Risevest

Senior product designer620K+ users2025 · Fintech

Redesigned the mobile app for an investment platform used by 620,000+ people across Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. As one of three designers, I owned onboarding, the dashboard and withdrawals: the moments that decide whether people trust an app with their savings.

Role: Senior product designer, one of three
Timeline: 2025
Team: 3 designers, 6 engineers, 2 PMs
Scope: End-to-end mobile app redesign

620K+Active users

34→58%Onboarding completion

6→2Taps to withdraw

94%Customer satisfaction

Risevest app: onboarding, home and review screens

Part one

The product and the redesign

What Risevest is, the constraint we worked under, and the flows I owned.

Overview

An app people trust with their savings

Risevest lets people in emerging markets invest in dollar-denominated assets (U.S. stocks, real estate and fixed income) from a phone. Where inflation steadily erodes local currency, it’s how everyday people protect what they’ve saved. People keep wedding funds and school fees in this app, so confusion isn’t a usability issue. It’s a trust issue.

I was one of three designers on a full redesign, working with two product managers and six engineers. The hard constraint was full feature parity: nothing could be removed while everything was rethought.

What I designed

Every core flow, onboarding to withdrawal

I contributed across the whole app and led the three flows where trust is won or lost.

Welcome screen — 01Welcome
A calm first screen that says what Rise does before asking for anything.

Setup guide screen — 02Setup guide
A progressive checklist (verify ID, add money, create a plan) that explains why each step matters.
*34% → 58% completion*

Home screen — 03Home
Total balance, the next step and quick actions on one screen instead of across tabs.

Auto-fund screen — 04Auto-fund
Plans, card and wallet funding in one list, each with a clear on or off.

Wallet screen — 05Wallet
Funding, multi-currency accounts and linked cards in one place, with the balance shown before any transfer.

Plan matured screen — 06Plan matured
The moment a plan pays out: balance, gains and the next step, with reinvesting offered first.

Withdraw screen — 07Withdraw
Amount, exchange rate and fee before confirming. No surprises after.
*6 → 2 taps to withdraw*

Review screen — 08Review
Projections and the starting settings, with the risk stated before agreeing.

Part two

Deep dive: making money legible

Why people couldn’t read their own portfolio, and the three calls that fixed it.

The problem

People had money in the app and couldn’t read it

Investing worked. Understanding didn’t. Checking a balance took several taps, performance meant mental math, and withdrawing felt like a maze. For a product that holds savings, friction reads as risk.

The two answers people want, on different tabs

Onboard

Every requirement asked upfront, with no reason given.

66%never finished setup

Check the balance

Several taps through unclear navigation.

4+taps for routine tasks

Read performance

Raw figures that needed mental maths.

22sto answer “how am I doing?”

Withdraw

Three screens to move money out.

6taps to withdraw

66%never finished setup

4+taps for routine tasks

22sto answer “how am I doing?”

6taps to withdraw

My role

Onboarding, dashboard and withdrawals

With three designers on the redesign, I owned the flows that decide trust: the first five minutes, the home screen, and getting money out.

What I owned

Research through spec

Interviews, task timing, the competitive review, flows, prototypes and specs for my areas.

Constraint

Full feature parity

Every feature had to survive, so simplicity had to come from structure, not removal.

What we learned

Users struggled with complexity, not investing

We interviewed users, timed core tasks, and compared Risevest with the simpler apps people also used.

Interviews

“Make it simpler”

The most common request. People wanted to check a balance and leave in under ten seconds.

Task timing

22 seconds to see performance

Withdrawing took 6 taps across 3 screens.

Competitive review

Simpler rivals, better completion

Cowrywise and Bamboo had fewer features and faster core flows. Every Risevest addition made it harder.

The insight

People didn’t need more features. They needed answers to “how am I doing?” and “can I get my money?” on the first screen.

Key decisions & trade-offs

Three calls that made the app feel safe

Decision 01

Answer “how am I doing?” before anything else

The call

Total balance and portfolio summary on the home screen. Individual plans open only when someone taps in.

The trade-off

A card per plan looked tidy and tested poorly: people with five or more plans couldn’t see their total. Aggregating first and expanding on demand put the one answer everyone wanted on the first screen.

Risevest home screen with total balance, and the portfolio view

Decision 02

Show risk as shape, not numbers

The call

A colour-coded asset mix with risk cues. Each class keeps one colour everywhere, and any segment opens its performance.

The trade-off

Tables were precise and unreadable for first-time investors. A chart gives up some precision at a glance and wins comprehension, and the exact numbers are one tap away.

Risevest portfolio breakdown with the colour-coded asset mix

Decision 03

Invest in the system, not the screens

The call

One design system, so people learn an interaction once and it behaves the same everywhere.

The trade-off

Patching screens would have shipped sooner. With full feature parity, simplicity couldn’t come from removing things. It had to come from consistency, and in fintech, predictable reads as trustworthy.

Redesigned Risevest wallet, bank account and plan screens

Before vs. after

What changed for investors

Before

After

Key numbers hidden behind taps→The whole position on the home screen

Raw figures, no risk cues→Colour-coded asset mix with risk levels

A different pattern on every screen→One system across the app

4 to 6 taps for core tasks→1 to 2 taps

34% onboarding completion→58% onboarding completion

Outcome

Less friction, more confidence

34→58%

Onboarding completion

From sign-up to a first funded plan.

Before34%

After58%

6→2

Taps to withdraw

Three screens down to one.

↓40%

Support friction

With in-app chat and shake to chat.

94%

App-wide satisfaction

Measured across the whole app after launch, not the redesign alone.

Core tasks went from four to six taps to one or two. People reported feeling more in control, not because we added features, but because we removed friction from every interaction.

Reflection

In fintech, simplicity is safety.

If I did this again, I’d put real users in front of prototypes in week two, not week six. Early reviews with internal stakeholders pulled us toward feature completeness, and we found the onboarding friction later than we should have.

Credits

Risevest product teamProduct management

Risevest brand teamBrand design

Engineering6 engineers

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