Google Wallet's new card stack design has one very annoying problem

Google Wallet’s new card redesign is reaching more users, but the wider rollout has exposed a pretty annoying usability problem.

Google’s new vertically stacked card interface replaces the horizontal payment card carousel with an expanded view that stacks your saved cards on top of one another. While it looks slick, users say it isn’t making Wallet easier to use as intended.

One of the biggest complaints is that the new interface can make it difficult to distinguish between multiple cards that have the same design, especially if you have two or more cards from the same bank.

One reader told us they have two cards from the same bank that look identical in Wallet. Under the previous design, an alias underneath each card made it easy to tell them apart. In the new stacked view, that information isn’t immediately visible.

Another reader described a similar problem on Reddit, with several of their cards now appearing identical. They use one card specifically for public transport and warned that accidentally selecting another could result in both cards being charged for an incomplete journey.

While you can identify a card by swiping it to the side to reveal additional information, that action somewhat defeats the purpose of a UI designed to make choosing between multiple cards quicker. Users say those identifiers can simply be displayed directly on the cards.

Meanwhile, some readers actually find switching between frequently used cards slower with the redesign. With the old horizontal carousel, someone who kept their three most-used cards next to each other could move from the default card to either adjacent card with a single swipe. The new design can require opening the card stack and then selecting another card.

There are complaints about the overall polish, too. One reader criticized the redesign’s animations and argued that, despite the visual overhaul, selecting cards hasn’t actually become easier.

Thankfully, all this seems like something Google could fix without abandoning the redesign altogether. Simply displaying a card’s alias or last four digits in the stacked view would not be difficult to implement with a quick app update.