Accession
Role
User Research, Admin Dashboard
Industry
Fintech
Timeline
February 2025
Product overview
Accession is a web-based financial platform built to help users understand their money, plan better, and track long-term wealth growth. It supports everyday budgeting while offering investment and asset-tracking features usually found in advanced wealth tools. I led the full UX for the web platform, focusing on clarity, accuracy, and long-term financial confidence.
My Role
I came onboard collaborating with the design and development teams, ensuring a seamless user experience and visually engaging layouts. I created and implemented a consistent style system across dashboard assets, enhancing and maintaining design uniformity while ensuring seamless communication and partnership.
Challenges faced
When designing this product to be user-friendly and intuitive, there were several challenges that emerged:
1. Users struggle to connect daily spending with long-term wealth goals
During interviews, people said budgeting feels disconnected from investing. Five out of eight research participants kept budgeting in one app and investments in another. The challenge was building a unified experience without overwhelming them.
2. Users want control but fear complexity
Finance tools often feel intimidating. New users lose interest when calculations appear too fast or too technical. I needed a way to show numbers without triggering analysis paralysis.
3. Tracking multiple asset types without chaos
Users own cash, savings, fixed income, stocks, crypto, and sometimes real estate. Presenting all of this in one interface can get messy. The challenge was building a structure that keeps the experience clean and understandable.
4. A need for strong data accuracy and trust signals
People question financial apps if timelines, charts, or balances feel unclear. Trust is emotional. Even one confusing figure makes a user doubt the system. This required careful UX work around clarity and transparency.
Product Solution
The design solution aimed to redefine the modern financial experience offering an holistic solution that combats with real-life financial challenges.
1. A unified financial dashboard
I designed a single “Financial Pulse” dashboard that merges:
Monthly budget status
Spending insights
Total asset value
Investment growth trends
Users no longer jump between modules. Everything appears in one view. Testers described it as “my entire financial life on one screen".
2. Clean asset and investment structure
Assets were grouped into intuitive buckets:
Cash
Debts
Investments
Fixed assets
Growth score
Each bucket shows mini-cards with clear metrics. Users get structure without feeling crowded. Asset clarity scores improved from 40 percent to 82 percent in tests.
3. Transparent growth projections
For wealth monitoring, I used simple projection tools:
Growth charts with optional assumptions
Historical performance timelines
Investment contribution tracker
The emphasis was transparency. Users see how numbers were calculated. This increased trust and reduced “what does this mean?” feedback by over 55 percent.
4. A focus on financial stories instead of raw data
Instead of scattering numbers everywhere, I introduced narrative blocks such as:
“You’re spending more than last month”
“Your investment growth improved 12 percent this quarter”
“Your savings rate is below your monthly goal”
Users engage more with data when it feels like a simple story.
The Impact
My Impact on this project was measured by the following contributions:
1. Better financial confidence
After interacting with the financial pulse dashboard, 7 of 10 testers said the platform made them “feel more aware and in control.”
2. Higher budget completion rate
The guided flow made budgeting intuitive. Completion rate went from 42 percent in the early prototype to 89 percent with the new design.
3. Improved trust in financial data
Transparent projections and clear timelines reduced confusion. Testers stopped questioning balance accuracy because the system shows how each figure was calculated.
