Challenge
From Acquire to Shakepay
As my journey at Acquire came to an end with the company winding down, I decided to take a different path and join a very different kind of startup: Shakepay, a crypto exchange with a social twist. I was drawn to how they were doing things differently. There was a strong community vibe, and a scrappy team pushing boundaries in fintech.
I was brought in to lead design. What excited me most was the opportunity to touch every aspect of design, not just product, but also brand, marketing, and content. That breadth has always been important to me.
After a few months, we kicked off the company’s biggest product transformation to date.
The redesign
Shakepay had originally been built as a pure crypto exchange; great for trading, but not designed to scale into a broader financial product. As the company matured, it became clear that the entire product ecosystem needed to evolve. The existing foundation couldn’t support where Shakepay wanted to go next.
Key limitations
- Lack of information hierarchy, making it hard for users to discover or understand new features due to overwhelming choices.
- Unscalable UI architecture, with no space to introduce new services without adding clutter.
- A narrow user perception, reinforcing the idea that Shakepay was a single-purpose tool rather than a comprehensive financial platform.
Trade-off
Shifting toward a money app wouldn’t resonate with every existing user. Still, the vision was clear. Expanding into financial services would increase customer inflows and deepen engagement through a multi-product strategy, aligned with Fitts’s Law: making important features easier to access and interact with.
Context
From exchange to money app
To enable Shakepay’s evolution from exchange to money app, we led a full redesign and repositioning effort focused on architecture, hierarchy, and experience.
Re-architected the app for growth
Introduced a modular, card-based dashboard to support new products like savings, cards, and rewards. Created clearly defined product spaces to support discoverability and future growth.
Modernized the UI foundation
Applied a clean, scalable design system with improved typography, iconography, and spacing. Reduced friction with a more intuitive layout, improving readability and cognitive flow.
Repositioned Shakepay as a financial ecosystem
Crafted flows and in-app messaging to frame Shakepay as a holistic money management app. Introduced contextual entry points for users to explore products at the right time, not just all at once.
Outcome
Built to grow
Elevated the design system
Introduced a cohesive and modern visual language across the app: typography, color, iconography, and component spacing were standardized for clarity and consistency. Built a scalable component library to support faster iteration and future product expansion.
Improved usability & discoverability
Clearer information hierarchy and modular layout allowed users to intuitively navigate and understand the full range of services. Contextual discovery points led to a 15% increase in multi-product usage, validating the design strategy.
Reframed product perception
Shifted user perception of Shakepay from a “crypto tool” to a full-fledged money app through narrative-driven flows, visual structure, and a reimagined home screen. CSAT for “ease of use” improved by 30 points.
Designed for growth
Created a future-proof design foundation, enabling the product team to introduce new features like round up, bill payment, and direct deposit without requiring another redesign.
