Design Philosophy

One problem at five scales of capital.

Every project asks the same question: How do you help a human being make a high-stakes, irreversible capital decision when trust is the primary constraint? The answer changes with the audience. The design theory doesn't.

Scale 01 — 40+ Markets
Systemic Trust

Compliance infrastructure in the design system. ACY Securities

Scale 02 — 10,000+ Users
Behavioural Trust

Designing against Loss Aversion under drawdown. TradingCup

Scale 03 — 12+ Brokers
Institutional Trust

Legible FIX API integration. Trust through transparency. ACY Connect

Scale 04 — $28M+ AUM
Relationship Trust

Digital tools that amplify the advisor, not replace them. Xanthos

Scale 05 — 42 Clients
Structural Trust

Protocol that guarantees uncontaminated human judgment. Double-Blind

Tier 1 · Deep case studies

Institutional finance, end to end

The flagship work — shipped systems, production-grounded studies (drawn from real production work and rebuilt as independent studies, with fictional brands and original IP), and forward-looking concept studies. Each row opens into a full case study.

00
The System · Live Design System · 244 demos

The Edwson Design System

244 live component demos — the token-driven system every project on this page is built on. AI-native (ships as an MCP server for agents), runs on-prem for data residency, and spans trading, compliance, AML, AI-agent tooling, distributed clusters, and cross-platform / cross-browser rendering.

What it proves
244 live demos • 150+ components • dual-theme • WCAG 2.1 AA • shipped as a runnable, zero-dependency MCP server
Open the design system → eds-mcp on GitHub ↗
✓ Live · 244 demos The Edwson Design System — 244 live component demos, token-driven, dual-theme
01
The Consumer Sibling · Live Design System · 170 categories

The Consumer Design System

The B2C half of the same argument. 170 categories across 14 domains — onboarding, commerce, social, media, growth, trust & safety, and AI & agents — each carrying a platform anchor (Apple HIG, Material 3, WCAG 2.2, App Store / Play review, GDPR, COPPA, FTC, EU AI Act) instead of a financial regulator. Ships tokens and contracts as MCP-readable JSON, same as its institutional sibling.

What it proves
170 categories • 0 dark patterns, by construction — streaks with a grace day, no review-gating, FTC click-to-cancel, symmetric consent • the model produces, the human signs • dual-theme • WCAG 2.2 AA
Open the consumer system → See the institutional sibling ↗
✓ Live · 170 categories The Consumer Design System — 170 component categories for B2C, token-driven, dual-theme, zero dark patterns
02
Deep Case Study FinTech Platform

ACY Securities Ecosystem

Complete rebrand and digital transformation of ASIC-regulated brokerage. Led UX, compliance systems, and multi-country rollout.

Business Outcomes
150+ compliance components built • Design system unified 5 product lines • 8+ regulatory updates absorbed without structural rework
Case Study → Visit acy.com ↗
✓ Shipped · Live ACY Securities Ecosystem
03
Deep Case Study UHNW Client Experience

Christie's — UHNW Digital Platform

Designed a relationship-first digital platform for ultra-high-net-worth ($5M–$80M) real estate clients. Translated 260 years of brand authority into a digital editorial experience — where digital tools enhance broker relationships, not replace them. This became the empirical baseline for UHNW digital behaviour that directly informed the Xanthos Private Bank concept.

Business Outcomes
60% query-latency reduction • Full-stack WordPress engineering for UHNW audience • Print-to-digital luxury brand translation, zero brand compromise
Case Study → Christie's Real Estate Blog ↗
✓ Shipped · Live Christie's — UHNW Client Platform
04
Institutional B2B FIX Protocol · Prime Broker

ACY Connect — Institutional FIX API

Designed the documentation system and credential infrastructure for ACY's institutional FIX 4.4 API — the B2B layer serving prime brokers and liquidity providers. A 7-page information architecture governing how 5 user types experience the integration journey, from PM/BD to Market Data Engineer.

Business Outcomes
12+ institutional clients integrated via FIX 4.4 • 5-user taxonomy — PM/BD through Market Data Eng • Protocol knowledge base for TradeX terminal design
Case Study → Visit acyconnect.com ↗
✓ Shipped · B2B Institutional ACY Connect — Institutional FIX API Platform
05
Private Banking Research UHNW · B2B2C · Wealth Management

Xanthos Private Bank

A production-grounded private banking platform, rebuilt as an independent study — five interconnected flows for UHNW clients ($28M+ net worth) and their relationship managers. Portfolio dashboard, RM briefing intelligence, investment proposal acceptance, life event planning, and 5-step UHNW onboarding. B2B2C architecture where the RM is the primary tool user.

