Aethelgard
Wealth-Flow Platform
UX/UI Designer
2025
Aethelgard is a live wealth-flow platform. Its sign-in experience establishes a refined, heritage-led identity: a gold icosahedron mark on a black disc, a cool light-grey canvas, and deep-navy type, signalling precision and stewardship in personal finance.
UX/UI Designer
2025
Aethelgard is a live wealth-flow platform. Its sign-in experience establishes a refined, heritage-led identity: a gold icosahedron mark on a black disc, a cool light-grey canvas, and deep-navy type, signalling precision and stewardship in personal finance.
Project introduction
Aethelgard is a live wealth-flow platform. Its sign-in experience establishes a refined, heritage-led identity: a gold icosahedron mark on a black disc, a cool light-grey canvas, and deep-navy type, signalling precision and stewardship in personal finance.
The problem
Observed problem: personal finance tools split a person's full financial picture across investment, banking and debt dashboards, so planning feels reactive and opaque. Hypothesis: a single, calm surface for wealth flow could reduce that fragmentation. This framing reflects analysis of the product's intent, not formal user research.
Discovery and research
Available evidence: the live application's sign-in and onboarding experience, and its production brand and visual system. No interview transcripts, survey data, or usability test reports have been provided for this case study.
Proposed research: 5 to 8 discovery interviews with professionals managing multiple accounts; a competitive audit of 3 to 5 wealth platforms; a moderated usability test of onboarding and the wealth-overview flow with 5 to 8 participants; a baseline time-to-first-insight measurement before any redesign.
Design rationale (no formal research documented): the product treats trust, not feature density, as the core need, so the system prioritises a restrained, heritage-led visual language over dashboard maximalism. Structure was sketched for onboarding, account linking, and the wealth-flow overview, iterating toward lower cognitive load: one primary metric per view, progressive disclosure of detail, and consistent navigation. The high-fidelity system applies gold-on-black, a 12-column grid, and a fixed 8pt spacing scale.
User personas
Illustrative personas, reconstructed to communicate target users. Not research-validated.
Marcus
Mid-career professional, 38"I want to see the whole picture without feeling sold to."
Marcus manages a salary, a brokerage account, and a mortgage across three institutions. He checks finance weekly but distrusts apps that push products.
- · See net wealth flow in one view
- · Understand monthly movement without spreadsheets
- · Plan without being marketed to
- · Tools that fragment his accounts
- · Gamified streaks and nudges
Priya
Founder planning for family, 34"Stewardship, not speculation."
Priya runs a small business and is building intergenerational wealth. She values clarity and long-term framing over quick wins.
- · Frame decisions around decades, not days
- · Track liabilities alongside assets
- · Share a clear picture with her advisor
- · Dashboards that ignore debt
- · Anxiety-inducing red and green volatility
User journey map
Illustrative journey map, reconstructed from the intended product flow.
A user authenticates, links accounts through a guided flow, and lands on the wealth-flow overview (net position and monthly flow), then drills into any stream (income, holdings, liabilities), adjusts time horizons, and sets stewardship goals. Reconstructed from the intended product flow.
Sign in
Authenticates with reassurance
"Is this safe?"
NeutralLink accounts
Guided connection flow
"I hope this is not a maze"
FrustratedWealth overview
Sees net position and flow
"Finally, the whole picture"
PositiveDrill down
Explores a stream
"I can actually understand this"
PositiveSet goal
Defines a stewardship goal
"I feel in control"
PositiveInformation architecture
Product structure reconstructed from the intended navigation and flows.
- · Sign-in
- · Account linking
- · Wealth-flow overview
- · Income
- · Holdings
- · Liabilities
- · Stewardship goals
- · Time horizons
Low-fidelity wireframes
Retrospective wireframe reconstruction based on the product's structure, not original pre-build artifacts.
High-fidelity UI
Reconstructed UI representation. Real screenshots from the live app are to be supplied.
These frames are on-brand reconstructions. Authentic screenshots from the live application will replace them once supplied.
In context
A mix of mobile, tablet, and web views showing how the product lives across devices.
Design system
Ink
#0B1120
Primary text
Gold
#C5A059
Accent and mark
Canvas
#F4F7F9
Background
Surface
#FFFFFF
Cards and inputs
Display - 8xl, light, tracking-tighter
Heading - 3xl, light
Body - lg/xl, relaxed
Label - mono xs, uppercase, tracking-widest
8pt base unit; 12-column grid; 0px corner radius
- · Primary button - ink fill, mono label
- · Secondary button - hairline outline
- · Input - surface fill, hairline border
- · Card - surface, hairline
- · Bottom tab bar
Design decisions and trade-offs
Problem: a fragmented financial picture causes planning anxiety. Decision: lead with one composed overview (a single hero figure plus supporting context) instead of a wall of widgets, and default every chart to its simplest honest representation with richer views on demand. Implementation: gold-on-black mark, deep-navy type on a cool light canvas, 12-column grid, 8pt spacing, 0px radius. Expected effect: lower cognitive load per view; trust signalled through restraint rather than gamified urgency. Trade-off: density-seeking users must drill in for detail, accepted in exchange for a calmer default.
Product demonstration
TaskSign in and reach the wealth-flow overview
- 01
Authenticate at the sign-in screen.
- 02
Link accounts through the guided flow.
- 03
Land on the wealth-flow overview showing net position and monthly flow.
- 04
Drill into a stream to inspect detail.
Outcomes and reflection
- 01
Sign-in and authentication (visible in the live app)
- 02
Guided account-linking and onboarding
- 03
Wealth-flow overview
- 01
Case study is based on the public sign-in experience; a full feature audit of the live app is pending.
- 02
No formal usability testing has been documented.
- 03
Deeper dashboard and stream features require verification against the live app.
- 01
Run the proposed research plan and baseline time-to-first-insight.
- 02
Add an accessible high-contrast mode for the dashboard.
- 03
Validate data-visualisation readability with low-vision users.
The strongest lever here was restraint: treating trust as the core need and choosing a calm, heritage-led system over dashboard maximalism. The open question is whether the single-hero-figure overview scales as account complexity grows, something only testing can answer.
What people say
Awaiting testimonialsReal client and collaborator testimonials will appear here once supplied. Add them to a project as a testimonials array.