Simple Invest cover
UOB · 2024

Simple Invest: Self-Serve Capabilities to Regional Markets

Mobile UX Design UX Research User Interface
ABOUT

THE CLIENT

UOB, a major Asian bank, is transforming wealth management through digital innovation. With the UOB TMRW app, it offers self-serve investment tools that let customers across Southeast Asia manage their finances independently. By focusing on scalable, localized solutions, UOB ensures users have easy access to wealth-building tools tailored to their needs while maintaining a consistent experience across markets.

THE PROJECT

After the successful launch of Simple Invest in Singapore, the project expanded to regional markets — Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. The goal was to adapt the product for local regulations and currencies while maintaining the core user experience of Simple Invest, enabling self-serve investment capabilities across South APAC.

Simple Invest regional expansion overview
PROCESS
01 Exploration & Discovery
Audited the existing Singapore Simple Invest product to identify what was market-agnostic vs. Singapore-specific. Worked with regional product and legal teams to map regulatory constraints per country — understanding where UI flexibility existed and where flows were mandated.
02 Localization & Iteration
Designed localized UI variants for each market — adapting language handling, layout density, risk disclosure flows, and product category presentation to local context. Maintained a shared component system to ensure design consistency while accommodating meaningful regional differences.
03 Cross-Regional Collaboration
Coordinated with product managers, engineers, and legal representatives across 4 countries simultaneously. Maintained design alignment across markets while navigating different release timelines, compliance reviews, and local stakeholder feedback cycles — ensuring the Singapore baseline remained coherent with each localized variant.
KEY FEATURES
01

Self-Serve Investment Capabilities

One of the primary goals of expanding Simple Invest to regional markets was to reduce the dependency on call centers and in-branch support. In smaller markets like Singapore, users could easily visit a branch for help, but in larger countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, this was not practical. Throughout the journey, users are equipped with the tools to take actions independently.

Self-serve investment flow across regional markets
PROBLEM

Users in these larger markets often faced delays and complex issues when relying on call centers for wealth management support, which added strain to customer service teams.

SOLUTION

In Indonesia and Thailand, we leveraged existing chatbot technology to guide users through common issues. In Malaysia, we focused on detailed FAQs and tailored error messages, empowering users to manage their investments independently.

02

Localized UI Experiences

As Simple Invest expanded across different markets, one of the biggest challenges was ensuring that the user interface could handle local currency variations and maintain clarity for users. Each region had unique financial practices and currency formats, requiring significant UI adjustments. The regional project required adaptations across different markets, impacting terminology, currency displays, regulatory features, and product lifecycles.

Regional UI adaptations across markets
PROBLEM

In countries like Indonesia, where currency values can reach 14–16 digits, the original design led to overcrowded screens and a confusing experience. These large numbers made it difficult to maintain the clean, simple UI that worked in Singapore.

SOLUTION

The UI was adapted with dynamic formatting to handle larger numbers and currency symbols. Abbreviations were used to reduce clutter (e.g., "B" for billions), and visual elements were optimized to ensure data was presented in a clear, readable way.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

SCALABILITY & FLEXIBILITY

The project required a scalable design system that could adapt to different markets without a simple "lift and shift" approach. This meant balancing local needs with the overall feature consistency of Simple Invest — ensuring each market version felt intentional, not just translated.

CROSS-REGIONAL COLLABORATION

Engaging with stakeholders from different countries was essential to understanding cultural and operational nuances. This collaboration ensured that the project met the unique regulatory and cultural needs of each region while maintaining its core features and design integrity.

IMPACT

BUSINESS

  • Expanded UOB's wealth management reach to 3 new regional markets
  • Enabled self-serve customer acquisition without relationship manager overhead
  • Reduced time-to-market for regional launches through shared design system

DESIGN

  • Established scalable localization patterns reusable across future UOB products
  • Maintained visual and interaction consistency across all 4 country variants
  • Streamlined handoff with a single multi-market component library

TECHNOLOGY

  • Reduced engineering complexity through shared component architecture
  • Design specs aligned with existing UOB mobile engineering frameworks
  • Enabled parallel development across markets without design bottlenecks
KEY TAKEAWAYS

LOCALIZATION

  • Localisation is more than translation — layout, hierarchy, and metaphors differ by market
  • Early legal alignment saves significant late-stage redesign
  • Regional user research reveals unexpected behavioural differences

SCALABILITY

  • Invest in a shared component foundation before market-specific work begins
  • Atomic design thinking enables rapid variant generation with minimal drift
  • Documentation designed for handoff, not just internal reference

COLLABORATION

  • Multi-timezone stakeholder management requires proactive async communication
  • Trust is built through transparent decision logs, not just deliverables
  • Regional champions within each country team accelerate alignment
SUMMARY

Led the UX and UI expansion of UOB's Simple Invest platform from Singapore to Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia — delivering localized self-serve investment experiences tailored to each market's regulatory environment and user expectations. Designed a scalable multi-market system that reduced engineering overhead, maintained brand consistency, and gave UOB a repeatable playbook for future regional product launches.

KEY CONTRIBUTIONS
Lead UX/UI Designer
End-to-end design across all 4 regional markets
Stakeholder Management
Cross-regional product, legal, and engineering alignment