Context: 0–1 Startup Bank · Mobile + Web Banking, Investing, Credit, Insurance
Role: Sr. Lead Product Designer · Fintech SME
Timeline: 2022
GloriFi
Creating a values-driven banking platform for a new kind of customer
GloriFi launched as a mission-led fintech startup aiming to offer an alternative to traditional financial institutions. Rather than building “just another banking app,” the company sought to create a holistic financial ecosystem aligned with a specific set of customer priorities — emphasizing financial independence, personal responsibility, and a more transparent relationship with money.
My role was to design the end-to-end banking and brokerage experience from the ground up. Working in a fast-moving startup environment, I shaped the mobile-first IA, created complete UX flows, and partnered with engineering to bring a complex financial product to life.
01
Understanding the Current Needs
Why a New Kind of Financial Platform Was Being Built
As a 0–1 startup, GloriFi entered the market with a unique challenge: translate a highly mission-driven identity into a functional, trustworthy, mainstream-ready financial product.
User and market research revealed several key motivations:
Many users felt underserved or overlooked by existing financial institutions.
Traditional banks appeared bloated, slow, or misaligned with customers’ personal values.
Users wanted a platform that felt more transparent, more intuitive, and more aligned with how they viewed financial responsibility.
New-to-finance audiences needed simple, predictable workflows — not jargon or complexity.
Competitors often separated banking, insurance, and investing into disconnected experiences.
The design challenge was to take a values-centric brand and build a modern, inclusive, and easy-to-use fintech platform that anyone could navigate confidently.
02
Identifying Key Friction
Where Traditional Banking Falls Short
Competitive research across banking, trading, and insurance platforms highlighted core UX gaps we needed to solve:
Disconnected experiences between products
Overcomplicated account flows
Confusing payment and funding pathways
High onboarding friction for multi-product users
Mobile designs that didn’t scale gracefully from desktop
These insights helped us define a unified IA and consistent UX patterns across checking, savings, credit, insurance, and investing.
03
Designing a Unified Financial Experience
Creating One Cohesive Money Experience
My work centered on simplifying a multi-product ecosystem into clean, modern flows users could trust.
What I Delivered
Clear, mobile-first banking flows
For transfers, deposits, bill pay, account linking, and everyday money movement.Brokerage & investing UX
Fractional shares, ETFs, and advanced order types — designed to be approachable to newcomers.Unified navigation & IA
A single framework connecting banking, credit, insurance, and investing.Streamlined onboarding
Reduced barriers across KYC, funding, insurance eligibility, and brokerage compliance.Modular product cards
Credit, savings, and insurance modules that adapted to user needs.Responsive design system
Consistency across desktop and mobile without duplicating work.
Result: A cohesive 0–1 fintech platform that made complex financial tools feel simple, accessible, and aligned with users’ personal financial goals.
04
Results & Impact
Delivering a Complete 0-1 Fintech Platform
While GloriFi ultimately shut down due to financial and operational challenges unrelated to product/UX, the design work delivered substantial progress:
A full-system design across banking, credit, insurance, and brokerage
Hundreds of validated flows for both mobile and desktop
A complete brokerage onboarding + trading experience
A modernized banking UI that reduced cognitive load
A unified IA that brought all financial products under one coherent structure
This work demonstrated the viability of a mission-driven fintech platform — one that preserved its identity while delivering a modern, intuitive experience for a broad audience.