Works Enterprise Compliance Evidence About Contact

Ed Chen

Product Designer — institutional trading, UHNW client experience & enterprise design systems across regulated markets.

150+
Components
100K+
Traders Served
40+
Jurisdictions
5+
Years Regulated Finance
Regulated Markets ASIC AU FCA UK FINRA US ESMA EU JPX-R JP
View Case Studies
Selected Works

Selected
Projects

Regulated finance, UHNW luxury, and institutional infrastructure. Each case study is a different kind of constraint.

Shipped Live client work — production deliverable
Concept Research concept grounded in production experience
01
ACY Securities — Enterprise FinTech Design System
Shipped · 4 Years · Live Product

ACY Securities

Enterprise Design System · 5 Live Platforms · Regulated Finance

Sole design function for a 150-person ASIC/FCA-regulated broker. 4 years shipping a unified design system across 5 interconnected platforms — from KYC compliance flows to institutional API documentation to SPAC/IPO investor materials. 150+ components adopted by 3 engineering teams. KYC drop-off cut from 73% to 45%. 8+ regulatory updates absorbed without structural rework. Grew from mid-level designer to C-suite strategic partner.

ASIC · FCA · MiFID II 150+ Components KYC 73% → 45% Drop-off 100K+ Traders · 40+ Countries

Four years at scale: Started as the only designer in a 50-person company. Left as design lead and C-suite partner at 150 people. The system survived 8+ regulatory updates, 3 engineering team transitions, and expansion to 40+ countries.

2024 — solo again after team cuts: Restructured workflow with AI tooling to sustain output across 5 concurrent product lines — mobile app, institutional FIX API docs, multilingual campaigns, compliance updates — without additional headcount. Domain judgment stayed human. Scale came from a structured AI collaboration model.

Case Study → Live Platform →
02
Christie's International Real Estate
Shipped · Live Client · 9 Months

Christie's Real Estate

Full-Stack Editorial Platform — Sole Designer, Developer & de facto PM

Sole designer, developer, and de facto PM on Christie's International Real Estate editorial platform — built from scratch over a 9-month engagement, serving $5M–$80M property buyers across NYC, London, Japan, HK, and Taiwan offices. Translated 250 years of brand authority into a digital-first experience that keeps brokers at the center of every transaction.

+20% Page Views 60% DB Query Reduction $5M–$80M UHNW Segment 5 Global Offices Hermes Platinum Award

Hired as a Web Engineer. Shipped as the product team. Design, front-end, back-end, cross-timezone stakeholder alignment — one person, nine months, five offices. The official title never matched the actual scope. That gap is the résumé.

Live Platform → Case Study →
03
ACY Connect — Institutional FIX API Documentation
Shipped · B2B Institutional · 12+ Prime Brokers

ACY Connect

Institutional FIX API Platform · Documentation System · B2B Infrastructure

Designed the documentation system and credential infrastructure for ACY's institutional FIX 4.4 API — the B2B layer connecting prime brokers, liquidity providers, and institutional clients. Not a document: a 7-page information architecture with explicit rules governing how 5 user types (PM/BD through Market Data Eng) experience the integration journey. This later became the protocol foundation for TradeX.

FIX 4.4 Protocol 12+ Institutional Clients 5-User Taxonomy B2B Prime Broker

The constraint that made this hard: A misconfigured FIX message doesn't throw a user-facing error — it produces a million-dollar position sizing error, silently, while the market moves. The documentation had to be precise enough for quant developers and accessible enough for PM/BD — the same system, five different entry points.

Case Study → Live Platform →
04
Finlogix — Real-time market analytics
Shipped · Live Platform · Statistical Validation

Finlogix

Real-Time Market Analytics · Modular Widget System · ASIC Regulated

Trading analytics platform processing 1,000+ real-time data points. Designed a modular widget system enabling traders to construct custom layouts matching their mental model. This project produced the strongest quantitative research in the portfolio — controlled usability testing with statistical significance.

