designing strategic UX improvements that won pre-seed funding.
UX Designer
Workshop moderation | Stakeholder mgmt. | Usability research
8 weeks (Feb - Mar 2025)
UpperStudio (2 UX Designers, 2 UX Researchers)
Client: Enrich
context.
Enrich is a DIY wealth management solution that executes a financial advisor’s role in an approachable manner. Enrich engaged UpperStudio, a product design agency I co-founded, in research and design that ultimately became integrated into the mobile app.
overview.
What Enrich Needed
Enrich had a prototype for which they needed concept testing, as well as feedback about ease of use to inform rapid iterations.
What I Did
I conducted usability research and designed high-fidelity mocks that reflected the findings.
Key Deliverables
A comprehensive usability research report, product prioritization, and renewed roadmap
Design changes based on my recommendations and research results
Enrich implemented components of my design in the development of the mobile app (Beta 1) in late June 2025.
My Contributions
Prototyped the screen flows that were used in usability sessions
Co-moderator and system manager for usability sessions
Designed mockups and recommendations for implementation
Impact
The report influenced the Beta launch in June 2025. This research was pivotal to the client realizing that their value proposition needed refinement before further development.
Enrich engaged hired us two additional times to work on Beta 2 in June and Onboarding in July 2025.
research.
Heuristic Evaluation
Knowing that the participant pool is a valuable resource, I first conducted a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen Norman's usability heuristics to catch low-hanging fruit. Before participant sessions began, the Lead Designer at Enrich returned with mocks that addressed the issues that we found.
Objectives
Concept Testing
User Experience
Look & Feel
Recruitment
Recruitment methods included targeted outreach, cold outreach, convenience sampling, and snowball sampling.
Participant profile
High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) with a liquid asset of $1M+
Approach wealth management with DIY tools or third-party outsourced services
Cannot be designers or engineers in tech
Methodology
Measures included Task completion/success, Qualitative feedback, System Usability Scale (SUS), and Product Market Fit (PMF).
60 minutes, moderated, and remote
Roles: 1 Moderator, 1 Note-taker, and 1 System Manager (acting as participant's mouse)
SUS + PMF surveys after the moderated portion
Tech set-up: iOS mobile prototype shown on desktop
The complex nature of the app: I prototyped the key task flows used during sessions.
Workshop: Analysis with Stakeholders
Involving the stakeholders early on was crucial to building rapport. We facilitated a 2-hour workshop with Enrich's CEO/PM, Lead Designer, and Engineers. From our internal preliminary analysis, we provided the categories into which they affinitized raw data.
Synthesis workshop with the client
findings.
The Finding
The Design Rec
Users like precision when handling money.
“I would absolutely not use this (contribution amount) slider.” -PA
Enable text entry input anytime users are working with shares, contributions, and target goals. Reserve sliders for interactions requiring approximate rather than precise values.
The current navigation pattern lacks discoverability.
“I guess I would swipe to the right and hope that there's something there. I don't know.” -PB
Implement global navigation to improve wayfinding and enable users to quickly switch between key sections without excessive swiping.
Users struggled to find the Contribution feature, indicating the need for clearer messaging and visibility of key actions.
4 out of 5 users failed to complete the first task—making a contribution.
Separate Asset Allocation and Contribution tasks onto distinct screens to reduce confusion, with clear navigation guiding users through each step.
design.
Informed Design
Because the Client was quite lean, the Lead Designer immediately addressed critical issues (priority 0).
Based on the finding that users like precision when handling money.
Based on the finding that users struggled to find the Contribution feature.
Additional Design Recommendations
Though out of project scope, I went the extra mile, recommending alternatives for other key screens and components.
A few alternative designs that I explored for the cards on the Goals Overview screen.
outcomes.
Impact on Product
We delivered a report and product punch list that prioritized issues (P0-P3) via Productboard. It determined the product roadmap in advance of beta launch.
Report readout with Enrich
Future Engagements
In June 2025, when our team re-engaged with Enrich for another project, the additional design recommendations had been developed in the beta version.
reflections.
Research and design don’t have to be as siloed as the industry makes it out to be.
Our transparency and invitation for cross-functional collaboration made a great impression on the client. The tight feedback loop between research and design led to sharpening the MVP and clearer product principles. This project reinforced for me that good design doesn’t just start with research; it stays connected to it every step of the way.
The target users are a niche group that's not easily accessible through conventional research channels.
The response rate was modest, and scheduling sessions required persistence and flexibility. Early on, we were transparent about the challenges. We aligned with the client by emphasizing that usability goals focused on universal ease of use, which would still yield valid insights regardless of minor differences in financial profile. As a result, we could expand our criteria to include participants with $750-999K in liquid asset—not quite HNWIs.
Workshop Review
“I would rate this workshop a 10! You did a great job of setting up a framework and guiding us through it at the start. Each section was given an appropriate time to complete, and we were able to have some discussion as we were moving the post-it’s around. The last step when we were categorizing will be super valuable for our team, and you all had great ideas for categories where we could group the items. All in all, this was a great use of my time - looking forward to the results! Thank you! 😊 “
— Enrich Lead Designer