KINDLY NOTE
This was a corporate project that I worked on. I was brought onboard once the product had been built and when the team was past the initial research and ideation phase. Owing to this, some salient aspects of the design process have been omitted in the approach section.
— TEAMMATES
Sneha Gokarn
Ashish Ranjan
— MY ROLE
Associate Product Manager
UI/ UX Designer
— DATE
November 2021 – August 2022
— TOOLS USED
Design:
Balsamiq, Sketch, InVision
Project Management:
Jira Software, Confluence
Tech Stack:
Angular, TypeScript, Polymer, Docker, Jenkins, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, MinIO, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, ORACLE, PostgreSQL, IBM DB2, HELM, Kibana, Swagger, AWS- Serverless, EKS, CodeBuild, Lambda, CloudFront, RDS, CloudWatch, DynamoDB, S3, API Gateway, Kinesis Firehose
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge with global cross-border payments lies in navigating the complexities of diverse financial systems, currencies, and regulatory frameworks across different countries. Traditional payment methods often involve high fees, slow processing times, and limited transparency, leading to inefficiencies and obstacles for businesses seeking to engage in international transactions. Additionally, the lack of real-time tracking and exchange rate fluctuations can result in uncertainty and unexpected costs, hindering seamless global commerce.
THE SOLUTION
By connecting businesses, liquidity providers, FX brokers, and payment institutions through a unified marketplace, VertoFX offers a streamlined and cost-effective solution for secure international payments. The advanced platform and API enable businesses of all sizes to access enterprise-grade cross-border payment, FX, and banking solutions with ease. With real-time tracking and complete transparency on exchange rates and fees, VertoFX empowers businesses to execute transactions confidently and efficiently.
THE APPROACH
Streamlining User Onboarding and Compliance
By implementing an efficient and user-friendly onboarding process, we ensured a smooth account setup while adhering to strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and compliance requirements for secure and trusted transactions.
Enhancing Global Financial Connectivity
We designed and developed a cutting-edge platform that facilitates seamless international money transfers, connecting users worldwide with various financial institutions and payment networks.
Empowering Real-Time Tracking and Transparency
With VertoFX, users can monitor their transactions in real-time, gaining complete visibility into exchange rates and fees, instilling trust and providing a transparent cross-border experience.
Enabling Secure and Fast Transactions
VertoFX ensures the utmost security of financial data and expedites transactions, enabling businesses to execute secure and fast international money transfers, supported by a robust security framework.
MY CONTRIBUTION
I was primarily tasked with conducting user interviews and mocking up wireframes & visual designs for new features that were to be incorporated into the software. Additionally, my role went on to further encompass a little bit of product management. I was involved in numerous story pointing sessions and even had the opportunity to lead entire sprints as scrum master! Finally, I was also involved in product demos to the client at the end of every sprint where I walked the client through the features worked on in the sprint. My role mediated between understanding and jotting down client requirements, mocking up wireframes & visual designs and occasionally writing down product specifications.
Final Design Outcome
drag the slider below!
the opportunity area
ORGANISATIONS + NEED + INSIGHT
organisations: making regular international transactions
need: robust cross-border transaction solutions
insight: to simplify global financial operations
Sending and receiving money across international borders has always been a hassle for organisations. Numerous fees and compliances hinder seamless and efficient transactions.
This is how we empowered organisations to unlock the potential of global finance.
This is how we streamlined cross-border payments, connected businesses with liquidity providers, FX brokers, and payment institutions through a unified marketplace.
This is how we ensured real-time tracking and complete transparency, allowing businesses to navigate the complexities of international transactions effortlessly.
⬇️
High Level Dashboard - A birds eye view of the current state of affairs
- • Get a real-time snapshot of your business's financial health across the globe. The dashboard displays operating account balances in various countries, providing the business with a comprehensive view of their liquidity and helping them make informed financial decisions.
- • Stay ahead of the market with insights into the most active currency pairs on the platform. The dashboard showcases the top 5 traded currency pairs, giving businesses a pulse on market trends and enabling them to seize timely trading opportunities.
• Efficiency is key in international trading. Our dashboard not only highlights the most traded currency pairs but also reveals the average time taken to complete transactions for each pair. Gain transparency into trade execution times and optimise your trading strategy for enhanced performance.
Payment Links - Unlock effortless payments
- Clockwise from top left to bottom right:
- 1) Easily track customer names, due dates, amounts, processing fees, and payment statuses all in one view. With the 'Generate Payment Link' button at your fingertips, you can effortlessly initiate the payment process.
2) Upon clicking this button, a convenient overlay prompts you to fill in essential details including customer information, currency, amount, due date, and additional comments. Easily customise payment requests to suit your needs, ensuring accuracy and clarity.
3) Before finalising the payment link, take a moment to review. Our interface presents all the entered information in a clear and organised manner. Confirm accuracy with a quick glance, ensuring that every detail is in place for a smooth payment process.
- 4) Once the payment link is generated, our interface allows you to easily copy the link to your clipboard or share it instantly with clients via popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, or Messenger. Provide your clients with a hassle-free way to complete transactions, enhancing your payment process efficiency.
Sending Money cross border- Even simpler than toasting bread
- • We really worked on simplifying the send money feature because we know how cumbersome this can be. All you need to do is enter your desired amount (whilst viewing real-time rates). Our intuitive 4-step process ensures a smooth journey – pick your amount, select your beneficiary, choose your funding source, and confirm with confidence. Plus, we believe in transparency, which is why we clearly display affiliated costs, including a nominal conversion fee of 0.4%, ensuring you're in full control of your financial choices
Onboarding New Businesses – Lean & Rapid
We designed the onboarding process with a ridiculously user-centric approach, collecting only essential details like names, work emails and company specifics.
We made sure to only capture information required for compliance. This significantly increased user signs ups as we did not overwhelm the user with one too many questions and long, tedious forms to come onboard.
With a focus on efficiency and clear visual progress indicators, we ensured a quick, easy and rapid onboarding.
Marketplace - Our platform, your rules
- • Whether it’s paying an employee in Durban or a supplier in Portugal, you’ll need an easy way to buy, or sell the right currency. We built out the Marketplace to allow businesses to explore businesses across the world who are selling the currency they need. They may negotiate on the marketplace and place bids for the same.
• By cutting out intermediaries and easily trading directly with other businesses, liquidity providers and banks, at competitive FX rates and no hidden fees, we made sure we provided the best rate, come rain or shine.
Key Takeaways
It was definitely challenging to navigate the fintech space, but, it was also rather exciting as I learnt something new and specific every week. Designing a system which enables you to send money abroad, sell & buy currencies across continents and much more comes with its own unique set of challenges.
• Sending money from one continent to another? Make sure to change the date format in the receiving country.
• RUB is no longer a mere verb, but the currency of a superpower which remits hundreds of thousands of dollars everyday.
• Tiny changes to UI such as obscuring or displaying information can have drastic legal/ compliance ramifications in various countries.
All of these and much more made me an extremely vigilant designer. An extremely accountable and responsible one. One who can justify every element and its subsequent placing in the UI.