Simplifying Financial Decision-Making with Scalable UX

TL;DR:

Comparing options shouldn’t feel like recon work. Redesigned B2B fintech dashboards to streamline comparisons, reduce toggling, and drive faster financial decisions.

Wins:

  • 28% drop-off reduction, 40% faster decisions, 30% faster onboarding

  • Reusable components scaled across product suite

Project Info:

  • Role: Lead UX Designer embedded with PMs and engineers on the Finance team

  • Scope: End-to-end UX across onboarding and dashboard flows, research, IA, system design, and testing

  • Platform: Responsive fintech dashboard for users borrowing money

  • Tools: Figma, journey mapping, moderated testing, OCR/KYC integration, component-based systems

Table of Contents:

Challenge:

The platform combined several financial tools, lending, invoicing, forecasting, but lacked coherence:

  • Unclear Labels: Tool names didn’t reflect real-world use cases.

  • Decision Friction: Scattered entry points created confusion and task abandonment.

  • Manual Onboarding: Users faced repetitive input loops without context or automation.

I led a redesign of both the onboarding flow and core dashboard, building a modular system that supported comparison logic, simplified decisions, and scaled across tools.

Research & Discovery:

  • User Interviews: Identified low confidence in tool selection and confusion around features.

  • Behavioral Logs + Support Tickets: Mapped abandonment hotspots around scenario and input overload.

  • Stakeholder Workshop Insight Mapping: Facilitated a collaborative workshop with cross-functional stakeholders.

Key Insight: Users didn’t just want clarity, they needed confidence. A trustworthy platform had to guide, not just present options.

Notes from the Reverse the Problem exercise:

The exercise helped reframe challenges into opportunity areas, shifting from pain points to aspirational goals.

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Notes about dashboard best practices:

This informed visual logic and layout decisions, prioritizing responsiveness and data clarity.

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Design Decisions:

  • Modular Comparison Components: Adapted based on user input to compare tool options with real-time feedback.

  • Progressive Disclosure Model: Revealed information based on decision stage, from awareness to exploration, validation, and final action.

  • LATCH-Based IA Overhaul: Organized tools using Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, and Hierarchy to match how users naturally think and explore.

Example Design Decision: Built modals that dimmed the background when user-entered text didn’t match the content behind the modal, reducing confusion and guiding users to relevant options.

Modular UX in Action:

The medium-fidelity mobile mockup showcasing adaptive comparison modules, progressive disclosure based on decision confidence, and information architecture structured with LATCH. Designed to support both scenario-driven and comparison-driven users without causing cognitive overload.

Medium Fidelity Mock Up

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Userflows & Rationale:

Designed for two primary mindsets:

  • Scenario-First Users: Those who start with a problem and need guidance to the right tool.

  • Compare-First Users: Those who want to assess multiple tools before committing.

I mapped user flows to both scenarios, streamlined onboarding by resident type (UAE vs. non-UAE), and reduced touchpoints via OCR/KYC integration.

Seen below is how we mapped and tailored resident-specific onboarding (UAE vs. non-UAE), and included OCR integration and KYC databases to reduce friction and ensure compliance

Non-UAE Residents Workflow

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Testing & Iteration:

  • Ran task-based usability tests with business owners across mobile and desktop.

  • Measured task time, input friction, hesitation, and first-click alignment.

  • Iterated on button hierarchy, form density, and microcopy to guide progression and reduce abandonment.

UAE Residents Workflow

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Outcomes:

  • Before: Inconsistent tool labels made comparison difficult.
    After: Unified information architecture and real-time matching improved exploration flow.

  • Before: Users dropped off during the exploration phase.
    After: Progressive flows reduced friction, cutting drop-off by 28% across key tasks.

  • Before: Users got stuck between discovering tools and making a choice.
    After: Aligned decision paths led to 40% faster confident actions, shown by less backtracking and shorter session times.

  • Before: Maznual onboarding caused repeated data entry.
    After: OCR and KYC automation sped up onboarding by 30%, confirmed by time-to-activation data.

Reflection:

“I didn’t realize I had options!” That moment reframed our goal: from clarity to confidence.

Designing for confidence, not just clarity, became my guiding principle. I’d next explore adaptive comparison logic and contextual nudges based on business type or lifecycle stage.

What I Bring to Product UX: Decision-support architecture grounded in user behavior, modular system thinking that scales, progressive disclosure for clarity under complexity, and UX fluency in fintech flows where friction erodes trust.

Product Images:

Final Onboarding User Flow

This show the final optimized onboarding user journey from entry to activation. It demonstrates clarity, speed, and tailored logic across resident types and tool needs.

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Final Dashboard Designs

The final dashboard mockups present streamlined insights through prioritized data visuals, enabling faster comprehension and confident user decisions at a glance. The mockups are for desktop and mobile.

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Desktop Before

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Desktop Mockup After

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Medium Fidelity Mobile Mockup

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High Fidelity Mobile Mockup

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