CASE STUDY

Footer Consolidation: Streamlining Compliance, Workflow & Governance

As Lead Product Designer at City National Bank, I initiated and executed a system-wide effort to unify the footer across all digital platforms in order to:

  • Streamline design and dev workflow

  • Provide consistency and accessibility

  • Maintain brand and regulatory compliance

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THE CHALLENGE

As City National Bank grew through acquisitions and regional expansion, its digital ecosystem became fragmented, introducing usability and structural issues

  • 9+ unique footer implementations

  • Inconsistent legal disclaimers

  • Outdated links

  • No centralized ownership or governance structure

This inconsistency created compliance risks, eroded user trust, and increased design and engineering overhead.

MY ROLE

As the initiative lead

  • Conducted a full audit to map all existing footer implementations

  • Led the design and rollout of a unified, scalable footer system

  • Aligned internal stakeholders across marketing, legal, compliance, and engineering

  • Built a governance model to support long-term sustainability

Key skills demonstrated

  • Enterprise Design System Leadership

  • Accessibility & Regulatory Compliance (WCAG, FDIC, Equal Housing, etc.)

  • Stakeholder Management in Highly Regulated Organizations

  • Scalable UX Architecture

  • Governance & Operational Efficiency

  • Localization & Multisite Consistency

APPROACH & PROCESS

🔍 Comprehensive Audit

I conducted a comprehensive audit of footer designs, content, and implementations across CNB’s digital properties.

🧩 Modular & Accessible

Designed a WCAG-compliant, modular footer system with configurable sections for disclosures, links, and accessibility support.

🤝 Cross-Functional Alignment

Led workshops with legal, compliance, brand, accessibility, and engineering teams to define universal requirements and resolve conflicts.

🏛️ Governance & Integration

Partnered with engineering to integrate the footer into CNB’s design system and CMS. Established a governance model to manage content and design ownership.

OUTCOMES

✅ Improved WCAG compliance across all web properties

✅ Unified 9+ footer systems into one scalable component

✅ Reduced design and dev work for future changes by ~45%

✅ Established a content governance workflow across teams

✅ Decreased regulatory risk tied to inconsistent disclosures

LEADERSHIP IMPACT

👥 Cross-Team Alignment

Successfully aligned legal, brand, and product teams under a shared vision and compliance-first framework.

⚠️ Risk Mitigation

Elevated design’s role in regulatory and reputational risk management, a key concern with CNB’s senior leadership.

🧠 Design Systems Thinking

Embedded the footer as a scalable component in CNB’s design system, creating a future-proof infrastructure.

REFLECTION

This project illustrates how the basic elements of a digital product can have critical implications for user trust, legal compliance, and operational efficiency.

Leading this effort required a combination of:

  • Systems thinking

  • Design leadership

  • Stakeholder diplomacy

All essential skills for leading design within a complex, regulated organization.

© Eugene Park, 2025