- Role
Senior Product Designer
UX / UI Design | User Research | User Testing
- Company
Brightside by ATB
- Year
2019-2022
The Challenge
As a relatively new player in the financial app market, Brightside faced the challenge of attracting and retaining users in a competitive landscape. We needed to create an engaging experience that not only encouraged new sign-ups but also minimized drop-offs during the onboarding process. Additionally, we aimed to introduce innovative savings tools that would seamlessly integrate into users’ financial routines and promote long-term saving habits.
We conducted user interviews, surveys, and usability tests to understand pain points. Key findings:
- Users wanted more control over their savings goals.
- The saving features were under-utilized due to unclear onboarding.
- Lack of gamification or visual progress tracking reduced motivation.
- Users dropped off during sign-up and onboarding flow.
Approach & Contributions
1
Mapping the Customer Journey
To build a user-centric experience, I collaborated with another product designer to map out the entire customer journey, uncovering key pain points. We created both a digital and physical journey map, ensuring visibility across the company for continuous improvement.
We conducted user interviews, surveys, and usability tests to uncover behavioral patterns. Key takeaways:
- Users wanted faster onboarding with clearer guidance.
- A goal-oriented approach to budgeting would make financial planning more engaging.
- Personalized financial insights and nudges could improve retention.
💡 My Impact:
- Partnered closely with researchers to extract user insights from interviews.
- Led working sessions with product managers and engineers to align business goals with user needs.
- The journey map became a foundational tool in guiding product decisions, improving the user experience holistically.
2
Refining Smart Saving Features
To encourage better financial habits and attract more usages, I continued to enhance the experience of two key saving tools:
💰 Round-Ups – Automatically rounds up purchases to the nearest dollar and saves the difference.
📂 Saving Buckets – Allows users to organize savings into personalized categories for specific financial goals.
By providing clearer details and visuals—such as total savings, deposit dates, and transaction insights—users became more engaged and were motivated to check the app frequently.
💡 My Impact:
- Advocated for these features based on user pain points uncovered in research.
- Rapidly prototyped and tested multiple iterations to ensure usability.
- Partnered with product managers and engineers to align technical feasibility with user experience.
- As a result, these tools increased average user savings by 25% and significantly improved engagement.
3
Redefining the Onboarding Experience
User activation was critical to Brightside’s success. As part of the team, I contributed to the ongoing optimization of the onboarding journey, focusing on reducing friction and enhancing engagement.
The new process included:
- A progressive disclosure approach to prevent information overload.
- Personalized setup questions to tailor recommendations.
- A quick-start mode for users who wanted minimal setup friction.
- Optional exit points throughout the flow, allowing users to continue at any time.
💡 My Impact:
- Conducted usability tests to identify where users dropped off during sign-up.
- Redesigned key touchpoints to make the process simpler and faster.
- Partnered with researchers to validate changes and ensure a smooth user experience.
- These refinements boosted account openings by 30% in less than six months and reduced user verification costs by 55%.
4
Enhancing the Website for Clarity & Conversion
Beyond the app, I helped optimize Brightside’s website to ensure it clearly communicated product value and provided a seamless onboarding experience.
💡 My Impact:
- Conducted A/B testing to refine messaging, interactions, and accessibility.
- Collaborated closely with the marketing team to align website content with brand messaging and conversion goals.
- Designed pages and graphics for new campaigns and feature releases to maintain a cohesive and engaging user experience.
- Worked with developers to ensure responsiveness across all devices and improve accessibility.
- Website enhancements led to higher conversion rates and a smoother onboarding process.
5
Discovery & Design for the ‘Back Up’ Borrowing Feature
Aside from saving features, we also conducted discovery for a new lending feature aimed at providing users with additional financial support. Back Up was a new borrowing feature that helped users avoid declined transactions and financial stress. This feature introduced a fee-free, responsible borrowing solution, enhancing financial security for users.
As the primary designer for this feature, I mapped out the user experience, including both happy and unhappy paths, notification points, and all critical touchpoints to ensure a smooth and intuitive journey for the users.
💡 My Impact:
- Designed the user journey, covering happy and unhappy paths to ensure clarity.
- Worked closely with product and research teams to validate feasibility and user needs.
- Defined a notification strategy, ensuring users were well-informed about repayments.
- Designed the automatic repayment flow, allowing users to pay back their borrowed amount seamlessly by their next deposit.
Results
🚀 30% increase in account openings within six months due to onboarding refinements.📉 55% reduction in user verification costs by streamlining onboarding.
💰 Users saved 25% more on average using Round-Ups and Saving Buckets.
📊 Customer journey mapping became a key decision-making tool for the company.
🌐 Website improvements increased conversion rates and enhanced the onboarding experience.
Final Thoughts
By combining user insights, intuitive design, and iterative testing, our team transformed Brightside into a more engaging and effective financial platform. Through close collaboration with researchers, product managers, engineers, and marketers, we created a seamless user experience that empowers financial well-being.
This project reinforced my belief in the power of UX and cross-functional teamwork, and I continue to apply these principles in my work today.