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SECCL Pro

Building a design system that scales

The Impact

Created a comprehensive design system that enabled Seccl to scale their fintech platform efficiently, resulting in continued consultation requests and sustained adoption 2+ years post-project.

The Challenge

Seccl, an API-first fintech platform, had a front-end crisis. With no design team and developers building UI in isolation, their platform suffered from:

  • Unpredictable navigation that changed between pages

  • Inconsistent UI patterns across the application

  • Data overload making portfolio tracking nearly impossible

  • Forms requiring repetitive data entry

  • Poor onboarding experience for new users

Following their acquisition by Octopus, a complete redesign became a strategic priority, but with one major constraint: developers needed to start immediately, and we couldn't modify the back-end.

My Role

UX Designer and Researcher, working alongside another designer and development team to redesign the platform and create a scalable design system.

Key Design Decisions

  1. Parallel Design & Development Strategy

Leveraged my engineering background to break work into logical, independent components, allowing developers to implement UI patterns while I refined critical design decisions. This eliminated bottlenecks and maintained momentum.

Impact: Developers began implementation immediately without waiting for complete designs, compressing timeline while maintaining quality.


2. Forms Optimisation Through Research-Driven Patterns

Took ownership of forms as a specialty area, conducting deep research into:

  • Auto-filling and intelligent defaults

  • GDS accessibility standards adapted to technical constraints

  • Progressive disclosure to reduce cognitive load

Impact: Became the company's go-to expert on form design; patterns are still referenced by product managers today.


3. Comprehensive, Living Design System

Built not just components, but a decision-making framework:

  • Documented the "why" behind every design choice

  • Created scalable UI patterns preventing future inconsistencies

  • Established clear guidance for scenarios we hadn't yet encountered

Impact: Seccl retained a support contract for continued consultation, and the design system remains their single source of truth.

The Process

Research Foundation

  • User interviews with existing clients, product managers, and customer service representatives

  • Identified 6 critical pain points affecting daily workflows

  • Prioritised improvements based on user impact and technical feasibility

Key Improvements Delivered

  • Navigation: Consistent menus across all pages with improved wayfinding

  • Data Hierarchy: Redesigned tables with better filtering, sorting, and column ordering—no back-end changes required

  • Forms: Reduced redundant entry, improved accessibility, streamlined flows

  • Reporting: Introduced graphs, charts, and CSV/PDF export capabilities

  • Onboarding: Created guided flows for first-time users

  • Design System: Comprehensive documentation ensuring long-term consistency

Validation

  • Iterative wireframe reviews with Seccl stakeholders

  • Continuous collaboration between design and development

  • Post-launch positive feedback from existing users on intuitiveness and efficiency

Outcomes

✅ Sustained Adoption: Design system continues to guide Seccl's development 2+ years later

✅ Ongoing Consultation: Retained support contract; product managers still seek my guidance on new features

✅ Prevented Regression: No return to previous inconsistency and usability issues

✅ Scalability Achieved: Platform can grow without facing the same front-end challenges

✅ User Satisfaction: Existing users report significantly improved intuitiveness and workflow efficiency

Key Learnings

Balancing User Types: Improving first-time user experience required careful trade-offs with power user workflows, strategic prioritisation was essential.

Design Systems as Investment: A well-documented system acts as institutional knowledge, enabling teams to maintain quality when design resourcing isn't an option.

Technical Empathy: My engineering background was critical in structuring work for parallel execution and understanding back-end constraints.


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