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Leading design for Square payments

Design Director · 2017 – Current

Square Balance The app was designed for iPhone X
Square Balance The app was designed for iPhone X
Square Card
Square Balance The app was designed for iPhone X

Building and leading the Payments design team

Square operates with a decentralized model where Design Directors – sitting on staff-level leadership teams – report directly to General Managers, each responsible for an organizational unit. As the Design Director on Payments, I built and led a team of 8 designers within an organization size of 300+.

  • Mac Cormier

    Mac Cormier

    Product Designer

  • Michael Tomkins

    Michael Tomkins

    Product Designer

  • Marc Perry

    Marc Perry

    Product Designer

  • Jimmy Nelson

    Jimmy Nelson

    Product Designer

  • Derrick Schippert

    Derrick Schippert

    Product Designer

  • Camille Villanueava

    Camille Villanueava

    Brand Designer

  • Christine Lee

    Christine Lee

    Product Designer

  • Bradley Ryan

    Bradley Ryan

    Product Designer

Influencing Square Design

Designers share responsibilities to build the broader Square Design organization. My contributions included leading teams to define interviewing processes, employee onboarding, and best practices for conducting design sprints. Additionally, I became a top interviewer in 2019.

Designing Square Onboarding Designing Square Onboarding Designing Square Onboarding Designing Square Onboarding Designing Square Onboarding Designing Square Design Process Designing Square Design Process Designing Square Design Process Designing Square Design Process
Square Payments Internal Logo Payments Design Award SFDW Square Payments Design Team

Fostering a healthy culture

To help influence the Payments orginizational culture, I led internal branding projects to create a recognizable identity. Additionally, time was dedicated to building and creating a tight-knit design team.

Designing an end-to-end Payments experience

The Payments Design team was responsible for onboarding sellers to accept payments, payments entry experiences, deposits & money management flows, and Square Card. Additionally, the team inherited Square's Help & Support and Risk product experiences.

  • Square Onboarding

    Onboarding

  • Identity Verification

    Identity Verification

  • Square Payments

    Payments

  • Square Card

    Deposits &
    Square Card

  • Square Risk

    Risk

  • Square Support

    Support

Localizing onboarding for everyone

Square is available in multiple locales. Designing onboarding experiences required localizing massive flows for each language – hundreds of screens in total.

Square onboarding & identity verification (IDV)

Cross-collaborating to create seamless activation

The team worked with compliance and legal teams to make our IDV process seamless.

Vida Goals Vida Profile Info Vida Coach Type
Square Terminal Hardware

Working with multiple form factors to design Payments

Square is offered on a wide variety of devices, including custom hardware. Some designers worked with custom-built hardware and screens.

Square Card, a first class product

The Square Card design, led by Mac Cormier and Michael Tomkins from the Payments Design team, required navigating internal and external organizations, and involved collaborating with over 150 team members from design, product, marketing, legal, risk, compliance, and executives. The team received an SFDW award for Best in Fintech and has been editorially publicized globally.

Square Card marketing creative direction, animation, and illustration led by Square Marketing Design Team.

Square Payments user experience flows

The Payments Design Team was responsible for many platforms, locales, and surfaces – both digital and physical. Every flow was thoroughly designed to cover all edge cases in pixel-perfect detail.

Square mobile onboarding flow

Designed by myself and the POS team

Square Onboarding Business Name

Sign up

Square Onboarding Business Name

Payment type

Square Onboarding Business Name

Business name

Square Onboarding Business Selection

Business category

Square Onboarding Business Sub Category

Business sub-category

Square Onboarding Info

Personal info

Square Onboarding More Info

More personal info

Square Onboarding IDV

Onboarding IDV

Success

Success

Payment tutorial

Payment tutorial step 1

Payment tutorial

Payment tutorial step 1

Payment tutorial

Payment tutorial step 3

Payment tutorial

Payment tutorial step 4

Payment tutorial

Payment tutorial step 5

Link account

Link bank account

Square Card desktop ordering flow

Designed by Michael Tomkins and Mac Cormier

Square Card ordering flow

Main CTA

Square Card ordering flow

Verify card information

Square Onboarding Business Selection

Personalize Card

Square Card ordering flow

Address

Square Card mobile ordering flow

Designed by Mac Cormier

Square Card ordering flow

Main CTA

Square Card ordering flow

Card upsell

Square Onboarding Business Selection

Card details

Square Card ordering flow

Sign to personalize

Square Card ordering flow

Signature preview

Square Card ordering flow

Add stamps

Square Card ordering flow

Preview Card

Square terminal quick amounts

Designed by Marc Perry

Square POS terminal default state

Terminal default state

Quick amounts prompt

Quick amounts prompt

Quick amounts default state

Quick amounts enabled

Photo of Joshua Sortino

I'm Joshua Sortino, an ex-Design Director at Square and startup advisor based in San Francisco. I've been building websites, products, and businesses for 16 years. Are you looking for a coach or advisor? Let's get in touch. If you appreciate this site or want to hear more from me, you can

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© Copyright 2017 - 2019

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