ING’s investment area showed everything at once: funds, pensions, returns and fees in dense tables. Customers could read the numbers but could not answer the only question they had — am I doing well?
The solution
A visual, layered investment area for web and app where performance is understood at a glance and detail is available on demand.
Timeline
5 months (May – Sep 2024)
The team
Cala Largacha – UX/UI Designer (intern)
ING in-house design team
Investment product owners
Front-end engineering
ING Bank investment area web and app mockupDrop image here
Investment Area – ING Bank — key screens.
How might we turn dense financial data into a story customers can follow over years?
The investment area needed to work for people who check once a month, not for analysts. We redesigned it around comprehension: clear hierarchy, visual performance, and progressive detail.
🏢 Business problem
Low engagement with the investment area meant customers rarely reviewed or grew their portfolios, and support handled repetitive questions about returns and fees.
👤 User problem
Customers were overwhelmed by tables and terminology. Without context, a number on the screen carried no meaning, so they left without acting.
I worked inside the ING design team on the investment area for both web and app, from research synthesis to final UI.
•Audited the existing investment screens across web and app
•Ran usability sessions with customers of different investing experience
•Restructured the information hierarchy around comprehension, not completeness
•Designed data visualisations for performance, allocation and pensions
•Contributed accessible components back to the ING design system
User research
“Confidence, not curiosity, drives people back.”
Usability sessions across novice and experienced investors showed the same behaviour: people scanned for one reassuring signal. Experienced users then wanted depth; novices wanted an explanation in words, not percentages.
ING research findings boardDrop image here
Journey map
“Check-in, understand, decide, forget.”
The journey is cyclical and infrequent. Mapping it revealed that each visit must re-orient the customer from scratch, which pushed us towards a summary-first layout with a consistent entry point.
ING investment journey mapDrop image here
Product thinking
“Summary first, detail on demand.”
The area opens with total value, evolution and a plain-language reading of performance. Funds, pensions and fees sit one level deeper for those who want them.
ING information architecture diagramDrop image here
“One visual language for money over time.”
Charts, colours and labels were unified across products, so a pension and a fund are read with the same mental model on web and app.
ING data visualisation systemDrop image here
Design + iterations
“Testing three levels of density.”
We prototyped a minimal, a balanced and a data-rich version. The balanced one won: a strong headline figure with expandable breakdowns.
ING wireframe iterationsDrop image here
“Responsive from app to desktop.”
Final designs adapted the same hierarchy to mobile-first consumption, keeping contrast, focus order and screen-reader labels intact.
ING final investment area designsDrop image here
Outcomes and impact
Customers in testing described their performance correctly and unprompted, something the previous version rarely achieved. The visual system was adopted for further investment screens.
Personal reflection
Coming from a business background, I loved this one: it was the moment where analysis and design met. Making numbers understandable is a design craft in itself.
Want the full walkthrough?
Happy to walk you through the research, the iterations and the final screens in detail.