Order Placement 8.2s → 2.9s 67% Custom Layout Adoption Session Duration +40% Cohen's d >3.0 (p<0.001)

The research that mattered: Controlled usability testing with 15 active traders (paired within-subjects design) showed order placement dropped from 8.2s to 2.9s — a 64% improvement with Cohen's d >3.0. This wasn't A/B testing with loose attribution. It was the kind of evidence that changes C-suite minds.

Case Study →
Research & Concept Work

Not concepts from imagination — extensions of production experience. Each project traces directly back to a shipped system and explores what that knowledge looks like in an adjacent domain.

05
Xanthos Private Bank — UHNW Wealth Management
Concept

Xanthos Private Bank

Private Banking UX Concept · UHNW Wealth Management

Born from 4 years designing RM-facing tools at ACY Connect — where I learned that institutional B2B2C means the relationship manager, not the end client, is your primary user. Xanthos extends that insight into wealth management: five interconnected flows for a private bank serving $28M+ net worth households — client portfolio dashboard, RM briefing intelligence, investment proposal flows, life event planning, and UHNW onboarding.

Provenance: ACY Connect RM Tools UHNW Client Portal FINRA · SEC · AML B2B2C Architecture

Why this exists: After designing ACY Connect's institutional onboarding and RM credential management, I needed to prove that compliance-first B2B2C thinking transfers to wealth management — a different regulatory surface (FINRA/SEC/AML), different trust model (advisory relationship > transaction speed), same architectural challenge.

Case Study →
06
TradeX Institutional — Portfolio Risk Management
Concept

TradeX Institutional

AI-Native Hedge Fund & Institutional Trading Design

Direct extension of ACY Connect's FIX 4.4 production work — the protocol knowledge, session state machines, and order lifecycle rules are real, not researched from Bloomberg screenshots. Two-part exploration: (1) AI-native hedge fund dashboard with causal intelligence overlays, liquidity stress visualization, and real-time alpha attribution; (2) institutional trading terminal with Level 2 Order Book, Portfolio Risk Matrix, and SEC/FINRA-compliant execution workflows.

Provenance: ACY Connect FIX 4.4 Hedge Fund UX Risk Visualization $100M–$50B AUM Context

Why this exists: After building ACY Connect's institutional API docs for 12+ hedge funds and prime brokers, I understood the FIX protocol's order lifecycle deeply enough to design the terminal that sits on top of it. Bloomberg's density isn't clutter — it's information architecture for peripheral vision. This concept explores that principle at institutional scale.

AI Hedge Fund Dashboard → Institutional Terminal →
View Full Case Study Archive →
Authenticated Enterprise Systems

Authenticated Financial Platforms
at Enterprise Scale

Designed the authenticated financial ecosystem at ACY Securities — one design system governing 5 product lines, 100K+ traders, and 40+ regulated jurisdictions. Regulatory updates ship in days because the architecture was built for change, not patched after the fact.

ACY Securities Platform Ecosystem
Regulatory Foundation
Modular system where new regulatory requirements slot in — 2+ years of ASIC/FCA updates shipped without redesigning from scratch
Scope
Brand + Web + Platform
Business Impact
Enterprise-scale platform, 40+ countries, 5+ product lines unified
System Scalability
Design system enabled autonomous implementation across 5 product lines
Finlogix

Finlogix

High-density market data platform for professional traders. Redesigned IA reduced analysis time by 40% while maintaining expert-level data density.

Bloomberg-Caliber Data UI Expert-User Research
ACY Connect

ACY Connect

Institutional B2B infrastructure serving prime brokers via FIX 4.4 Protocol. Architected documentation and credential systems for global liquidity connectivity.

FIX Protocol State-Machine Logic
TradingCup

TradingCup

Copy trading platform with transparent risk visualization, increasing user trust and adoption of expert strategies.

Authenticated Platform Risk UI

Independent Evaluation

Top-Tier Platform Assessment

Independent broker review highlighting platform usability and clean interface design
— FXempire (2025)
Independent review examining ACY's multi-jurisdictional regulatory compliance framework
— FXempire (2026)
Design System

The System

150+ production components — purpose-built for regulated financial platforms. Financial-native components encode trading semantics, compliance-native components encode regulatory requirements, all within a three-tier density architecture.

