Khayam K. - Product Designer & Builder

Dashboard design for the UKs fastest growing start-up

Allica’s first dashboard was built as an MVP, showing balances and recent transactions. I led the end-to-end redesign to transform it into a tool that delivers the insights and functionality business owners need to manage their finances effectively.

Problem

A dashboard that fell short for SMBs

The MVP provided only a balance snapshot, leaving business owners without the tools they needed to manage finances day-to-day.

Limited scope

The dashboard focused only on core account information and overlooked the daily needs of business owners.

No cash flow visibility

It failed to give customers a clear picture of their cash flow or track spending effectively.

Lack of financial insights

Without guidance or actionable data, business owners couldn’t make informed financial decisions.

Challenges

Barriers to delivering value

The MVP delivered only the basics, and we lacked insight into how customers used it. To progress, we first had to research SMB needs and translate those findings into design decisions that would create real value.

Understanding user needs

With no existing data or behavioural insight, we had to conduct research to uncover how SMB owners managed their finances and what they truly needed from a dashboard.

Balancing simplicity and depth

The dashboard had to stay easy to use while still surfacing cash flow, spending, and insights that supported smarter decision-making.

Driving adoption and engagement

Beyond solving functional gaps, the experience needed to feel valuable enough for business owners to make it their go-to financial hub.

Process

Questions, conversations and validating ideas

Project kick-off
Starting with the right questions
The project began with a series of collaborative workshops, involving myself, a project manager and an engineer.
Interviews
To understand their day-to-day financial needs and pain points.
Concept analysis
Concept analysis to gather feedback on early design directions and validate assumptions.
$100 spend exercise
$100 spend exercise to uncover priorities by asking participants where they would allocate value across potential features.
Discovery & research
Digging into customer needs
To ensure the redesign was grounded in real customer needs, I conducted interviews and tested early concepts with small and medium-sized business owners. Each session was structured into three parts:
Study goals
What we want to discover
The research was designed to uncover how business owners interact with their current account dashboard (BCA) and to validate early design concepts. Specific goals included:
Identify what information users find most valuable when first logging in.

Understand the scenarios in which participants open their BCA, the questions they want to answer and the decisions they hope to make.
Discover what participants like and what they would improve about their current BCA home page.
Ask participants to prioritise features from the proposed design concept.
Learn the most common actions users want to take when they log in.
Test hypotheses and assumptions related to the new home page design concept.
Concept testing
Testing ideas, validating assumptions
As part of discovery we created low-fidelity designs to use in a concept testing exercise with participants.
Based on competitor analysis and our hypotheses we developed two concepts that shared some similarities but also key differences, allowing us to compare approaches and validate assumptions.
The results helped us identify which design directions resonated most with users and where we needed to refine our ideas.
Concept testing with a participant
$100 spend
Where are you putting your money?
As part of the interviews we asked participants to imagine they had $100 to spend on the features shown during concept testing and decide how they would allocate it.
The more valuable a feature was, the more money they assigned to it. Participants were not required to spend money on every feature, only the ones they felt were most important. To make the exercise easier, we used increments of $5 or $10.

Project kick-off
Starting with the right questions
The project began with a series of collaborative workshops, involving myself, a project manager and an engineer.
Interviews
To understand their day-to-day financial needs and pain points.
Concept analysis
Concept analysis to gather feedback on early design directions and validate assumptions.
$100 spend exercise
$100 spend exercise to uncover priorities by asking participants where they would allocate value across potential features.
Discovery & research
Digging into customer needs
To ensure the redesign was grounded in real customer needs, I conducted interviews and tested early concepts with small and medium-sized business owners. Each session was structured into three parts:
Study goals
What we want to discover
The research was designed to uncover how business owners interact with their current account dashboard (BCA) and to validate early design concepts. Specific goals included:
Identify what information users find most valuable when first logging in.
Understand the scenarios in which participants open their BCA, the questions they want to answer and the decisions they hope to make.
Discover what participants like and what they would improve about their current BCA home page.
Ask participants to prioritise features from the proposed design concept.
Learn the most common actions users want to take when they log in.
Test hypotheses and assumptions related to the new home page design concept.
Concept testing
Testing ideas, validating assumptions
As part of discovery we created low-fidelity designs to use in a concept testing exercise with participants.
Based on competitor analysis and our hypotheses we developed two concepts that shared some similarities but also key differences, allowing us to compare approaches and validate assumptions.
The results helped us identify which design directions resonated most with users and where we needed to refine our ideas.
Concept testing with a participant
$100 spend
Where are you putting your money?
As part of the interviews we asked participants to imagine they had $100 to spend on the features shown during concept testing and decide how they would allocate it.
The more valuable a feature was, the more money they assigned to it. Participants were not required to spend money on every feature, only the ones they felt were most important. To make the exercise easier, we used increments of $5 or $10.

Insights

Setting the design direction

Based on the interviews and exercises we identified five key insights.

I want to see my cashflow

Participants log in primarily to get a quick summary of their cashflow situation: balance, recent transactions and money moving in and out.

How is my business health?

There is strong interest in deeper analytics that provide a clearer picture of overall business health.

I like cashflow but…

The cashflow overview in Concept 1 was well received, though participants suggested several improvements.

Don't confuse me

The idea of a "Total balance" caused confusion, particularly the inclusion of savings pots within the business current account. Progression toward the next cashback tier was also unclear.

Make it functional

Participants emphasised the importance of being able to do more than just view information on the dashboard.

Solution

Your business at a glance

From the insights we gathered it was clear that some of the suggested features were technically advanced and better suited to the long-term vision for the dashboard.

For the first iteration we chose to simplify the scope and focus on delivering an achievable short-term solution that still added meaningful value.

Balance and cashflow at a glance

Shortcuts within widgets

Quick actions for faster access to common tasks

Outcome

A strong foundation for future iterations

This design balanced immediate customer needs with technical feasibility, creating a foundation that can be built on in future iterations.

84%

Improved clarity

Users reported it was easier to understand their cashflow at a glance.

88%

Greater relevance

Three in four customers said the new dashboard provided more of the information they needed to manage their business finances.

78%

Increased engagement

Daily dashboard visits rose compared to the previous version, with quick actions becoming one of the most-used features.

Khayam Khan - Product Design Lead

I have 10+ years experience working closely with start-ups, scale-ups and larger enterprises delivering thoughtful UX, intuitive UI and scalable systems to create functional digital products designed to last.