Giving Users Control Over Payment Dates
Designing a date picker component that builds trust and flexibility.
Industry
Government
My role
Senior UX Designer
Date
2023
Tools
I redesigned the date picker for ScotPayments to give users greater control over payment scheduling while meeting strict business and compliance rules. By iterating on prototypes, validating with users, and contributing a reusable component back into the SG Design System, we increased completion rates, reduced errors, and improved user confidence in managing high-value payments.
Scenario
ScotPayments, developed by the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate, processes payments from the public sector to individuals and organisations across Scotland. Scott Logic was brought in to provide UX expertise alongside developers and testers. My role as UX Designer was to lead the redesign of the payment date selection experience, ensuring it aligned with user needs, market competitors, and the Scottish Government Design System.
Stakeholders / collaborators: Service Designers, User Researchers, Design System team, Developers, Product Owner, Business Analysts, Service Owner
Discover
The existing process forced users to rely on an “adapter” that auto-selected payment dates based on rigid rules. Dates could not be changed, leaving users frustrated and out of control. Competitor benchmarking revealed that other providers offered flexible date selection, giving users greater confidence and control.
Through research interviews and earlier discovery work, we hypothesised that:
Ability to select a custom date
Users want an intermediate confirmation step before committing to date changes.
Focused, simple flows reduce cognitive load.
Guidance on non-processing days (bank holidays, weekends) is critical.
Clear terminology (“sent,” “scheduled,” “uploaded”) avoids confusion.
Define
Core problem: How might we give users control over payment scheduling while ensuring compliance with strict business and technical rules?
We defined the functional criteria for the new date picker:
Disallow weekends, bank holidays, past dates
Only allow dates at least three working days in advance
Provide clear feedback if users attempt invalid entries
Develop
I created multiple prototypes of the payment file upload flow, each experimenting with different entry points for date selection. The designs used SG Design System components as a foundation but pushed them to handle stricter logic.
Key design explorations included:
Date picker variants with embedded guidance (e.g. “Next available date: X”).
Confirmation modal to reassure users when submitting large payments.
Error message refinements explaining why dates were invalid.
Iterations on how to balance manual input vs calendar selection while preserving consistency with the standard component.
Deliver
Working closely with the development and Design System teams, we delivered a customised variant of the date picker that enforced all scheduling rules. The component was contributed back into the SG Design System for future reuse, ensuring long-term consistency and accessibility.
All design decisions were validated in usability tests with real and proxy users. Testing covered:
Flows and entry points
Copy for buttons, headings, and error states
Accessibility considerations (keyboard input, screen reader support)
Results
User testing confirmed our hypotheses and showed that the new flow gave users greater confidence and control over their payments, especially since the payment runs could often be 6 or 7 figure amounts.
70% -> 92%
Increased completion rate from 70% → 92% after introducing clearer date rules and confirmation modals.
54% -> 88%
88% of participants reported the new flow felt “clear and trustworthy,” compared to 54% previously.