Production Components
150+
Finance-Native
9
Compliance-Native
10
Density × Theme
10
Price Display Real-time
EUR/USD
BID1.0847
2.2
ASK1.0869
▲ +0.0022 · +0.20%
Bid/ask spread · tick animation · deuteranopia-safe
Order Entry Core Flow
MarketLimitStop
Volume1.00 lot
Margin req.$2,174
FIX 4.4 OrdType mapping · margin validation
Watchlist Row Data Dense
EUR/USD▁▂▄▅▄▆▇▆ 1.0869+0.20%
GBP/USD▇▆▅▄▃▂▃▄ 1.2741−0.14%
XAU/USD▄▅▆▇▆▇▇▆ 2,318.40+0.83%
USD/JPY▃▄▄▃▅▄▃▂ 149.82 +0.03%
Bloomberg-caliber density · inline sparklines
◐ Light Mode
Trade Ticket Execution
● FILLED
InstrumentEUR/USD
DirectionBUY
Fill Price1.08694
Qty Filled1,000,000
Tag 39OrdStatus=2
FIX Tag 39 OrdStatus · execution confirmation UX
Sparkline Chart Trend
XAU/USD 2,318.40
▲ +19.20 · +0.83% 1D
Inline price trend · area fill · responsive SVG
Market Heatmap Overview
Sector Performance · 1D
Tech
+2.4%
Finance
+1.1%
Energy
+0.4%
Materials
0.0%
Health
−0.3%
Utilities
−2.1%
Sector performance · semantic color scale · at-a-glance
Explore Full Design System — All 150+ Components →
Design Constraints in Practice

Designing Within
Regulated Constraints

Regulatory requirements aren't legal hurdles — they're design specifications. I translate constraints into reusable design systems, so teams ship faster on every subsequent update.

ASIC (Australia)

How do you tell users their funds are at risk without killing conversion? Leverage caps and disclosure rules forced honest hierarchy and clear copywriting.

FINRA / SEC (US)

Suitability questionnaires as a UX challenge: making required risk disclosures feel like user protection, not legal fine print.

ESMA (EU)

Inducement bans as a creativity constraint: designing engaging promotions when direct incentives are prohibited.

MiFID II Best Execution (EU)

How do you make trade execution transparency feel like a feature, not a disclosure obligation? Best execution rules forced a rethink of the order confirmation screen.

Dodd-Frank Title VII (US)

Every trade confirmation serves two audiences simultaneously: the trader who just executed, and the audit trail that follows.

WCAG 2.1 AA

Global accessibility standards for inclusive financial terminals.

What the Constraint-as-Brief Approach Produced

150+

Reusable Design Components

KYC flows, best execution confirmations, leverage warnings, consent gates — each built once, applied across ASIC, MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, and FCA simultaneously.

40–60%

Faster Execution on Regulatory Updates

When MiFID II Art.27 required execution venue disclosure, the update took 3 days — the pattern already existed. Compliance patches, not rebuilds.

8+

Regulatory Updates Without Rewrites

ASIC CP 322 · FCA SCA · MiFID II Art.27 · Dodd-Frank VII · ESMA leverage caps · FATCA · KYC re-consent · PDS update — zero system rewrites.

Regulatory Compliance Architecture How 150+ components enforce MiFID II · Dodd-Frank · ASIC · FCA · FINRA · WCAG 2.1 AA at the system level
COMPLIANCE STATUS BOARD
Last Audit: PASSED Violations: 0 --:--:--
JURISDICTION STATUS
KYC / AML PIPELINE
DISCLOSURE GATE STATUS
RISK & AUDIT METRICS
RECENT AUDIT TRAIL
Design System: 150+ components | WCAG 2.1 AA: 100% | Color-Blind Safe: FSA Enabled | Themes: Light + Dark
Track Record

Five Years in Regulated Finance.
This Is What Shipped.

System ownership, measurable delivery, and outcomes that held up at scale.

