*For confidentiality reasons, this case study presents an anonymised version of a real onboarding project I designed for a regulated digital-asset bank. All UX flows, decisions, and structures reflect the actual work, while the brand and visuals have been fictionalised.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
Product Owner, Me (Designer), Development Squad, Legal, Compliance, Account Management
Tools
Mobile-only
(iOS & Android)
Status
Front-end complete; integration phase in progress
Arkadia, a digital-asset private bank, needed to modernise its client onboarding experience so it could scale efficiently while meeting strict regulatory requirements.
The previous onboarding journey worked, but it wasn’t structured for automation and required significant manual handling between Relationship Managers, Compliance, and Legal.
My role was to redesign the end-to-end experience so it would:
reduce back-and-forth review cycles
give clients more clarity during onboarding
improve the quality and structure of submitted data
prepare the product for future decision-engine automation
This meant rethinking the full onboarding lifecycle — not just the UI — and designing a framework that aligned regulatory, operational, and user needs.
Arkadia operates in one of the most heavily regulated environments in finance. Every onboarding requires careful due diligence, documentation, and verification.
The challenge was balancing:
regulatory transparency
client privacy and trust
operational efficiency across multiple teams
future scalability and automation readiness
Different client segments brought different needs.
Traditional finance clients often struggled with crypto-specific requirements, while crypto-native clients were concerned about privacy when sharing wallet data.
The existing flow offered limited structure for these variations and little visibility for clients, which created unnecessary friction.
The opportunity was to rebuild onboarding as a clear, structured, and confidence-driven journey that still satisfied all regulatory constraints.
I reframed the project from a UI refresh into a system-level redesign, focused on:
mapping the full onboarding lifecycle across Compliance, Legal, and Account Management
restructuring onboarding into modular steps that separate data entry from document requirements
introducing transparent progress tracking inside the app
aligning user inputs to regulatory categories (FINMA/FinSA) for cleaner downstream processing
preparing the journey for automated decisioning (e.g., Alloy or internal systems)
This created a scalable onboarding framework designed for today’s operations and tomorrow’s automation.
I redesigned the onboarding flow across iOS and Android, introducing a five-stage model:
Filtering
KYC
About
Financial Profile
Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)
Key design decisions
Separated data entry from document upload
→ allowed Compliance logic or decision engines to request documents dynamically based on the user’s inputsIntroduced in-app status tracking
→ reduced uncertainty for clients and lowered manual follow-upsMapped each field to its regulatory purpose
→ improved auditability and alignment with FINMA/FinSA frameworksDesigned tailored paths for traditional vs crypto-native clients
→ reduced confusion and increased trust
Translating regulatory frameworks into user journeys
Traditional Finance Clients
Many held crypto through brokers/custodians, not personal wallets.
When asked for wallet addresses, they often didn’t know what to provide.
Solution:
A contextual question about how they acquired crypto allowed the system to adjust documentation requirements accordingly.
Crypto-Native Clients
More sensitive about privacy when sharing wallet addresses.
Solution:
subtle security cues in the UI
clearer explanations of why information was needed
Relationship Manager outreach triggers for sensitive cases
This increased trust and reduced friction for both types of clients.
Research & Validation
Moderated Testing
5 users
Focus: clarity, trust, emotional friction
Insight: users wanted stronger confirmations and more reassurance during document upload.
Unmoderated Testing (Lyssna)
60 participants
Focus: comprehension, timing, task success
Insight: the flow worked well; we refined transitions between financial disclosure steps.
Testing allowed us to validate early and reduce costly post-development iteration.
Application journey
User onboarded
The original journey
(static and opaque)
The updated journey
(structured and automation-ready)
Before (manual, opaque)
application submitted
documents emailed
manual review loops between RM ↔ Compliance
no visibility for clients
no structure enabling automation
After (structured, automation-ready)
modular, app-based flow
dynamic document requests based on compliance logic
structured routing to RM + Compliance
internal visibility into review states
readiness for future decision-engine integration
This shifted onboarding from manual orchestration to a scalable system.
Cross-Functional Execution
To deliver a system-level redesign in a regulated environment, I:
facilitated async workshops across time zones
clarified which data mattered to each team
documented logic for future automation
ensured parity between design and engineering through component-level specs
maintained tight alignment with Product, Compliance, and Development
This kept the project moving even as internal processes evolved.
The redesigned onboarding system delivered:
fewer internal review loops
higher-quality data for due-diligence assessment
clear in-app progress visibility
reduced uncertainty for clients
alignment with regulatory expectations
a foundation for automation and scalability
a premium, mobile-first experience that strengthens trust
Reframing Unlocks Impact
The largest improvements came from addressing system-level bottlenecks, not UI issues.
Storytelling Drives Alignment
Showing the journey through the eyes of both clients and internal teams accelerated buy-in.
AI as a Regulatory Companion
Using AI to interpret complex regulatory frameworks improved collaboration with Compliance and enabled faster, more informed decisions.
This project transformed Arkadia’s onboarding from a manual, opaque workflow into a structured, transparent, and scalable system.
It improved client confidence, reduced operational friction, and prepared the bank for future automation — while maintaining the level of regulatory precision required in digital-asset finance.
It demonstrates my ability to lead complex, regulated product design from discovery through delivery, combining UX, systems thinking, and cross-functional alignment.