Fintech / Product Designer

Case Study: Personalisation of the Investments Dashboard

Context

ING

ING is one of Europe’s leading digital banks with 37M+ customers in 40+ markets. Known for its mobile-first approach, the bank has expanded its app to include digital investing – making ETFs, stocks, and funds easy to manage in one place.

Role

  • Benchmarked dashboards from competitors

  • I created the first UX flows for dashboard personalisation.

  • High-fidelity

  • Refined UI with support from second

Project Length

March - June 2025

Team

Myself, 1 UX Designer, Product Owner, Accessibility specialists

Problem Statment

The dashboard was meant to guide every investor. But instead, it left beginners drowning in complexity and experts stuck with too little flexibility. Both felt it wasn’t made for them.

From a survey with 342 participants:

  • 56 of users said the dashboard feels too complex and overwhelming.

  • Other respondents also mentioned that the navigation is not intuitive, making it difficult to find relevant information quickly.

Context

What is the Investments Dashboard?

The Investments Dashboard is the central hub within the ING app where User can view and manage their investments.
It brings together key elements such as:

  • Depots & account balances

  • Watchlists for tracking securities

  • Price alerts and notifications

  • Market news & insights

The dashboard is designed to give customers a comprehensive overview of their financial position at a glance.

Research & Insights

NPS Benchmark (Bain & Company, 2024)

  • Fintech challengers such as Revolut and N26 achieved an average NPS of +45, with ease of use and personalisation cited as top reasons for recommendation.

  • Traditional direct banks, including ING and Comdirect, scored significantly lower with an average NPS of +15, with common complaints around complexity.

  • Across fintech users, those who actively personalised their dashboards were 2x more likely to be promoters (NPS 9–10).

Desk Research – Key Trends

As part of our desk research, we explored both market trends and competitor approaches in the investment space. A few clear themes emerged:

  • Complexity in dashboards
    Many traditional banks present static dashboards that overwhelm users with too much information at once.

  • Rise of personalisation
    Fintech challengers like Revolut and N26 differentiate themselves through personalised and modular experiences, giving users more control over what they see.

  • Familiar interaction patterns
    Users are already accustomed to widgets and shortcuts from iOS and Android, suggesting that similar patterns could reduce friction in financial apps.

  • Dynamic recommendations as a trend
    Leading fintechs use tailored content (e.g., trending stocks, personalised news) to increase engagement and make dashboards feel more relevant

What’s the gap?

Our research showed a clear disconnect:

The gap lies in the ability of banks to deliver dynamic, personalised, and user-friendly experiences. Closing this gap is key to driving customer satisfaction and long-term engagement.

  • No room for choice: Unlike fintechs, users cannot shape what they see — no widgets, shortcuts, or onboarding that adapts to their needs.

  • Engagement is missed: Without personalisation, dashboards feel static and impersonal, pushing users away instead of drawing them in.

  • The result is a performance gap: Fintechs like N26 and Revolut achieve an NPS of +45, while direct banks remain at +15 — a reflection of simplicity and control that users value.

Improved Personalisation

To enhance the user experience and address diverse needs, I have designed a set of personalisation features that allow users to tailor the interface to their individual preferences. The focus is on giving users more control, improving efficiency, and creating a more engaging and relevant environment. Here are the specific areas of improvement:

  1. Shortcuts & Widgets: Quick access to frequently used functions through customizable widgets and shortcuts. This ensures that users can reach their most relevant tools and information without unnecessary steps.

  2. Styling Modes: Multiple design modes (Minimal, Modern, or Colorful) allow users to choose the look and feel that best suits their style, ensuring a visually pleasing and adaptable interface.

  3. Onboarding Personalisation: A setup flow that guides users through personalisation options from day one. This empowers them to highlight what is most relevant to their individual needs right at the beginning.

  4. Dynamic Recommendations: Contextual suggestions powered by user activity and preferences, providing relevant content, updates, and recommendations that evolve over time.

By implementing these features, the design moves towards a more user-centric and flexible system. This ensures that different user groups feel supported, engaged, and in control of their digital experience.

Sorting & Hiding 

To enhance the user experience and address the pain points, a key focus is on optimizing the Afro hair care consultation process. This involves redefining representation and improving information delivery. Here are the specific improvements.

Diverse Selection: The product range will be expanded to include a broader variety of Afro hair care products, covering various categories such as shampoos, conditioners, styling products, and treatments.

Black-Owned Brands: Emphasis will be placed on partnering with black-owned brands, showcasing their products and supporting their businesses. This not only provides users with more options but also promotes inclusivity and empowerment within the Afro hair care community.

The expansion of the product range, with a focus on black-owned brands, aims to provide users with a comprehensive selection of high-quality Afro hair care products that meet their diverse needs. It promotes representation, inclusivity, and supports businesses within the community.

Hair Icons:These icons provide visual cues that help users quickly identify and select the products that are most relevant to their hair needs. With the inclusion of these hair icons, navigating the website becomes even more intuitive, allowing for quicker and more efficient access to the desired products.

Styling

Redefining Representation: The consultation image is redesigned to feature an African woman, ensuring better representation and relatability for users with Afro-textured hair.

Information Delivery: Tailored advice and information is provided specifically for Afro hair care. This will cover topics such as hair care routines, product recommendations, and styling techniques, catering to the unique needs of individuals with Afro-textured hair.

By implementing these optimizations, the goal is to provide a more inclusive and personalized consultation experience for users seeking Afro hair care guidance on the DM website.


I have implemented improvements to the website's navigation, ensuring a more efficient and user-friendly experience. One notable enhancement is the integration of hair icons, which greatly aids in better categorizing products based on specific hair types, including Afro-textured hair.

To address the limited variety of Afro hair care products, an expansion of the product range is proposed. The focus is on offering a diverse selection from black-owned brands, ensuring representation and catering to the specific needs of users. Here are the details of the expanded product range.

Shortcuts

Widgets 

To enhance the user experience and address the pain points, a key focus is on optimizing the Afro hair care consultation process. This involves redefining representation and improving information delivery. Here are the specific improvements.

Redefining Representation: The consultation image is redesigned to feature an African woman, ensuring better representation and relatability for users with Afro-textured hair.

Information Delivery: Tailored advice and information is provided specifically for Afro hair care. This will cover topics such as hair care routines, product recommendations, and styling techniques, catering to the unique needs of individuals with Afro-textured hair.

By implementing these optimizations, the goal is to provide a more inclusive and personalized consultation experience for users seeking Afro hair care guidance on the DM website.

Context

Why are this improvments nessescariy?

The Challenge
Beginners often felt overwhelmed by too much data, while experienced investors were frustrated by the lack of flexibility. Both groups felt less in control of their investment journey.

The Opportunity
Personalisation was the key to making the dashboard relevant for everyone: simple and confidence-building for newcomers, powerful and customisable for advanced users.

The Goal & Impact
By closing the gap with fintechs like Revolut and N26, ING could increase satisfaction, strengthen retention, and turn the dashboard into a trusted daily hub for investing.

refection 

This project showed me how personalisation features can empower users and improve engagement. in the time where living now banks is nesscarity be as transperant an dclear und personl is can be. Fincal healrh is the most imporstant this what people in investeloooking dor . say somthing the time i had aat ing was inspricla that banking aas moire infmaooca data about peoele ist great to okmüpower them I learned to design scalable, modular dashboard systems for diverse needs.