We launched Nilos as a treasury management and payment platform for blockchain-based businesses, helping them track & manage, trade, and disburse crypto earnings. As the NFT market cooled, we pivoted to become a blockchain-powered payment gateway API, enabling corporations to make faster, cost-effective cross-border payments, particularly in regions like Latin America and Africa with limited banking infrastructure, and where cross-border payments and currency liquidity challenges presented significant barriers for international businesses.
I was responsible for overseeing the entire UX design process, from the ideation of the initial treasury management platform to the pivot towards a corporate blockchain payment solution. To ensure that the product’s usability remained simple, intuitive, and secure despite the complexities of blockchain technology. My role was to create an exceptional user experience and also to guide the product strategy to ensure alignment with the company's business goals and vision.
Defining the initial user experience for treasury management, payment facilitation, and smart contract related functionalities.
Leading the shift in UX when the product pivoted to a blockchain-powered payment API, ensuring that the new design met the needs of corporate clients while retaining the simplicity and efficiency blockchain can offer.
Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams, including developers, executives, and stakeholders, to ensure user experience and business requirements aligned across all stages.
When Nilos was founded, the goal was simple: to provide blockchain-based treasury management for companies earning revenue through cryptocurrencies. The initial product aimed to make it easy for businesses to manage their crypto assets and pay contractors via smart routing mechanisms. As the crypto landscape evolved—we had to shift our product from a niche blockchain treasury platform to an API-driven Blockchain Payment Gateway that facilitates cross-border corporate payments. The challenge here wasn’t just a product pivot; it was about ensuring that the new platform upholds the trust and simplicity that are crucial to meeting the more complex needs of corporate clients managing large-scale, international transactions.
Complexity of Blockchain Technology: Blockchain technology is new to many of our clients, and blockchain-based payments may seem abstract or intimidating, especially if they have pre-existing assumptions about its potential.
User Trust and Security: With the evolving nature and volatility of the crypto space, building a product that directly addressed trust and security concerns was essential for gaining enterprise customer confidence.
Pivoting the Product: When the NFT market began to cool, we’ve decided to pivot the product to serve a broader corporate market for cross-border payments. This required redesigning the user flows to focus our effort more on payment processing features rather than treasury management.
Global Market Focus: We had to ensure that our UX was tailored to meet the needs of companies operating in both developed and emerging markets, with a particular focus on those active in Latin America and Africa, understanding and aligning with their unique use cases.
To understand our users, we conducted extensive user research across multiple industries, such as technology, e-commerce, fintech, and international trade. We identified key opportunities for improvement, such as reducing friction in the payment initiation process, ensuring regulatory compliance, and providing real-time financial visibility. This research formed the foundation for the design direction. We focused on two key personas:
Faster, more cost-effective solutions to manage cross-border transactions across multiple currencies and regions
Unlocking payment corridors in regions with limited banking infrastructure, such as Africa and Latin America
Tools to mitigate currency fluctuations and ensure secure, compliant transactions across diverse markets
Real-time tracking and scalable infrastructure to manage and monitor cross-border payments effectively as operations expand
As the product evolved, we redesigned the payment architecture to streamline core payment features. The goal was to create an intuitive, frictionless experience that uses conventions from traditional payment systems, ensuring users felt comfortable and familiar with the process of initiating new payments.
Unified Payment Initiation: The design makes it easy for users to initiate payments with just a few simple steps. Whether sending money, processing batch payments, or exchanging currencies, users need only to input basic details—such as the recipient's information and the amount in fiat currency—ensuring a seamless and familiar experience.
Seamless End-to-End Payment Flow: The payment flow is designed to mirror the simplicity of traditional payment systems. Users can select the currency they wish to pay with and the currency for the recipient's settlement, while the platform automatically handles all the complexities behind the scenes. Blockchain, crypto transactions, and currency conversions are abstracted, ensuring that users never need to worry about choosing payment rails or managing conversions. The platform automatically routes payments and converts currencies as needed, offering a seamless experience from start to finish.
The payment flow has been streamlined and made more intuitive across different processes—sending money, batch payments, and exchanging currencies—all built on the same UI structure. This reduction in friction, achieved by removing unnecessary steps, results in a smoother, more linear and unified flow that guides users effortlessly through each action.
Our payment system features several refined variations, each optimized for specific use cases, while maintaining a consistent core experience. Whether users are making single transactions, processing batch payments, or exchanging currencies, they interact with the same clean, minimalist design. The system adapts to each scenario, keeping familiar elements like our signature purple action buttons and progressive disclosure patterns. This thoughtful balance ensures that users can navigate any payment flow with ease, enjoying both consistent interactions and tailored optimizations for their specific needs.
The transactions dashboard functions as a streamlined financial management hub, effortlessly handling complex payment operations. It provides a view of multiple payment types, currencies, and statuses, making it easy to track both incoming and outgoing transactions along with their amounts and conversion rates. Users can manage everything from simple peer-to-peer transfers to more complex multi-recipient and cross-currency payments. Each transaction is displayed in a clear row with key details—timestamps, user information, and amounts in both original and converted currencies. This clean, organized layout simplifies both daily operations and auditing.
