Enabling Seamless Transactions
Optimising legacy platforms to accelerate efficient transaction processing and reduce operational friction.
Role
Lead UX Researcher, Interaction Designer
Client
Standard Chartered (Finance)
Platform
Web
Challenge
Standard Chartered needed to modernise TradeXpress, an internal platform supporting trade finance operations across relationship management, client onboarding, compliance, product management, risk control, and production support teams.
Over time, teams had developed workarounds across multiple disconnected systems to process transactions, manage client information, investigate compliance issues, and support product delivery.
My Role
I worked directly with the Research Director and Creative Director to lead all research activities across the engagement—from planning and stakeholder interviews to fieldwork, synthesis, and insight reporting.
Beyond research, I translated insights into actionable design direction by creating user flows and wireframes sprints ahead of the design team. This enabled designers to focus on execution while ensuring solutions remained grounded in user needs, operational realities, and business objectives.
Activities
Double Diamond Process
Designing for Operational Clarity and Efficiency
Research showed me that users did not need another standalone tool—they needed a connected operational ecosystem that reduced friction across the transaction lifecycle. With this in mind, we focused on three strategic design directions:
1. We designed experiences that consolidated client information, transaction details, communication history, and supporting documents into unified workflows.
→ This reduced the need for users to switch between systems and improved their ability to understand the status and context of ongoing work.
2. We prioritised visibility of errors, transaction statuses, workload priorities, and compliance indicators to help users make decisions faster and with greater confidence.
→ Users could focus on resolving issues rather than searching for information across multiple sources.
3. Alongside workflow improvements, I conducted a design system audit and identified opportunities to improve consistency, usability, accessibility, and component behaviour across the platform.
→ Recommendations covered common interaction patterns, component states, navigation behaviours, and documentation standards to support future scaling.
Pains
Value Proposition Mapping
Designing for Operational Clarity and Efficiency
Research showed me that users did not need another standalone tool—they needed a connected operational ecosystem that reduced friction across the transaction lifecycle. With this in mind, we focused on three strategic design directions:
1. We designed experiences that consolidated client information, transaction details, communication history, and supporting documents into unified workflows.
→ This reduced the need for users to switch between systems and improved their ability to understand the status and context of ongoing work.
2. We prioritised visibility of errors, transaction statuses, workload priorities, and compliance indicators to help users make decisions faster and with greater confidence.
→ Users could focus on resolving issues rather than searching for information across multiple sources.
3. Alongside workflow improvements, I conducted a design system audit and identified opportunities to improve consistency, usability, accessibility, and component behaviour across the platform.
→ Recommendations covered common interaction patterns, component states, navigation behaviours, and documentation standards to support future scaling.
Results and Impact
Delivered a research-driven vision for a more connected and efficient trade finance ecosystem.
Identified opportunities to reduce manual effort through workflow consolidation and automation.
Established a shared understanding of operational pain points across business, compliance, product, and technology teams.
Informed platform improvements that prioritised visibility, coordination, and decision-making across the transaction lifecycle.
Strengthened the design system through component audits and recommendations that improved consistency, scalability, and usability across future platform enhancements.
Reflections
By mapping journeys across multiple functions, I learned the importance of looking beyond individual pain points to understand how information, decisions, and responsibilities flow through an entire ecosystem. The ability to connect these perspectives was critical in uncovering opportunities that would have otherwise remained hidden within siloed teams.
The engagement also strengthened my ability to bridge research and design—translating complex operational realities into actionable flows and design direction that enabled the team to move quickly while remaining grounded in user needs.
