sent. The currency input flow does not match how users actually think about payments. Fees appear too late in the process, often as a surprise. And the steps themselves feel disconnected and hard to follow.
What stood out most was not the complexity of the problems, but how emotional the experience felt. Sending money internationally is a high-stakes action for small business owners. One participant had previously sent money to the wrong IBAN. Another described waiting anxiously for days, unsure whether the transfer had even reached the recipient. The anxiety was not about Rauva specifically. It was about a process that offers no reassurance along the way.
SME owners and freelancers need a way to feel confident making international payments, because hidden fees, unclear processes, and lack of information reduce trust in the platform.
The research process began with secondary analysis to understand where Rauva stands in the market. Rauva's strengths are clear, strong Portuguese market localization, compliant invoicing, and integrated tax support. But when it comes to international transfers, a gap exists. Leading platforms offer more transparent and mature experiences, and that is where the opportunity lies.
Looking at the competitive landscape, a clear pattern emerges. Platforms like Qonto and Finom excel at local compliance, while Revolut leads in global transfer capabilities, but none combine both. Rauva owns the local space, and that is a strong foundation. International transfers are where the opportunity lies.
Three user interviews were conducted with freelancers and small business owners, two of them active Rauva users. All three had real experience with international transfers, and what they shared painted a clear picture. IBAN was the biggest anxiety, typos, wrong accounts, fraud. Once a transfer is sent, users have no idea what is happening. The currency flow feels backwards, and fees are not visible until too late. The trust is there, but so is the frustration.
Basic Transfers
Advanced Transfers
Local Focus
Global Reach
A heuristic analysis of the current international transfers flow was conducted using Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics. The evaluation identified recurring issues across three key screens, the transfer setup, the recipient creation form, and the review page. The findings pointed to the same themes that emerged in user interviews: a lack of transparency, missing guidance, and limited user control.
Consistency/User control and freedom: no back button
Visibility of status: progress bar
Recognition rather than recall : no explanation for fees
Visibility of status : CTA status color
Recognition rather than recall: Add a recent transfers so users don't have to remember
Flexibility and Efficiency of Use: Form doesn't adapt between Personal and Company Account.
Recognition Rather Than Recall: No tooltips or explanations for SWIFT/BIC Code and IBAN fields, forcing users to look up this information elsewhere.
The transfer summary and remaining balance are currently only visible at the end of the flow.
The original flow had no indication of where the user was in the process. A three-step progress bar with clear labels and descriptions was introduced, giving users a sense of control and reducing drop-off anxiety.
IBAN was the number one source of anxiety across all user interviews. A copy icon and inline validation were introduced to reduce manual entry errors and give users immediate confidence that the right account is being targeted.
The redesigned flow puts transparency first. Users see fees, exchange rates, and delivery estimates before they commit. A three-step progress bar shows exactly where they are, and inline IBAN validation reduces anxiety at the moment it matters most.
Every screen was designed to work consistently across desktop and mobile, so business owners can send international payments with the same confidence regardless of where they are working from.