The Filters Component is designed to help users efficiently navigate through their transaction history by narrowing down results based on key criteria. Located prominently at the top of the Transactions Page, this component enables users to quickly refine their view according to specific attributes
Users can easily filter transactions by date range, status (completed, pending, failed), and amount. This allows for efficient browsing and quick access to the most relevant information, helping users focus only on the data they need.
The filter options provide flexibility by allowing users to view transactions based on specific types (e.g., payments, batch payments, exchanges). This ensures that users can quickly isolate the transactions that match their current needs or focus.
Instead of scrolling through numerous records, the filters let users instantly narrow down the list of transactions based on their preferred parameters. Whether it’s filtering by status or transaction type, this capability minimizes the time spent searching for information.
The filters are designed with user-friendliness in mind, making it easy to apply and adjust criteria with just a few clicks. The dropdown menus and selection boxes are simple to interact with, ensuring that users can quickly update their view without confusion.
The payment page features a flexible transaction pipeline that illustrates how payments progress through customizable conversion steps. The transaction details component offers a clear visual representation of payment flows, allowing users to track their payment’s movement through each stage. A step-by-step breakdown shows both the original payment format and the final delivery format—whether cryptocurrency or traditional currency—making it easy to follow the transformation process. Each stage is clearly labeled and connected, enabling users to quickly understand the status of their transaction.
The design system serves as the backbone of the platform’s user experience, ensuring consistency and scalability across all touchpoints. It provides one source of truth for both design and development teams, aligning visual and interaction patterns. Key elements of the system include a carefully curated color palette, a structured typography hierarchy, and a components-based design. Each component is crafted to be reusable, modular, and flexible, ensuring that the platform remains cohesive, accessible, and easy to maintain as it grows.
Financial management tools enable users to easily set up business profiles, categorize transactions, and manage payment preferences. The payment hub offers a clear overview of transaction statuses, making it simple to initiate new payments and track payments in real time. Additionally, the reporting feature organizes account balances and transaction history, allowing users to generate customized reports for more in-depth financial insights.
The settings interface provides a dashboard for account management, allowing users to configure their business profile, manage transaction categories, and adjust notification preferences. It displays key company details, including legal information and address, while offering customizable tags for flexible transaction categorization based on specific business needs and reporting requirements.
Pay is a centralized hub where users can manage disbursements and initiate new payments with ease. The main dashboard displays recent transactions by type, including pending, batch, and completed, along with key details such as dates, sender and recipient information, amounts, operational status, and approval flow progress. Role-based permissions allow administrators to assign specific user roles to streamline the approval process, ensuring that only authorized personnel can approve payments. The intuitive tabular layout simplifies transaction management, making it easy to track payment statuses and approval stages across categories.
The account reports interface serves as a financial dashboard, offering balance tracking for both cryptocurrency and fiat accounts, along with interactive transaction history and payment activity monitoring. Users can create and manage digital wallets (cryptocurrency or IBAN-based). A key feature is the account statement dialog, which allows users to generate customized reports for specific time periods, enabling easy download and review of detailed transaction histories and financial records.
Nilos' brand design reflects its core values of simplicity, trust, and innovation in blockchain-powered payments. The visual identity is crafted to resonate with corporate clients and fintechs, positioning Nilos alongside industry leaders. The clean, modern aesthetic is anchored by a bold purple palette, symbolizing innovation and sophistication, while reinforcing Nilos' commitment to cutting-edge technology and reliability. Complementary accent colors add vibrancy, enhancing the professional, high-caliber appearance.
The design strikes a perfect balance between form and function, embodying the precision of a modern financial company. It features a carefully chosen sans-serif typeface, combining geometric clarity with an approachable, contemporary roundness. The iconic purple color palette not only fosters instant brand recognition but also defines clear interactive hierarchies. The logo, incorporating a lightning bolt, symbolizes speed, innovation, and the transformative power of blockchain-based payments. A cohesive, grid-based icon system ensures visual clarity and consistency across the interface.
From the logo to the icons, buttons, and UI components, the design maintains a cohesive visual language that blends familiarity with innovation. This unified identity positions Nilos as a trusted, forward-thinking alternative to traditional payment providers, ensuring a seamless user experience across the platform.
Building on Nilos' strong brand identity, the website design emphasizes simplicity and clarity. With a clean, minimalist layout and plenty of white space, it’s easy to navigate. Purple takes the lead in the design, with accents highlighting key actions that reinforce the brand while maintaining a professional feel. Designed with fintech leaders in mind, the site offers reliable, scalable payment solutions, delivering a seamless experience across all devices and ensuring a consistent, smooth experience.
The dark, precise aesthetic reflects the intelligent, efficient tech solutions that are at the core of the brand. Modern sans-serif typography ensures effortless readability, while interactive elements remain smooth and intuitive. Key areas, such as buttons and calls to action, are strategically designed to attract new leads, drawing attention and encouraging engagement with the platform’s core offerings.
