Credit Suisse – Invest Lab Fund Portal
Enterprise UX Case Study | Fintech | Wealth Management | B2B SaaS
Role: Senior UX Designer / UX Lead
Timeline: 6 Months
Platform: Responsive Enterprise Web Application
Users: Fund Providers, Sub-Distributors, Internal Banking Stakeholders
Tools: Figma, Adobe Photoshop
Executive Summary
Business Problem
Credit Suisse required a modern, scalable fund discovery and analysis platform for providers and sub-distributors operating across regions, currencies, and regulatory environments. Existing systems were data-heavy, fragmented, and difficult to use, leading to inefficiencies, errors, and reliance on offline tools.
Strategic UX Opportunity
Transform a compliance-driven financial data system into a decision-support platform—improving usability, trust, and operational efficiency without compromising regulatory integrity.
My Leadership Role
I led end-to-end UX strategy and execution, shaping the experience architecture, interaction models, and visual system while aligning product, engineering, and compliance stakeholders around a shared design vision.
High-Level Impact
✣ Reduced cognitive load in complex fund comparisons
✣ Streamlined critical workflows (search, compare, evaluate, export)
✣ Established an enterprise-ready UX foundation aligned to Credit Suisse design standards
✣ Improved user confidence in data-driven investment decisions
Business Problem & Market Context
Core Challenges
✣ Highly complex financial data (NAVs, volatility, benchmarks, fees, risk metrics)
✣ Users comparing multiple funds simultaneously under time pressure
✣ Fragmented legacy workflows across PDFs, spreadsheets, and third-party tools
✣ High dependency on accuracy, traceability, and compliance
Enterprise & Regulatory Constraints
✣ Financial accuracy and audit readiness were non-negotiable
✣ Multi-currency, multi-language, multi-region support
✣ Strict data hierarchy and terminology consistency
✣ Design changes required alignment with legal, risk, and technology teams
Why It Mattered
Inefficient fund analysis directly impacted:
✣ Distributor productivity
✣ Investment decision confidence
✣ Operational cost
✣ Brand trust in Credit Suisse’s digital capabilities
UX Strategy & Design Vision
Product Vision
Create a clear, predictable, and trustworthy investment analysis experience that supports expert users without overwhelming them.
Experience Principles
✣ Comparison-first thinking – design for side-by-side evaluation
✣ Clarity over density – progressive disclosure of complex data
✣ Consistency builds trust – stable patterns across modules
✣ Design for decision-making, not browsing
Strategic Hypotheses
✣ Structured data visualisation would reduce interpretation errors
✣ A modular IA would improve scalability across fund types
✣ Clear system feedback would increase user confidence and speed
Success Metrics
✣ Task completion time for fund comparison
✣ Error reduction in fund selection workflows
✣ Adoption of digital exports (PDFs vs manual compilation)
✣ Stakeholder confidence in UX compliance readiness
User Research & Insights
Research Methods
✣ Stakeholder interviews (Product, Ops, Compliance)
✣ Contextual inquiry with providers and sub-distributors
✣ Task-based walkthroughs of legacy systems
✣ Heuristic evaluation of existing tools
Key User Segments
✣ Fund Providers – managing detailed fund data and documentation
✣ Sub-Distributors – evaluating, comparing, and recommending funds
✣ Internal Admins – oversight, compliance, and reporting
Critical Insights
✣ Users trusted tables more than charts, but struggled with density
✣ Comparison was the primary job, not discovery
✣ Users frequently exported data due to poor on-screen readability
✣ Terminology inconsistency caused hesitation and re-verification
These insights directly shaped IA, interaction patterns, and visual hierarchy decisions.
Experience Architecture & Journey Design
Journey Highlights
✣ Fund Discovery → Shortlisting → Comparison → Deep Dive → Export / Share
✣ Designed for non-linear navigation—users jump between steps frequently
Information Architecture Decisions
✣ Clear separation between:
- Fund overview
- Performance & risk
- Fees
- Documents
✣ Persistent fund context across tabs to avoid re-orientation
✣ Standardised data in order to support pattern recognition
Prioritisation Trade-offs
✣ Depth over breadth: fewer features, executed with clarity
✣ Deferred advanced customisation to protect compliance and delivery timelines
Design Execution
Interaction & Visual Design
✣ Clean, neutral enterprise visual language aligned to Credit Suisse brand
✣ High-contrast typography and spacing for data legibility
✣ Predictable grid-based layouts for comparison tables
✣ Clear affordances for actions like Print, Download PDF, Watchlist
Component & System Strategy
✣ Modular components for tables, tabs, charts, and filters
✣ Reusable patterns designed for future fund types and regions
✣ Visual consistency across dashboards, detail views, and modals
Accessibility & Scalability
✣ Readable font sizes for prolonged analytical use
✣ Colour usage supporting clarity, not decoration
✣ Designed for responsive behaviour across desktop, tablet, and mobile
Collaboration
✣ Daily collaboration with product and engineering
✣ Regular reviews with compliance and business stakeholders
✣ UX artefacts used as alignment tools, not just delivery assets
Role-based Clickable Prototype
Sub-Distributors
Providers
Validation & Iteration
Usability Testing
✣ Task-based validation with representative users
✣ Focus on comparison accuracy, scanning speed, and comprehension
Key Iterations
✣ Simplified table density through grouping and spacing
✣ Improved visual distinction between benchmark vs fund data
✣ Refined export flows based on real-world usage scenarios
Risk Mitigation
✣ Conservative interaction patterns to reduce user error
✣ Clear system states and confirmations for critical actions
Business Impact & Measurable Outcomes
Quantitative Outcomes
✣ Faster fund comparison and evaluation workflows
✣ Reduced dependency on offline tools and manual spreadsheets
✣ Improved readiness for regulatory and audit review
Qualitative Outcomes
✣ Increased user confidence in data interpretation
✣ Stronger trust in Credit Suisse’s digital platforms
✣ Positive stakeholder feedback on UX maturity and clarity
UX Influence
Design decisions directly influenced:
✣ Product roadmap prioritisation
✣ Data presentation standards
✣ Enterprise UX consistency guidelines
Leadership & Influence
✣ Acted as UX authority in cross-functional decision-making
✣ Balanced user needs with compliance and technical feasibility
✣ Elevated UX from execution to strategic capability
✣ Influenced how financial data products were conceptualised, not just styled
Challenges & Trade-offs
Constraints Faced
✣ Legacy data structures
✣ Regulatory rigidity
✣ High information density
✣ Multi-stakeholder approvals
Hard Decisions
✣ Saying no to visually attractive but risky interactions
✣ Prioritising stability and clarity over experimentation
Managing Complexity
✣ Broke problems into predictable, repeatable UX patterns
✣ Used structure and hierarchy as primary design tools
Key Learnings & Reflection
What Worked
✣ Strategy-first UX framing
✣ Early stakeholder alignment
✣ Designing for expert users without oversimplifying
What Could Improve
✣ Earlier integration of analytics for behaviour tracking
✣ Deeper personalisation once trust and stability were established
Leadership Growth
This project reinforced my role as a design leader operating at the intersection of UX, business, and compliance, not merely a screen-level designer.