Project: Full redesign of Trade de Valor’s web platform and mobile app Duration: 2 years (yes, what was supposed to be 10 months turned into a beautiful UX odyssey) Goal: Elevate the user experience, simplify complex investment content, and align the digital product with current market expectations and visual standards.

I relied heavily on market research, behavioral trends, and competitive benchmarking to map what users actually need — even if they never told me directly.

I analyzed:

How direct and indirect competitors structure their platforms

Global trends in fintech and digital investment tools

Behavioral insights from market reports and digital behavior studies

Internal usage data (because sometimes, heatmaps speak louder than words)

This helped me build mental models of our users and understand their expectations, frustrations, and secret UX dreams.

Before creating anything new, I needed to understand what was (and wasn’t) working. So I put on my detective hat and got into the weeds of the old system.

Heuristic evaluation: the classic Nielsen stuff — because rules exist for a reason.

Heatmaps: to see where users were clicking, hesitating, or totally ignoring everything (ouch).

The Data-Ink Ratio (Edward Tufte’s legacy): used to strip out unnecessary visual noise and focus on the core — what truly matters to the user. Goodbye shiny gradients, hello clarity.

This phase revealed a lot of “dead zones” in the interface and helped guide decisions about layout, hierarchy, and content prioritization.

Before: Heatmap analysis of the original interface

Armed with market insight and behavioral data, I rebuilt the information structure from scratch:

Created clear, logical user flows to reduce cognitive load

Restructured the navigation to reflect real user priorities (not internal org charts)

Built content hierarchies that matched the mental models of both novice and experienced investors

“If a user has to think about where to go, the design has already failed.”

This was not just a visual refresh — it was a design renaissance.

Built a design system from the ground up to ensure consistency, scalability, and easier handoff to devs

Applied data visualization best practices for dashboards and performance insights

Focused on accessible and responsive components, supporting both light and dark modes (because everyone has a side)

Kept everything aligned with the Data-Ink mindset — decluttered, minimal, and focused on meaning

Although we didn’t run formal user testing, the iterative process was alive and well:

Reviews with client and team

Design critiques with the internal design/dev team

Feedback loops from client-facing teams who interacted with real users daily

Constant alignment to technical feasibility and business objectives

Turns out, internal alignment can be just as valuable as user testing — if you listen the right way.

After launch, we saw noticeable improvements:

Increased time on page and engagement with key investment tools

More intuitive onboarding, especially for first-time investors

And the team finally had a design system they were proud to maintain

It wasn’t just a redesign. It was a shift in how the company saw and delivered value through product.

Good design takes time — and that’s okay. Growth isn’t linear, and great ideas need breathing room.

You don’t always need a user lab if you know where to look. Market intelligence and indirect data can tell you a lot.

Design isn’t decoration — it’s strategy. And when it aligns with business goals, everyone wins.