Design Approach
5 flows · 11 screens · FINRA/SEC/AML-informed design • B2B2C architecture — client experiences bank through RM • UHNW 55+ accessibility — WCAG 2.1 AA throughout
Case Study → Live Prototype ↗
◆ Production-grounded Xanthos Private Bank — UHNW Wealth Management Platform
06
Institutional Research Hedge Fund · FIX-Derived Design

TradeX — Institutional Hedge Fund Dashboard

A production-grounded institutional risk dashboard, rebuilt as an independent study — based on primary research with portfolio managers. Causal intelligence overlays, liquidity stress visualization, real-time alpha attribution, and GenAI scenario stress testing. Designing the institutional dashboard that incumbent terminal platforms structurally cannot build.

Design Approach
Primary research with portfolio managers ($100M–$50B AUM) • Interaction rules derived from FIX 4.4 production work at ACY Connect • SEC/FINRA-compliant execution workflow design
AI Hedge Fund Dashboard → Institutional Terminal →
◆ Production-grounded TradeX Institutional Hedge Fund Dashboard
07
Institutional Compliance Research AML · Financial Crimes · Cross-Asset

Argos — Cross-Asset Financial Crimes Platform

A production-grounded cross-asset AML/CFT compliance platform, rebuilt as an independent study — alert triage, investigator workspace, SAR filing, real estate compliance, and securities surveillance. Built from 4 years of regulatory component design at ACY Securities, translated into a dedicated financial crimes context.

Design Approach
40+ screens · 4 workflows · 4 user roles — L1/L2 Analyst, Investigator, Compliance Officer • 3 asset-class modules — Banking, Securities, Real Estate • AI co-pilot with explainable confidence scoring
Case Study → Live Prototype ↗
◆ Production-grounded Argos — Cross-Asset Financial Crimes Compliance Platform
08
Flagship Case Study · AI Governance Daily Production · AI-Integrated · 2024–Present

The Operating Model — AI Governance & Open Source

Not a concept — since late 2024 this is how I work. But the differentiator isn't using AI; it's the layer that governs it. Agents produce, the harness governs: Ed Agent (a human-gated agent harness — 9-stage lifecycle, red-team, grounding, iron-law halt, 14 MCP tools) and eds-mcp (my design system served as an MCP server — 65 component contracts). An interactive governance loop, a human-boundary register, and linked live exhibits.

Production Workflow · 2024–2026
Ed Agent v0.6.1 — human-gated harness · 14 MCP tools • eds-mcp v1.17.0 — design system as a server · 65 contracts • Governance loop — deterministic-first, escalate to a human • Velocity — one designer, seven product lines
See the Live Work →
✓ Live Since 2024 The Operating Model — AI Governance in Regulated Fintech
09
Featured Concept · 2026 · Senior PD Showcase B2C AI Wealth · Retail Fintech · Light Theme

Aureus · B2C AI Wealth Hub

Translating UHNW private-banking fiduciary logic into a retail mobile experience. Four AI modules (Velocity Dashboard, Alternative Finder, Event Radar, Fiduciary Decision Room) · 31 mobile screens · working React prototype · 3 embedded interactive demos · full 90-day persona journey. The dimension-reduction strike against B2C — built for Stripe / PayPal Wealth / Robinhood-tier interview presentation.

Translation, Not Speculation · Modelled, Not Measured
31 mobile screens + 14.5-sec hero walkthrough video • 4 core AI modules + 3 interactive demos (Velocity Curve playground · Compound Lens · Stress-Test slider) • Full 90-day user journey — Alex (30, winery sales manager) with 3 rejection moments proving the fiduciary sign-off is real • 5 regulatory guardrails mapped to UI — SEC Reg BI Care · Reg BI Conflict · FINRA 2111 · SEC 17a-4 · SR 11-7 • Provenance discipline — every module labelled production-derived vs concept extension • Editorial light theme · bone white · Cormorant Garamond · Aureus gold
Case Study (5 min) → Live Prototype ↗ Full Research Record (12 min) →
◆ Featured Concept · 2026 Aureus Velocity Dashboard — projected wealth curve, capital efficiency, lazy money meter — editorial light theme with bone white and Aureus gold
10
Concept · Live Demo · 2026 Private Banking CRM · AI Agent UX

ConnectX · Private Banking CRM

A CRM designed at editorial register rather than enterprise CRM register. Eleven screens, eight named AI agents, four explicit autonomy tiers (Ambient → Co-pilot → Assertive → Autonomous). The relationship graph IS the page; pipeline is a flow chart, not a kanban; AI observes and never directs. Built as a single self-contained React bundle — runs from disk, no build step.

