your name here

Bux

Project

Investment Plans

My Role

Senior Product Designer

Industry

Fintech

Timeline

February 2026 · 7 Days

Overview

BUX is a European retail investing platform. Investment Plans, a recurring investing feature, already existed on mobile. The web platform supported onboarding, discovery, and trading, but recurring investing was absent entirely. This project was a zero-to-one expansion: bringing Investment Plans to desktop, designed from scratch in seven days.

Goal

Extend recurring investing to web, long-term usage, scalable complexity

Problem

Desktop users face friction when mobile patterns are applied, with sequential steps, limited overview, lost context, and overly brief content reducing clarity and confidence.

Oppurtunity

Desktop enables a more confident, planning-focused experience by consolidating steps, allowing side-by-side configuration and preview, and supporting richer detail and comparison without clutter.

Users

Rather than a single user persona, this project addressed three modes of intent. The design had to serve all three without overwhelming any of them.

The first step was to conduct interviews to gain insights into various user preferences, pain points and any possible return habits. This research allowed us to identify what users value the most, such as a simple and quick return process that most likely required the least amount of steps. The people interviewed were a mix of users who returned more than 4 items a month and users who were new to returning items especially from townships.

New Investor

Needs: Reassurance & guidance

Unfamiliar with recurring investing. Needs to understand what a plan is before committing — and to trust that they won't be stuck with a bad choice.

Returning Investor

Needs: Quick overview & edits

Already invested on mobile. Comes to web expecting a familiar mental model — wants to check performance and make adjustments efficiently.

Power User

Needs: Comparison & control

Manages multiple plans. Wants to compare allocations, understand costs deeply, and have fine-grained control — without extra steps to get there.

Assumptions (Desktop)

What changes when someone sits down at a computer?

Exisitng Screens

Some of the mobile screens that I used a reference to create a desktop experience.

User Flows

Each flow had a different friction profile. Rather than treating them as a single design problem, I mapped the moments of friction and critical decisions for each one separately, and designed a specific UX response for each.

Flow 1: Discover (Friction & Decisions)

Moments of friction

  • “Do I trust recurring investing?”

  • “What even is an Investment Plan?”

  • “There are many plan choices. Where should I start?”

Critical decisions

  • Do I need an Investment Plan?

  • Can I explore before paying?

  • Should I explore plans or build my own?

UX Response

  • Lightweight educational intro for each plan

  • Clear, side by side comparisons

  • “Easy” as a safe default

  • Quick plan comparison via tab switcher

  • Low commitment exploration before payment

Flow 2: Set-up (Friction & Decisions)

Moments of friction

  • “Fear of committing to recurring payments

  • Uncertainty about asset allocation

  • Confusion about costs and mandate

  • “If I select an example plan will I be stuck with it?”

Critical decisions

  • Is this allocation right for me?

  • Am I ready to commit monthly?

  • Should I adjust before confirming?

  • Is this the plan I want?

UX Response

  • Live plan preview during setup

  • Cost transparency (no surprises)

  • Clear confirmation and reassurance copy

Flow 3: Friction & Decisions

Moments of friction

  • “Fear of “breaking” an existing plan

  • Unclear impact of changes

  • “Am I saving my changes or creating a new plan?”

  • “Can I undo this later?” “Is my plan doing well?”

Critical decisions

  • Should I modify or leave my plan as it is?

  • Is it safe to change my recurring setup?

UX Response

  • Clear overview cards (so users can assess performance)

  • Inline editing (low friction exploration)

  • Preview of changes before saving (no surprises)

  • Clear, guided steps (so changes feel safe)

  • AI analysis (context on performance + suggestions)

User Flows

I also conducted a competitive analysis of existing return processes to benchmark strong patterns and identify common friction points. We looked at drop-off models, label-free experiences, and scan-based solutions. The goal wasn’t to copy competitors, but to understand what consistently works and where users struggle. This helped us design a return process flow that combined the best elements of each competitor while avoiding known pitfalls.

UX Strategy | Key Design Decisions

Some of the decisions I made from a UX and design perspective.

UX Strategy (Desktop Web)

Fewer steps than mobile

  • Combine steps to streamline the flow without increasing cognitive load.

Group related decisions

  • Show connected choices together to reduce context switching.

Keep context visible

  • Keep plan details in view while users make choices.

Key Design Decisions

Live plan preview during setup

  • Show the impact of changes in real time (summary section).

Clear primary CTA hierarchy

  • One obvious next step per screen.

Combine info screens + action screens

  • Let users learn and act at the same time to reduce friction and increase context.

Trade-offs

What I chose, what I traded away, and why?

Every meaningful design decision involves a tradeoff. Here's an honest account of the key choices. What I prioritised, what I gave up, and the reasoning that drove each one.

Prototype & Usability Testing

Users

  • Mix of first time investors and experienced investors.

    Test goals

  • Can users find Investment Plans on web?

  • Can users set up a plan without guidance?

  • Can users modify an existing plan?

View Prototype

View Prototype

Outcome & Reflection

In seven days: a complete zero-to-one design for Investment Plans on BUX Web, three fully mapped user flows, five high-fidelity key screens, a tested and iterated prototype, and a desktop-native experience that preserves cross-platform consistency with mobile.

AI Utilisation

With a seven-day timeline, AI tools were used deliberately to accelerate without compromising design quality. Here's where they were genuinely useful — and what remained human design work throughout.

The first step was to conduct interviews to gain insights into various user preferences, pain points and any possible return habits. This research allowed us to identify what users value the most, such as a simple and quick return process that most likely required the least amount of steps. The people interviewed were a mix of users who returned more than 4 items a month and users who were new to returning items especially from townships.

Shaping thinking & exploration

  • Quickly explored multiple design directions and user flow variants

  • Compared different web flow approaches against existing mobile patterns to find the best fit for desktop

Improving clarity & iteration speed

  • Accelerated design iteration — generating and refining multiple UI variations quickly

  • Translated user feedback into clearer design directions

  • Generated concise, user-friendly copy alternatives for complex investing language

Supporting plan understanding

  • Iterated on copy to better explain plans, setup steps, and management actions

  • Refined reassurance and confirmation copy to reduce fear around committing or modifying plans

Design Decisions & Tradeoffs

What I chose, what I traded away, and why?

Every meaningful design decision involves a tradeoff. Here's an honest account of the key choices — what I prioritised, what I gave up, and the reasoning that drove each one.

AI Utilisation

With a seven-day timeline, AI tools were used deliberately to accelerate without compromising design quality. Here's where they were genuinely useful — and what remained human design work throughout.

Shaping thinking & exploration

  • Quickly explored multiple design directions and user flow variants

  • Compared different web flow approaches against existing mobile patterns to find the best fit for desktop

Improving clarity & iteration speed

  • Accelerated design iteration — generating and refining multiple UI variations quickly

  • Translated user feedback into clearer design directions

  • Generated concise, user-friendly copy alternatives for complex investing language

Supporting plan understanding

  • Iterated on copy to better explain plans, setup steps, and management actions

  • Refined reassurance and confirmation copy to reduce fear around committing or modifying plans

Prototype & Usability Testing

Users

  • Mix of first time investors and experienced investors.

    Test goals

  • Can users find Investment Plans on web?

  • Can users set up a plan without guidance?

  • Can users modify an existing plan?

View Prototype

Cameron Preston

Netherlands

prestoncameron27@gmail.com

0617317665

Cameron Preston

Cameron Preston

Netherlands

prestoncameron27@gmail.com

0617317665

Cameron Preston