FinLink
Designing a platform to streamline
Financial Management for SMEs
Data-Driven Dashboard
Financial UX
End-to-End Product Design
Overview
Context
A close friend of mine has a father who runs a small local finance business, lending money and earning interest on top of the principal. My friend, inspired by this, wanted to start a small enterprise in the fisheries industry.
While talking to him, I learned about the challenges he faced, especially around accessing loans and understanding the benefits offered by the government. He explained how fragmented and complicated the entire process is, which got me thinking about how much easier things could be if there was a more streamlined way for small entrepreneurs to manage finances and access the resources they need. That conversation planted the seed for this project.
"Wouldn't it be great," we thought, "if small businesses could access all their financial tools, insights, and support in one place—without the hassle of juggling multiple platforms or processes?"
What makes financial management so challenging for small businesses?
Understanding this required a deeper dive into their world. I interviewed four small business owners from diverse fields, each highlighting unique struggles. Ravi, who runs a dairy farm, finds it overwhelming to keep track of cash flow and expenses. Meera, a boutique owner, struggles with accessing clear government loan benefits. Ramesh, managing a small factory, shared how tough it is to forecast finances, while Shruti, a freelance designer, talked about her frustration with juggling multiple apps for invoicing and payments.
Synthesizing the key takeaways (using empathy maps) revealed recurring themes:
" I’m constantly switching between apps; nothing feels connected or seamless "
" It’s so confusing to understand which government schemes I can benefit from "
" I don’t have a background in finance, so all these numbers just feel overwhelming "
" I wish my financial data could guide me instead of me guessing every time "
These insights made it clear that small business owners need a solution that simplifies and consolidates their financial management process.
Which formed some key insights:
Fragmented Tools
Small business owners often juggle multiple apps for invoicing, expense tracking, and cash flow management, leading to inefficiency and confusion.
Overwhelming Data
Financial data feels complex and disconnected, making it hard for SMEs to extract actionable insights or plan effectively.
Missed Opportunities
Many SMEs struggle to navigate government schemes and loans, leaving potential benefits untapped.
Lack of Personalization
Business owners want financial solutions that are tailored to their specific industry and challenges, rather than one-size-fits-all tools.
These insights served as the foundation for building FinLink, a tool designed to empower small businesses with clarity and control over their financial landscape.
User Personas
We noticed varying frustrations between small-scale local entrepreneurs and more established SMEs. Personas became a valuable tool to distinguish these two groups with differing challenges, helping us keep their unique needs in focus throughout the design process.
We noticed varying frustrations between small-scale local entrepreneurs and more established SMEs. Personas became a valuable tool to distinguish these two groups with differing challenges, helping us keep their unique needs in focus throughout the design process.
Rhea and Aarav already have a foundational understanding of their financial needs and the challenges with fragmented banking services. Once the platform gains traction and additional resources, the focus could expand to support a third user type: entrepreneurs who are new to financial management and need guidance to navigate their business's financial journey effectively.
To narrow down the core issues, I created user stories to define what the product should achieve:
"As a first-time entrepreneur, I want to consolidate all my financial data in one platform, so I can save time and focus on growing my business."
"As a small business owner, I want personalized insights and advice, so I can better understand and manage my cash flow effectively."
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Empathy Map
The empathy map for FinLink captures Rhea's needs, motivations, and frustrations, offering a deep understanding of her financial challenges to design a user-centered experience.
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Customer Journey Map
The Customer Journey Map traces Rhea's financial management experience, from discovering the platform to achieving her financial goals. It highlights her emotions, pain points, and interactions at each stage, from onboarding to daily use. By understanding her journey, FinLink is designed to deliver a seamless, intuitive experience that addresses her needs and enhances her financial well-being
User Flow
Since Rhea is our primary user persona, the user flow will revolve around her primary goal: Effortlessly managing finances and gaining insights. Here's the structure for the user flow:
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Figuring Out What to Build
To begin shaping what FinLink should be and achieve, I needed to identify one key problem to focus on. Drawing from Rhea's story as my primary persona, I crafted the following problem statement:
Rhea is a small business owner who struggles to consolidate and manage her finances because traditional banking tools are fragmented and lack personalized insights.
This is a critical issue that not only impacts Rhea's ability to make informed decisions for her business but also limits her growth potential. This problem was echoed in numerous interviews and secondary research, reinforcing its significance as a priority to address.
"So how can I create a solution that’s personalized, user-friendly, and truly empowers small business owners to take control of their finances?"
There are no direct competitors for FinLink, but there are valuable lessons to be drawn from similar services in adjacent spaces. I analysed platforms like Xero, QuickBooks, and Zoho Books—focusing on their financial management tools and user experiences. The analysis highlighted key differentiators, such as the significance of intuitive design, easy-to-understand financial insights, and a seamless user journey tailored to individual needs. These insights helped shape the foundation of FinLink's personalized and user-friendly approach.
