Extractable
San Francisco Fire Credit Union
In 1951, SF Fire Credit Union was founded by firefighters, for firefighters. After an expansion of membership eligibility to the broader community, SF Fire Credit Union established a reputation among locals for their exceptional service.
“Our new brand honors our 68-year tradition of service and celebrates our vibrant community, while preparing our credit union for the future; our new look celebrates the history that inspires us and gives us the flexibility we need to make our brand accessible and inspiring.”
- Kathy Duvall, CEO, San Francisco Fire Credit Union
During my time at Extractable, I played a pivotal role in the long-term partnership with SF Fire Credit Union (SF Fire CU). Starting as a Senior Designer, I quickly advanced to an Art Director role, where I established and nurtured strong relationships with SF Fire CU's internal Marketing and Technology teams. My involvement extended beyond my tenure at Extractable, continuing to support SF Fire CU in various initiatives, from rebranding to CMS implementation and social advertising.
My continuous engagement with SF Fire CU reflects my dedication to fostering strong client relationships and delivering impactful, user-centric design solutions that drive growth and enhance brand presence.
Business Transformation
Working alongside SF Fire CU’s Board of Directors and senior leadership, we co-created a long-term vision for digital growth. This involved:
Establishing a business case for top-down digital transformation, focusing on both technological and cultural shifts within the organization.
Aligning digital strategies with SF Fire CU’s mission to empower members in achieving their financial goals.
Results
The combined efforts of analytics, SEO, strategic planning, and design led to significant improvements:
Improved User Experience: A more engaging, intuitive website design resulted in higher user satisfaction and conversion rates, with an increase of up to 56% in new memberships.
Targeted SEO Impact: Optimized content attracted more relevant traffic, improving search rankings and increasing organic site visits.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Leveraged user behavior analytics and feedback to identify areas of improvement, ensuring continuous growth and alignment with member needs.
Impact
The project not only transformed SF Fire CU’s digital presence but also laid the groundwork for sustainable growth, both digitally and culturally. The refreshed brand, user-centric website, and optimized account origination process have positioned SF Fire CU as a competitive, modern financial institution ready to meet the evolving needs of its community.
Role
Lead Designer
Scope
Objective
Increase membership and improve conversion rates for SF Fire Credit Union (SF Fire CU) through a comprehensive digital transformation, including brand refresh, website redesign, and an optimized online account origination (OAO) process.
Challenge
SF Fire CU needed to modernize its brand and digital presence to attract new members while supporting the financial goals of its existing community. Previous digital initiatives lacked the depth required to create meaningful impact, both in user engagement and business growth.
Approach
Our strategy focused on three key areas:
Brand Refresh
Developed a unique visual identity tailored to both SF Fire CU and the broader San Francisco Bay Area.
Incorporated playful compositions, jewel-tone color palettes, sophisticated photography, and an updated typography family to create a vibrant yet professional look.
New Website Development
Conducted user interviews with members, firefighters, and community leaders to gather qualitative insights.
The UX team performed comparative market research to understand user behavior, while the analytics team tracked quantitative data to inform design decisions.
Utilized a new CMS, collaborating closely with Paul and Pasquale to design, document, and QA the site.
Implemented a modular design system, enabling the Marketing Team to easily build pages for campaigns, content articles, and more.
Collaborated with Cassandra to define content-specific guidelines, including word counts, image specifications, and module usage best practices.
Optimizing Growth with OAO
Redesigned the Online Account Origination (OAO) process to streamline the user journey, reducing friction and improving conversion rates.
Online Account Origination