Measurable Outcomes
Architecture built for compliance change — 8+ regulatory updates shipped without system rewrites
MiFID II · Dodd-Frank VII · SOX 302 · ASIC/FCA — 40+ countries · zero downtime
  • System Scalability — One architecture serving 40+ countries, flexible patterns built into the core from day one.
  • Design System Governance — Modular system adopted across 5+ product lines with documentation and engineering alignment.
  • Design-to-Production Speed — Storybook-standard handoff documentation enabled engineering teams to ship features without requiring design involvement in every implementation cycle.
  • Regulatory Resilience — MiFID II Best Execution (Article 27), Dodd-Frank Title VII, SOX 302, and ASIC/FCA mandates each encoded as reusable system components — regulatory updates shipped in days, not months.
My Design Role
Sole designer for a 150-person org across 18 months — every production decision went through one person
150+ components, 5 product lines, C-suite to engineering
  • UI/UX Design Leadership: Established design standards across 5 product lines — defining interaction patterns, visual systems, and research frameworks that enabled engineering teams to execute autonomously.
  • Design System Architecture: Authored 150+ components, interaction patterns, motion language, documentation framework, and developer handoff standards.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered with Legal on regulatory requirements, Product Management on roadmap prioritization, Engineering on technical constraints, Marketing on content strategy, and C-suite on strategic vision.
  • Executive Communication Support: Designed presentation materials for C-suite stakeholders (investor briefings, board decks, strategic planning documents).
Conflict Resolution
Navigating Stakeholder Disagreement
KYC 47-field negotiation · CEO pushback reversed · Canvas API unblocked
  • Legal vs. UX Trade-offs: When Legal required adding 47 disclosure fields to onboarding (ASIC/FCA compliance), data showed 73% drop-off. Built interactive prototype. After 3-week C-suite mediation, Legal approved conditional implementation with audit trail.
  • Engineering Constraints: Canvas API animations caused performance concerns. Ran joint profiling sessions, identified bottleneck (re-render loops). Redesigned using requestAnimationFrame batching. Engineering validated and became design system advocate.
  • Executive Misalignment: CEO pushed "Robinhood-style minimalism" for B2B trading terminal. Professional traders rejected simplified UI. Presented side-by-side usability data (task completion 40% slower). CEO approved information-dense design after session recordings.
Research Process
Data-Driven Decision Making
170+ Hotjar sessions · 15 user tests · 8.2s → 2.9s order placement (64% faster)
  • Research Methodology: Established 5-step research-to-design pipeline using Hotjar (170+ session recordings) to convert behavioral data into stakeholder-convincing evidence.
  • Hypothesis Testing: Qualitative testing of 3 design variants with 15 traders uncovered critical usability gaps — directional findings validated post-launch with order placement improving from 8.2s → 2.9s (64% faster).
  • Stakeholder Persuasion: Used quantitative data (heatmaps showing 85% CTA visibility) to win executive approval for design system investment.
Research Synthesis · ACY Order Flow Redesign Q3 2023
① Observe
170+ Hotjar session recordings
② Hypothesize
3 competing variants drafted
③ Test
15 traders · moderated sessions
④ Synthesize
Affinity map · 8 clusters
⑤ Measure
Production telemetry post-launch
Finding 01
Traders abandoned confirmation step when stop-loss field was not pre-filled — perceived as incomplete order.
→ Default SL/TP from last trade
Finding 02
85% of heatmap clicks on the "Sell" CTA were hesitation taps — users re-read the price 2–3× before committing.
→ Live price lock with 3s timer
Outcome
64%
faster order placement
8.2s → 2.9s · Validated via production telemetry
Design Leadership

Scaling Design
Beyond the Designer

Leading design at a 150-person organisation meant more than shipping features. It meant building the infrastructure so that design quality scaled with the team, not just with me.

Design Review Standards

Established a 4-gate design review process (Discovery → Concept → Spec → QA) aligned to the engineering sprint cycle. Each gate had explicit exit criteria, reducing back-and-forth between design and engineering by eliminating ambiguity at handoff.

