Before
Designed with pride, seen only once.
Customers saw their custom card only while ordering it. The Card tab showed a stand-in with rigid physics. Getting their real card into the app had been a dream since 2017.
Cash App, Card customization
Your card,alive in the app.
Customers designed their Cash App cards with pride, then saw them only while ordering. I turned the card into a 3D object that behaves like the one in your hand, and it became the face of the app.
- Role
- Owner of the Cash App Card surface. I championed and launched the 3D card and card themes.
- Scope
- Card Studio, the Card tab, then the home screen. Themes in the keypad, payments and stickers.
- Proves
- Make it physical. Design the rules.
+8%
Card spending per customer, once the card came alive in the app.
Card GPV per customer · 3D card launch
A card is identity, not plumbing.
Signatures, glitter, tortoiseshell, holo. Cash App cards tap into culture. The app showed a stand-in.
01, The 3D card
Motion
Grounded in your hand, not floating.
Light, shadow and motion follow the gyroscope. Tilt the phone and light moves across the card. I prototyped the feeling, not just the screens.
- Ambient motionTells you the card isn't static.
- Organic physicsInertia makes every touch satisfying.
- Fluid gesturesFast enough to feel physical.
Materials
Reverence for the materials.
Hardware kept sending curveballs: glitter, tortoiseshell, holo. Holo is two layers, a matte body under a satin foil, and each shifts color with the angle. It took almost two years to get right.
Card viewing angle 0°
Themes
More than skin deep.
Themes carry the card's material beyond the card, and respond to the gyroscope just like it does. Try the themes and the lock on the screen.
Rebuilt for this site
9:41
Card
CM
Card locked
Spending limit$2,500 / day
Recent
- JJuniper CoffeeToday · Card−$5.40
- EEastside MarketYesterday · Card−$42.18
- SFrom savingsMon · Transfer+$200.00
Move your cursor to tilt.
02, Make room
First, make roomfor the card.
Before any 3D work, we audited feature usage and rebuilt the Card tab on the new design system. 20% more of the top-used features moved above the fold.
“The application of the new foundations was spot on.”
Craft you won't findat your daddy's bank.
03, Spread
From Card Studioto the home screen.
The 3D card started in Card Studio, then the Card tab. When Cash App merged its Money and Card tabs into one home screen, the card and its theme became the hero.
“A key part of our app's identity.” Engineering Manager, Cash App Banking
Hardware became a way to express yourself.
Themes carry the card's material into the keypad, personalized payments and stickers.
Customers found and used their card more.
99%
Of customers who turned on a theme kept it on
+8%
Customers copying their card details
+5%
Card activation at 7 and 14 days
3D card and Themes launches · method to confirm
Hide the physics.Show the card.
Materials, gyroscopes, device performance, viewport sizes, accessibility, edge cases. Customers see none of it. They see their own card, behaving like it.