Making complex financial services feel simpler — across banking and capital markets.

Connecting discovery with financial decisions.

DBS wanted to bring car, property, and travel services together in a marketplace built by a bank. The platform would aggregate listings from third-party partners while helping customers make decisions about purchases, financing, and travel.

Over 2.5 years, I worked with technical experts, designers, and delivery leads across multiple business units to research, design, and deliver the marketplace. The team iterated the product and added partner integrations over time. The platform was also hosted on public cloud, introducing a new delivery approach within the bank.

Turning research into a shared product direction.

Across the streams, we used primary and secondary research to understand user needs and connect them with the success criteria agreed with DBS at the start of the work.

Understanding both sides of the transaction.

My involvement began with interviews with buyers and sellers in the used-car market. We wanted to understand what each group expected from a DBS marketplace: the information they needed, the functionality they would use, and the experience of moving through a transaction.

We combined the interviews with competitive analysis, then synthesised the research into recommendations for prioritisation. A site map translated those recommendations into the main features and process flows. Visioning workshops helped shape the direction, with SG CarMart and Carro as key partners.

Designing around different housing journeys.

As the car experience moved into design, we began property research in parallel. The ambition was to let people browse, buy, sell, rent, and list property in one place, supported by partner listings and access to financing. DBS wanted to give existing customers more value while creating a reason for new customers to join.

Research covered first- and second-time buyers and sellers, upgraders, renters, and agents. Interviews and competitive analysis informed recommendations, ideation, and wireframes before interaction and visual design for mobile and desktop. OhMyHome and Averspace were key partners in the experience.

Helping people plan, search, and own their first home.

Financial guidance was a way for DBS to differentiate the property experience. Home Planner helped customers calculate and plan their finances, understand the property types and budgets available to them, and compare those options with the home they hoped to own.

The work combined desk research, competitive analysis, and user testing with synthesis and ideation workshops. Low- and mid-fidelity interactive prototypes shaped the interaction design and animation. Visual assets, icons, and responsive screens followed, with the assistant launched as part of Property Marketplace.

Connecting travel discovery with booking.

After the car and property marketplaces, DBS expanded into travel. I was the lead designer for Travel Marketplace, collaborating with designers across the car, property, hotel, and flight streams to bring the experiences together as a cohesive marketplace.

The work covered competitive analysis, wireframes, interaction design, and visual design for mobile and desktop. Singapore Airlines and Expedia were key partners, and the team delivered the experience through an agile process.

Taking a shared vision into production.

Across the streams, we created and tested responsive designs, then worked closely with frontend developers to translate the interactions and visual details into production. Design sat alongside MVP development, frontend and backend engineering, and DevOps throughout delivery.

The work grew from the used-car marketplace into property, Home Planner, and travel. Partner integrations brought listings into one place, while shared design collaboration helped connect the different journeys. The property experience launched with Home Planner and continued to evolve through further refinement and development.

From a long page of information to a guided experience.

The existing Multiplier page presented a large amount of product information in one long page. It gave users content, but little guidance on which information mattered to them or where to find it.

The engagement set out to streamline that information, clarify what Multiplier offered different users, and improve the journey from the existing site to a more useful future experience. Research would also inform recommendations for what should come next.

What do people need to know — and when?

We focused on how people searched for information, what they wanted to know at each stage, and how they consumed and interacted with the page. Understanding those mental models helped us consider how to present meaningful information at the right moment.

Rebuild understanding after the rates changed.

The desk research reviewed community discussions and financial comparison platforms from 2020–2021. Following the 2021 interest-rate change, it identified customers withdrawing funds and accounts becoming dormant. The focus was to re-educate existing customers on how to make the most of the money in their accounts.

The opportunity was to make the mechanics of Multiplier easier to understand: what qualifies, how interest is calculated, and which actions could increase it.

Bring users’ questions into the design conversation.

After desk research, we created a testing guide, recruited participants, and tested the live site. We synthesised the sessions into personas, insights, and recommendations, then brought these into a co-creation workshop with DBS stakeholders.

The workshop gave the team a shared space to discuss the findings and explore potential features and solutions. Those ideas informed the wireframes and responsive designs.

Make the numbers personal. Make the next step visible.

The design offers two ways to explore: calculate potential interest using your own financial situation, or learn through example profiles. A visual gauge connects the interest rate with suggestions for moving to the next level.

We designed for desktop and mobile, supported by a lightweight design system based on DBS’s existing design library. A second round of user testing evaluated the revised experience and informed recommendations for further refinement.

Testing whether the experience made sense.

Five participants explored the prototype in sessions on 27–28 May 2021. The sessions covered first impressions, the calculator, interest-rate guidance, the rate table, example profiles, and the overall flow of information.

Positive feedback highlighted clearer page flow and the ability to see how to increase interest.

A clearer flow, with more to clarify.

The sessions also surfaced areas for refinement: explain that the calculator can forecast earnings for someone without an account, clarify which transactions qualify, and make the relationship between income, categories, and interest-rate tiers easier to follow.

Some participants preferred entering their own figures to exploring the example profiles. That feedback helped identify where the experience needed more direct explanations and more relevant guidance.