Observatory CRM
11 canonical screens — Command Center, Pipeline, Account 360, Inbox, Meeting, Forecast, Agent Control, Workflow Studio, KYC, Compliance, Mobile • 8 named agents — COVENANT, BRIEF, INTRO, KYC, PULSE, DRAFT, TICKLER, FORECAST • 4 AI autonomy tiers — explicit governance switch, not a smartness slider • Cormorant Garamond · gold leaf · oxidized lavender for AI · ~2 MB self-contained bundle
Case Study → Live Demo ↗
◆ Concept Design ConnectX cinematic intro — Connect serif with italic gold X, 'the institutional CRM, reimagined'
11
Concept · Live Demo · Tier 4 UHNW · AI Governance · 2026

Double-Blind Fiduciary Protocol

An adversarial AI layer for UHNW relationship management. The RM commits their independent risk read first — sealed with SHA-256. AI reveals its cold read second. Every divergence requires a documented human resolution before the client call. Part of the Xanthos Private Bank ecosystem — the layer the client never sees but always feels.

Trust Infrastructure
8 canonical screens — Relationship Overview to Intelligence Dashboard • 5 deterministic scenarios — framing / convergent / magnitude / directional / null delta • SHA-256 via Web Crypto API · DevTools-verifiable network silence · SEC 17a-4 audit trail export · SR 11-7 effective challenge
Case Study → Live Demo ↗
◆ Concept Design Double-Blind Fiduciary Protocol — 42-client UHNW relationship overview, AI sessions sealed
12
F2B Concept · Live Prototype Institutional · FIX 4.4 · SWIFT MT54x · T+1 · 2026

Praxis Prime — F2B Prime Brokerage

Unified Front-to-Back prime brokerage platform tracking a 2M-share block trade across execution (Smart Order Router · VWAP/TWAP/POV), risk (cross-margin stress-test slider), and T+1 settlement (FIX/SWIFT Diff Viewer).

Institutional Infrastructure
8 modules wired and navigable • 5,288 LOC React/TypeScript • FIX/SWIFT Diff Viewer resolving protocol-mismatch breaks in a 30-sec UI cycle instead of a 4-hour email cycle
Case Study → Live Prototype ↗
◆ F2B Concept Praxis Prime — F2B prime brokerage platform
Tier 2 · Products & open-source

Products & Open-Source Tools

Shipped products with public evidence — ACY production surfaces (Finlogix, LogixPanel, TradingCup) alongside independent, solo-built developer libraries, animation engines and algorithmic platforms.

GalaxyJS — zero-dependency animation and UI library

GalaxyJS

✓ OPEN SOURCE

Zero-dependency cosmic animation + UI library — 60 canvas animations and a tokenized UI kit behind one API, ~15 kB gzipped, accessible, and AI-consumable via its own MCP server. v3.2.0, MIT.

Solo Library + API · Zero-Dep · MCP-Served · CI + Tests · MIT
ReactΩ Component System

ReactΩ

✓ SHIPPED

Production-ready React component library architected for scale. Modular UI systems, accessibility-first design, and enterprise-grade documentation.

Component System · Accessibility-First · ~40% UI Dev Speedup
Nova - Algorithm Analysis Tools

Nova

✓ SHIPPED

Algorithm-assisted portfolio analysis platform — risk models, calculators, and intelligent insights. Complex workflow orchestration and ML integration.

AI Trust Architecture · Cognitive Load Reduction · Transparency-First
PawsRoam — B2B2C Marketplace Platform

PawsRoam

✓ SHIPPED

B2B2C marketplace connecting pet service vendors (grooming, boarding, vet) to pet owners across Japan — built from 7 months of Tokyo field research to live MVP. Complete product ownership: architecture, design, engineering, launch.

