CurrencyGram
A UK-based banking & global money-transfer app — mobile + web
Overview
CurrencyGram is a UK-licensed banking and international money-transfer platform — a Wise / Revolut-class product designed end-to-end at Orcalo Holdings. I led product design across the mobile app, web dashboard, and three account variants (Personal, Business, Student), shipping 600+ screens covering account flows, multi-currency wallets, card management, savings vaults, and a complete back-office for compliance and treasury teams.
The Problem
Cross-border money movement for the UK diaspora is still split across half a dozen apps — Wise for transfers, Monzo for spending, a high-street bank for receiving, a separate card for travel. Each adds onboarding, KYC, fees, and a different mental model. CurrencyGram needed to consolidate everyday banking, multi-currency holding, international transfers, group payments, and card spending into one trustworthy product — without the cognitive load of a traditional bank.
The Goal
Design a complete banking and remittance experience that any UK resident — student, freelancer, business owner, or family-supporter abroad — can master in under 5 minutes; reduce average send-money time to under 60 seconds; and build a visual system rigorous enough to support 600+ screens across three account variants without inconsistency.
Design Screens
Key interfaces
Design Process
How I approached it
Discovery & Compliance Research
Mapped the UK FCA payment-services regulatory landscape with the compliance team. Interviewed 22 users across the three target segments — students sending money home, freelancers receiving multi-currency payments, and small businesses paying overseas contractors. Audited 6 competitors (Wise, Revolut, Monzo, Starling, Western Union, Remitly) and catalogued 130+ feature interactions to find the gaps.
Information Architecture
Three account variants meant three IAs that had to feel like one product. Designed a unified hub structure — Home, Cards, Send/Transfer, Safe Box, Profile — with conditional modules that only surface for the relevant account type (Bulk Payment for Business, Discounts for Student, Donations for Personal). Validated through tree testing with 18 participants.
Design System & Flows
Built CurrencyGram's design system around a confident navy + electric blue identity (chosen to feel both trustworthy and tech-forward). Designed 600+ screens covering Send Money (6 variants — CurrencyGram, Bank Transfer, International, By Link, QR, Donation), Card management (Virtual, Physical, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Set Limits, Replace, Cancel), Safe Box savings vault with auto-round-up and goal tracking, ChipIn split-bill, Personalised Gifts, Account Statement, and the full web dashboard for business treasury.
Test, Iterate & Handoff
Ran 4 rounds of moderated usability testing — KYC onboarding, first send-money, card activation, and the Safe Box round-up flow. Key changes from research: collapsed the Personal sign-up from 9 to 5 screens, added biometric-locked PIN reset, and rebuilt the international-transfer rate confirmation to clarify exchange margin and FX timing in plain English.
Research Findings
Key insights
Trust signals had to appear in the first 3 seconds — a clear FCA licence badge, the £ balance prominently in GBP, and a verified-account check on the home screen reduced first-week abandonment by 28% in testing.
Send-money users abandoned when they couldn't see the final received amount before confirming. The fix — showing 'You send / They receive' both ways with a locked exchange rate — became the single most-praised interaction in feedback.
Three account variants tempted us to fork the design system. Resisting that and instead surfacing modules conditionally kept code, testing, and visual consistency tight across 600+ screens.
Safe Box round-up needed to feel like a game, not a finance feature. Animated progress rings on every deposit and weekly goal nudges drove higher engagement than any push notification campaign.
Outcome
The result
Delivered the complete CurrencyGram product to Orcalo Holdings — 600+ launch-ready screens, a fully documented design system, three account variants, and a back-office web dashboard. The brief that started as 'a money-transfer app' shipped as a full banking-class product, approved in a single review cycle and handed off to engineering with annotated specs and a working prototype.