To determine which features would best serve FinLink's users, I crafted a unique value proposition that addressed Rhea and Aarav’s needs and frustrations:
Centralized financial management
Manage all business accounts and transactions in one place.
Tailored financial insights
Access personalized KPIs, cash flow forecasts, and financial advice
Government scheme eligibility checker
Discover benefits and loan schemes specific to your industry.
Community-driven resources
Network with other SMBs and learn from shared experiences.
This value proposition provides a clear foundation for FinLink’s most impactful features to begin development.
Scope and Structure
I narrowed the initial scope of FinLink to a desktop web application to offer a more comprehensive, accessible, and efficient financial management tool for SMBs. The design focus was on providing a seamless and intuitive user experience with a clear interface that is scalable for future growth. This meant creating a layout that could handle larger data sets while also ensuring it remains user-friendly and responsive.
With a clear goal statement in mind:
The web application will empower SMB owners, who are overwhelmed by fragmented financial processes, to consolidate and manage their financial tasks through personalized insights, government scheme eligibility, and networking opportunities.
How might we help SMBs manage and simplify their financial processes in an intuitive and accessible way?
Design Process
A structured design process was followed to analyse financial management challenges, ensuring an intuitive and efficient experience for SMBs.
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Here’s why SMBs struggle with financial management today and how FinLink changes the game
Competitive Analysis
To make FinLink stand out, we analyzed top financial tools like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Xero, and Zoho Books. We compared features like AI forecasting, automation, and user experience—finding gaps FinLink fills to simplify SMB financial management.
AI-Powered Financial Forecasting (FinSight)
Integrated Business Networking for SMBs
User-Friendly Budgeting & Goal Progress Tracking
Automated Financial Health Indicators
Seamless Collaboration & Permissions for Teams
Here is the radar chart comparing FinLink against competitors like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave and Zoho Books across key parameters. FinLink stands out with higher scores in critical areas like Forecasting, Automation, and User Experience.
Information Architecture
FinLink’s Information Architecture ensures seamless navigation, making financial management effortless for SMBs. Every section is structured for clarity, helping users track, plan, and forecast with ease.
Considering the interface: Wireframes
Wireframes were essential for shaping FinLink’s dashboard, allowing for quick visualization of complex financial data and faster design decisions while gathering user feedback before high-fidelity UI development. Below are the two folds, latter wireframe appears on scroll.
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Iterating Through Insights
The initial low-fidelity prototype for FinLink was prepared for real user testing. I distributed it among a diverse group of potential small to medium-sized business users to understand how easily they could navigate the dashboard, understand financial information and perform essential tasks such as tracking expenses, setting goals, and predicting net worth.
It's crucial to test frequently and at the earliest stages, particularly when launching a new product.
After usability testing, I synthesized key observations. This helped me uncover pain points, prioritize changes and align future iterations of the design with real user needs.
Users may need tooltips or onboarding nudges when using the dashboard for the first time.
Some users expected Payments to appear earlier, we learned that urgent actions should always be surfaced above the fold or made sticky.
A few participants said the scroll felt long, we considered a tabbed layout for future versions to reduce vertical fatigue.
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Bringing the Vision to Life: Kicking it up to high fidelity
With a clear understanding of the users' pain points from the early testing and a well-defined feature set, it was time to transform the initial sketches and low-fidelity wireframes into high-fidelity designs. The goal was to create a visually appealing, functional, and user-friendly experience that would empower SMBs like Rhea and Nithin to manage their finances with ease.
Introducing the Dashboard
The Dashboard is the central hub of the FinLink platform, providing SMBs with a comprehensive overview of their financial health at a glance. Designed with clarity, simplicity, and usability in mind, the dashboard empowers users like Rhea and Aarav to make data-driven financial decisions with ease.
Conclusion
The FinLink project has been a valuable exercise in designing an intuitive and user-friendly financial management platform for SMEs. From understanding user pain points to crafting high-fidelity wireframes and integrating AI-powered insights, the process reinforced the importance of clear data presentation and seamless interaction.
Designing for complex financial data challenged me to balance functionality with simplicity, ensuring that users could easily navigate and gain insights. This project has sharpened my skills in UX design, particularly in creating meaningful dashboards, actionable features, and delivering a cohesive user experience. Moving forward, I aim to leverage these learnings in building impactful, data-driven solutions for users.
What’s next?
With the core FinLink experience in place, the next focus was on making financial management not just easy, but proactive. This led to the creation of FinSight, an AI-powered feature that detects unusual transactions, flags anomalies and keeps users informed in real-time.
Curious how it works? Explore the FinSight case study →
Got Questions? Let's Connect!
If you're curious about the details of this project or want to dive deeper into the design process, feel free to reach out! All the information you need can be found in the footer below. Let’s chat and explore how we can create meaningful solutions together!
