Valmex

Role

UX Designer, Workshop Facilitator, Wire framing and Prototyping

Tools

Figma, Design Sprint

Try prototype

About the project

The client

Valmex is a leading brokerage firm in northern Mexico, providing services to corporate employees, such as savings funds, payroll loans, and retirement pension management. Valmex was looking to revamp the user experience and visuals of its web platform.

The Problem

The old Valmex platform contains flows, menus, and screens that are not user-friendly, with little information structure for presenting reports beyond a list of transactions, and very hidden forms for requests, without any guidance or tutorial to navigate the platform. This led to frustration among users who did not know how to make requests for their products, and they ended up overwhelming a phone support system that could not handle all user requests.

The solution

Run a design sprint workshop with the stakeholders to know their point of view about the current platform, expect the current platform with them in real time so we understand and map all the user flows while highlight the key needs of the new version of the platform Valmex Si, while designing a new version of the platform that achieve stakeholders concerns and goals

Design workshop

Analysis

Filtered workshop

See the filtered workshop on Figma

Chore findings

While some of the stakeholders' concerns and interests were defined as technical issues regarding the platform's performance, many of them could be resolved or improved through good experience design, UI, and copywriting. Once identified, we prioritized them and defined priorities for the workshop time.

Design Solutions

Look & feel of the platform, overall UI and copywriting

One of the main issues was the lack of consistency in the design, which was neither appealing nor user-friendly. As we developed the core functions, we began to implement and adapt a design system for the platform, while also redefining how to communicate the key concepts of the platform and the possible actions. Additionally, we used a color system to identify products in a more visual and accessible way.

Difficulty to understand the transactions

Since this was a financial portal, is key to the user to understand quick and easy the information about the balance of his account, which movements have been made, and also been one of the products a pension plan, user needs to know the returns of their investments. For this we redesign the movements list and complement it with a graphic of the las months solving a key concern this way.

More stable navigation

One problem their platform has, was that navigation menus where not descriptive nor easy to understand, leading to hard to find options and get lose about which page the user is currently. We approach this problem by splitting the platform by product, and adding an action menu for the product specific actions, making more visual where the user is at any moment and which options he have in the platform. Also we group the User and Valmex configuration options under the user menu as any modern platform would do it

Digitalization and automatization of request

For this point we design a section where the user can create a new request for a product and see the status of them. We focus in the visual access to this section from the product view, and offering more information to the process of making a request.

Easier transaction query and download

For this pain point, users complain that the query settings were not accessible, emphasizing the understanding of the filters and the view of the transactions, being unable to clearly identify the type of transaction. Additionally, to download these query's, it had to be done from another section, causing confusion of the flow for the user. In the new version, we packaged the queries and downloads section into one area, with a simple search form and improved visualization to better identify each transaction type made in the time selected by the user.

Easier user product configuration

For this concerns, we focus on the accessibility, putting all the efforts in the right translations of the technical financial terms to the regular users, also making the process straight forward possible so making a configuration request could be the easier possible. This process didn’t have a digital experience so we went with our experiences for this proposal.

Challenges and learnings

Different areas have different concerns

En este workshop participaron stakeholders de tres áreas clave: marketing, experiencia del cliente y digitalización de servicios. Cada uno llegó con sus propias expectativas, preocupaciones e ideas sobre lo que era más importante en la plataforma. Como suele pasar en estos casos, sus puntos de vista no siempre coincidían, y eso generó tensiones que desviaron un poco la dinámica del ejercicio respecto a los objetivos iniciales.
Como facilitadores, nos vimos en la necesidad de equilibrar esas distintas perspectivas en tiempo real. Aunque esto hizo que el proceso fuera menos eficiente desde el punto de vista metodológico, fue valioso para el cliente: permitió que cada área se sintiera escuchada y representada en las decisiones clave del diseño. Esta apertura al diálogo y a la negociación nos llevó a tomar decisiones conscientes sobre qué debía entrar en esta primera versión y qué podía dejarse para futuras iteraciones. Aunque el compromiso afectó un poco los tiempos que teníamos previstos para el prototipo, logramos cumplir con las expectativas de todos los participantes. El resultado fue un entregable que, si bien no resolvía todo al 100%, sí cubría los puntos esenciales de cada equipo y dejaba una base sólida para seguir construyendo a futuro.

Workshop efficiency

These types of design exercises tend to be intense and somewhat burdensome for the design team. They require a lot of concentration, quick decision-making, and the ability to adapt on the fly. It's not easy. However, what you gain in return is well worth the effort.
During this exercise, I could see how it not only involved the design team but also actively engaged the stakeholders. With everyone figuratively at the same table, questions could be resolved, expectations aligned, and key decisions made on the spot, without the friction that traditional processes sometimes create, where validations and iterations often come with a "it's ok" or "I don't like it" from the stakeholders.
Beyond the immediate results, these types of dynamics have added value: they make design more accessible and understandable for non-technical profiles. Stakeholders feel part of the process, better understand the "why" behind each decision, and this helps design ideas to be validated faster and with more confidence. In this sense, UX design stops being an "add-on" and becomes a strategic, visible, and valued tool within the project and for the stakeholders.