B2B2C Architecture · 0-to-1 Market Execution · Full-Stack Engineering
Duo-Shou — second-hand strategist LINE bot for the Japanese resale market

Duo-Shou

✓ SHIPPED

A LINE bot "second-hand strategist" — photograph an item, get a fair value with calibrated confidence, a sell-timing alert, and a channel recommendation with ready-to-paste listing material. No commission, no custody of money. Solo 0-to-1 build, live on LINE in Japan.

Designed Honesty · Fiduciary Alignment · Consumer AI · Japan Localisation
TradingCup — Copy Trading Platform

TradingCup — Algorithmic Strategy Distribution

✓ SHIPPED

Designed a Risk-Calibration Engine for social trading — not a leaderboard. Solved Loss Aversion through pre-allocation expectation setting. Reduced time-to-first-copy from 4.7 to 1.2 days. Cut rage-disconnects by 41% via Progressive Disclosure of Risk.

187K organic clicks · 42.37% engagement · −41% rage-disconnect · 3.4× AUM duration
Finlogix — real-time market analytics platform

Finlogix — Real-Time Market Analytics

✓ SHIPPED

The first product I built end-to-end at ACY — a data-density redesign of a professional market-analytics platform. Modular widget workspace, full Chart 2.0 indicator suite, brand and light/dark token system. A controlled study (n=15, paired t(14)=8.92) measured time-to-insight 4.2s → 2.5s.

4.2s → 2.5s time-to-insight · Cohen's d = 2.47 · 8 jurisdictions · 40+ markets · live at finlogix.com
LogixPanel — enterprise CRM and admin console

LogixPanel — Enterprise CRM & Admin

✓ SHIPPED

The internal operating system of a regulated broker — not just a CRM. Client lifecycle, corporate B2B onboarding, treasury and money movement, IB / affiliate distribution, compliance and team RBAC — owned across 11 countries for ~3 years. The back-office inside the back-office.

4.5min → 72s lookup · 2wk → 2hr audit prep · 30% → 17% dropout · 11 countries · 40+ jurisdictions

Production Surfaces Beyond the Case Studies

Self-contained deployments served from edwson.com sub-paths and live at acy.com — campaign microsites, open-source design system docs, and interactive prototypes. These are working products, not mockups.

How these ship · the Ed Agent pipeline

These campaign surfaces are produced through an AI-augmented pipeline: a COO brief is routed by my Ed Agent through a nine-agent team — requirements, ideation, regulation, rules, design (me + Figma MCP), review, and release. Agents handle ingestion, analysis, and effort-triage; I keep design judgment, and every surface clears a human review and sign-off before it ships. Velocity on the campaign lane — not autonomy. See the operating model →