New Designer Onboarding

Built a 30-60-90 day onboarding curriculum for design contributors covering: domain knowledge (financial products, regulatory context), system conventions (tokens, density modes), and process integration (how design fits sprint ceremonies).

Hiring Rubric

Developed a structured portfolio evaluation framework for hiring design ICs in regulated finance contexts — moving beyond "nice visuals" to assess systems thinking, compliance awareness, and cross-functional communication skills.

Third-Party Validation

Leadership claims verified by 8 public LinkedIn recommendations — including direct manager endorsement, direct report management feedback, cross-functional engineering collaboration, and C-suite partnership evidence.

Direct Report

"Exceptional resource integration... empowers team members by providing opportunities to lead new projects"

Lead Engineer

"Design system was a game-changer... eliminated reinventing the wheel for every request"

Product Manager

"Reduces communication gaps between designers and product managers by deeply understanding user needs"

All 8 Recommendations + C-Suite Evidence → Verify on LinkedIn →
Design Stance

In Regulated Finance,
the Constraint Is the Brief

Compliance isn't a hurdle — it's a guide. In finance, the best products feel right because they respect every rule of the game.

ASIC leverage caps, GDPR consent flows, FCA marketing restrictions — these aren't obstacles to clean UI. They're the constraints that reveal which solutions are actually robust. In financial products, the regulation is the brief.

In regulated environments, designers who thrive aren't the ones who tolerate constraints — they're the ones who use constraints to build better systems.

Constraint-First Framing

Map regulatory, technical, and business constraints before sketching a single screen. The constraints ARE the brief.

Prototype the Risk

Build the compliance-critical path first. If the hardest flow works, everything else follows.

Ship with Legal in the Room

Legal isn't a reviewer at the end of the process — they're a collaborator from day one.

Systemize for the Next Crisis

Every solved problem becomes a reusable pattern. When regulations change, the system adapts in days, not months.

A principle I first observed at Christie's: the most commercially effective people structure their time as 90% execution at the highest level the current role demands, and 10% building visible proof of range beyond it. This portfolio is my 10%.

Multidimensional Design

Beyond the Screen

Design isn't just what I do — it's how I see the world.

Cross-Cultural Design Leadership

Designing Across Markets: SF · Tokyo · Taipei

Led design initiatives across APAC and Western markets, navigating regulatory frameworks (ASIC, FCA, FINRA) and cultural expectations. Trained distributed design teams on localization beyond translation.

40+
Countries Supported
5+
Regulatory Jurisdictions
3
Time Zones Coordinated
"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."

— Warren Buffett

In financial product design, risk comes from not fully understanding what you're building — the regulatory architecture, the user's decision-making context, the downstream consequences of a single UX choice. Every regulation exists because something went wrong. I treat compliance constraints as first-class design inputs.

I Partner with Engineering to Ship, Not Just Spec

My designs don't stop at mockups. I collaborate closely with engineering teams throughout implementation — from technical feasibility discussions to production QA.

I've Navigated a Regulatory Crisis

When ASIC issued a 14-day compliance order, I contributed a design-system-based approach to the team's crisis response. The system shipped on time — because the architecture was already built for change.

I Design Across Cultures, Not Just Languages

I've designed for 40+ countries, navigated APAC and Western regulatory frameworks, and shipped localized products across three time zones. Cross-cultural design isn't just translation — it's understanding how trust and risk perception differ across markets.

I Build Systems, Not Screens

One design system governs 5 product lines and measurably reduced implementation time. When regulations change, the system adapts in days. That's not a portfolio claim — it's how ACY actually operates.

Let's Talk

Open to Senior Product Design roles in institutional finance, private banking, and regulated trading platforms — where design has real ownership over product decisions. Specialising in UHNW client experience, institutional trading systems, and enterprise design at scale across regulated markets.

ed@edwson.com LinkedIn GitHub
Download Resume PDF

San Francisco · New York · London · Zurich · Singapore · Taipei — open to relocation

Currently open to Senior Product Design roles — available now
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