Design System
Higlobe
Client
Higlobe
Industry
Fintech / International payments
Role
UX/UI Designer
Year
2022
Services
Product design, UX/UI design, Design system
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, After Effects
Easy on the surface, a design system underneath.
Higlobe is a fintech platform that moves money between US companies and the international professionals they work with. I joined in the very early days as an occasional freelancer. Thanks to my experience building fintech products, they asked me to come on full-time and build the product and the design system behind it.
Money across borders comes with forms, identity checks and compliance, and every extra step is a chance to lose someone. Onboarding asked for more than 12 steps before anyone saw any value. And with a small team shipping fast, the product needed one shared language between design and engineering before inconsistency set in.
My rule: if the tech can do the heavy lifting, it should, and the user only steps in when it's strictly necessary. That's what makes a product feel like magic, and it took onboarding from more than 12 steps to 4. For KYC, people kept getting stuck: the instructions were written, but nobody wanted to read them. So I added animations that show exactly what to do, right where it happens. Underneath it all, I built the design system side by side with engineering: detailed documentation in Figma, constant feedback and regular progress check-ins.
A design system Higlobe still builds on today, confirmed by my former lead.
Onboarding reduced from 12+ steps to 4.
Animated KYC steps that show people exactly what to do, so they stopped getting stuck and finished verification.
Every flow tested with real users in Mexico and Brazil.
A UX that has since expanded to many more markets on the same foundations.
The process
From freelancer to full-time
I started as an occasional freelancer. Higlobe needed someone who already knew how fintech products work, so the side gig became a full-time job: build the product and the system behind it.
12 steps to 4
Every extra onboarding step is a chance to lose someone. My rule was simple: let the tech do the heavy lifting, and only ask the user when it’s strictly necessary. I questioned each step until four were left, without skipping anything the business or compliance actually needed.
KYC without the cold sweat
People were complaining: they couldn’t finish the identity checks and didn’t understand what was wrong. The instructions were right there, but nobody wanted to read them. So I added animations that walk through exactly what to do, step by step, right where it happens. People stopped getting stuck and got through. Every flow was tested with real users in Mexico and Brazil, and the CX team kept the feedback coming.
A system that outlasted me
Before AI workflows, a design system lived on collaboration: detailed documentation in Figma, constant feedback with engineering and regular progress meetings. Its job was to make consistency the default. Years later, Higlobe still builds on it, across new products and many more markets.
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