#L1 Ed Agent OPEN SOURCE · v0.6.1 My AI operating model, made runnable: one requirement → nine human-gated stages, two deliberation checkpoints, a self-correcting inner loop, and a local control-room dashboard. The case-study page runs the real engine in your browser ↗ → #L2 Intent Canvas CONCEPT · TYPED AI ARTIFACT Prose → typed Intent Graph → proposed Semantic Diff → human approval → execution. A portfolio-rebalancing demo where the AI's proposal is a reviewable object, not a paragraph — every change row carries rationale, evidence, and a confidence bar. → #L3 TrueWorth — Wealth Concept Microsite CONCEPT · MULTI-PAGE Multi-page concept exploration covering salary mechanics, opportunity framing, dollar-cost positioning, and privacy stance for the UHNW wealth product space. Live at edwson.com/TrueWorth ↗ → #L4 ACY Brand Book SHIPPED · BRAND SYSTEM Public-facing brand system documentation for ACY Securities — voice, colour, typography, application examples. Built as a self-contained reference deployment. → #L5 ACY App — Campaign Landing Campaign microsite for the ACY mobile trading app. Conversion-tuned landing copy and download flow targeting retail trader acquisition. → #L6 ACY Ambassadors Brand-ambassador campaign landing for ACY — partner-driven acquisition funnel with localised messaging across APAC markets. → #L7 Gold Trading Campaign Commodity-focused acquisition campaign — Gold/XAU trading product positioning, risk-disclosure-compliant copy, multi-language deployment. → #L8 Nova — Institutional Terminal CONCEPT · AI Risk-surface terminal concept: FIX order entry, Kelly criterion sizing, Reg T margin calculations. AI trust architecture at retail scale, ported from production FIX exposure. → #L9 ACY 15-Year Anniversary LIVE @ ACY.COM · SOLO DESIGN + BUILD ACY's 15-year brand-history campaign — an interactive landing page telling the story from global forex broker to technology-driven trading ecosystem. Design and front-end built solo. Live at acy.com ↗ → #L10 Echo Lattice DESIGN STUDY · LIVE PROTOTYPE A designer's study of a problem outside my domain: a treasury-approval attack, explored through Seo-yeon, a Head of Treasury Ops. Not a security product and not the optimal answer — a reframe that asks whether a change of angle reveals a different solution, hiding the real transaction in a lattice of decoys and holding suspicious requests before they reach her. Limits stated honestly. Working prototype in-browser ↗ → #L11 Macro Signal Network LIVE DATA · SOLO BUILD Independent data-viz build — an institutional macro-regime dashboard: six indicators (yield curve, financial conditions, credit spreads, initial claims, real M2, VIX regime) sourced live from FRED, with design-intel annotations framing each series for discretionary portfolio managers. → #L12 Index Weights — SPX & NDX as a single pie LIVE DATA · HAND-CRAFTED SVG Independent data-viz build — every S&P 500 (503) and NASDAQ-100 (101) constituent rendered as one interactive pie: live market-cap weighting, cap-vs-equal toggle, GICS 11-sector roll-up, and HHI concentration math (230.6 vs 638.2). Hand-crafted SVG, no chart library. → #L13 Custos — Self-Custody Wallet & DEX CONCEPT · LIVE PROTOTYPE A product designer architecting an entire self-custody crypto wallet + on-chain DEX end to end — HD key management (BIP39/32/44), swap engine, transaction state machine, gas, multi-chain, and the security-critical UX. Four live demos in the case study (interactive architecture, keygen flow, swap + tx tracker, security panel) and a clickable navy/blue prototype. Production-grounded, original IP, honestly scoped — not audited, not a shipped product. I design the system; I don't sell wallet security as a service. → #L14 Kotodama 言靈 — All-in-One Exchange CONCEPT · LIVE PROTOTYPE A design study of a full custodial exchange — spot, futures, earn, custody — told through its four hardest, most honest design problems: a unified three-ledger account with a margin-guarded transfer, a futures UX that keeps the liquidation price always on screen, earn returns stated as APR and APY, and KYC-tiered access. On a washi-and-vermillion Japanese visual line, with a clickable prototype. Concept, original IP, not audited. The risk disclosure is the hero, not the leverage. → #L15 WizAgents — A Public Square for Expert Intelligence LIVE PRODUCT · IN DEVELOPMENT A real product I'm building (wiz-agents.com): a marketplace where verified experts package their knowledge as MCP-subscribable AI agents, and a trust layer that makes every answer accountable — dated knowledge-base snapshots, a named human expert behind each agent, an escalation SLA, and an audit log. Designed and built end to end across buyer, creator, and enterprise. A marketplace is easy; trust is the product. → #L16 間 Ma — A Zen Sand Garden DESIGN STUDY · LIVE PROTOTYPE The opposite register of the finance work: an interactive dry-landscape sand garden — rake the sand, place stones, move the light, breathe. A live heightfield with directional lighting, seed-shareable, engineered to a production standard. No score, no goal, no wrong move. Proof the same discipline that makes scrutiny legible can make stillness. →
Methodology & Evidence

How the Work Holds Up

Process, compliance, research, and live prototypes — the load-bearing pages behind the case studies.

#M1 Institutional Readiness nearly five years across MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, ASIC RG 268, FCA COBS, FINRA, AML, KYC — how the portfolio maps onto top-tier finance hiring requirements. → #M2 Code Prototypes CodePen HTML/CSS/JS prototypes. Design-to-code parity on institutional fintech components — the proof that the handoff is honest. → #M3 Lessons Learned What compliance, institutional trading, and luxury editorial platforms each taught me — the callouts that did not fit inside a single case study. → #M4 Visual Design Evolution How the visual language tightened as the surface area scaled — typography, density, and brand system drift across five regulated platforms. →

For recruiters & hiring teams

Role-fit context, regulatory coverage matrix, and target companies.

If you are evaluating Ed for a senior product designer role in institutional finance, the hire page lays out the four years of regulated work, the eight regulatory rewrites absorbed, the five product surfaces shipped, and the categories of companies the work fits.

For recruiters & hiring teams →