Platform: Web-app & Mobile-app
Role: Lead UX/UI Designer for Southeast Asian Countries
Duration: 2019 - 2021

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Project Overview

Mercedes-Benz Financial Services (MBFS) identified a growing need to modernize its after-sale experience for customers who financed their vehicles. The existing post-purchase experience was fragmented, paper-based, and inconsistent across channels. Our mission was to design an intuitive, scalable, and secure digital platform (web-app and mobile-app) that offers customers the ability to manage their contracts, payments, renewals, and support their needs efficiently and independently.

As the Lead UX/UI Designer, I spearheaded the end-to-end design process - from research and conceptualization to stakeholder alignment, prototyping, and final design handoff - navigating a complex enterprise ecosystem to deliver a product that balanced user needs with strict corporate, legal, and technical constraints.

Objectives

1. Create a unified digital interface for MB-financed customers post-vehicle purchase.

2. Enable customers to:

   • View and manage active contracts

   • Make one-time or recurring payments

   • Initiate and complete contract renewals

   • Contact customer support and track support ticket status

   • Receive relevant notifications and updates

Key Challenges

Internal Challenges

• Bureaucratic complexity: Decision-making within the corporate structure involved multiple layers of approvals, which slowed design iteration and implementation.

• Legacy systems: The digital infrastructure was built on outdated backend technologies and inflexible data models, making design innovation difficult.

• Siloed departments: Each team used different design libraries, component systems, and documentation formats, leading to inconsistency and fragmentation.

• Restricted user access: Due to the confidentiality of financial data and strict NDAs, we had limited ability to conduct user research, usability tests, or gather direct feedback.

External Challenges

• Brand governance: Mercedes-Benz brand partners had strict brand identity rules and minimal involvement in UX decision-making, limiting creative freedom.

• Strategy volatility: Frequent shifts in corporate digital and product strategy caused confusion and disrupted the team’s ability to maintain focus and momentum.

Design Approach

1. Discovery & Research (within constraints)

Despite the lack of access to real users, we conducted:

• Stakeholder interviews across departments (product, support, finance, legal) to understand user pain points indirectly.

• Internal usability audits of legacy systems and customer-facing portals.

• Data analysis of support ticket logs and CRM systems to identify frequent customer issues and tasks.

We also referenced indirect benchmarks from other high-end automotive and fintech experiences to define expectations.

2. Problem Framing

From the research, we defined key pain points:

• Customers were unaware of contract status or deadlines.

• Payment processes were cumbersome, often requiring physical interaction.

• Renewing contracts was complex and lacked clear guidance.

• Support access was slow and inconsistent.

These insights shaped our design principles:

• Transparency: Visual clarity of contract status, payment history, and next steps.

• Simplicity: Reduce cognitive load by guiding users through complex financial actions.

• Empowerment: Give users full control over their post-purchase experience, asynchronously and remotely.

Key Features Designed

Customer Dashboard

A centralized hub offering:

• Active contract overviews with real-time status indicators.

• Visual summaries of monthly payments, deadlines, and contract milestones.

• Notifications and important updates (e.g. renewal eligibility, overdue alerts).

Payments Center

• Support for one-time payments, scheduled payments, and installment views.

• Secure integration with payment gateways (compliant with Mercedes-Benz and financial regulations).

• Receipts and transaction history available for download.

Contract Renewal Flow

• Simplified multi-step renewal wizard.

• Smart pre-filled forms based on user history.

• Digital consent and e-signature capability integration.

Customer Support Portal

• Open and manage support tickets by category (billing, contracts, technical).

• In-app ticket status tracking and agent communication threads.

• Knowledge base and quick-help section for self-service.

Design System & Collaboration

To bridge the gap between siloed design efforts:

• I audited all internal design libraries, identified redundancies, and collaborated with other designers to standardize a scalable UI component system.

• Advocated for an internal cross-functional design guild, enabling knowledge sharing between siloed departments.

• Defined documentation standards and Figma libraries to align with Mercedes-Benz’s corporate design language.

Stakeholder Management

Working in such a layered organization required strong stakeholder facilitation. I:

• Conducted regular design walkthroughs with product managers, IT, and senior executives.

• Created prototype-driven storytelling decks to illustrate concepts clearly and reduce ambiguity during reviews.

• Navigated legal and compliance reviews by creating design exception reports to rationalize user-first design decisions.

  
  

My Role & Responsibilities

As Lead UX/UI Designer for Southeast Asian Countries, I was responsible for:

• Leading design strategy, research, and execution focusing on SEA markets.

• Working closely with other fellow designers from MB HQ, MB USA, MB Europe, MB China to keep design and branded content consistent.

• Translating ambiguous requirements into actionable user flows and interfaces.

• Managing stakeholder relationships across departments and external brand partners.

• Establishing design standards and promoting cross-team alignment.

• Delivering final prototypes and design specs to the development team.