A product vision for a foreign-exchange app
Standard Bank asked us to imagine the future of Shyft, their foreign-exchange app, and ready it for a far broader user base. Across a 12-week engagement I worked on the research, ideation and concept validation, then designed a future-proofed UI that reframed Shyft from a single-purpose forex tool into a holistic, multi-currency money app.
Executive summary
Shyft was growing fast, but its product story hadn't caught up. Standard Bank asked Byte Orbit to define a vision for the next release - one that gave users a clear sense of the app's value, now and in future. I worked across research, multi-day persona-led ideation workshops and 50+ concept-validation interviews, then designed a future-proofed UI anchored by a new Globalview dashboard - reframing Shyft from a forex tool into a holistic, multi-currency money app.
Project context
Shyft was growing its user base and interest. The client wanted a concept for the next release that could define an exciting roadmap for the product, and give users a clear vision of what its value was - and could be in future.
They were ambitious. We were asked to look beyond the forex space at any new banking solution making waves internationally - to think about where Shyft could go as a product, not just how to polish the screens it already had.
Role & ownership
I was a Product Designer at Byte Orbit, working on a cross-functional team directly with the Shyft and Standard Bank product team.
- Contributed across research - customer-experience interviews, competitor analysis, user interviews and surveys, and concept validation.
- Helped facilitate multi-day, persona-led ideation workshops with the full 12-person client team.
- Designed Figma wireframes and partnered with UI designers and product owners on technical feasibility.
- Stayed on as a UX consultant through development and after launch, helping the technical and support teams resolve real customer-experience issues.
Problem
Shyft had been built around one job: foreign exchange. But users were doing far more with it - holding currencies, spending on Shyft cards, moving money around the world. The product's structure still told the old story, so its broader value was hard to see, and there was no clear narrative for where it was heading. The challenge was to reframe Shyft for a much wider audience without losing the forex strength it was known for.
Constraints
- A regulated banking product - every concept had to pass technical and feasibility checks with product owners and engineering before it could move forward.
- A fixed 12-week engagement covering research, validation and design for the next two releases.
- The design had to future-proof the app for features that didn't exist yet - so the structure needed room to grow.
- Blue-sky ambition had to be balanced against what a 12-person stakeholder group could align on and ship.
Research & evidence
We started with what we already knew, then widened out fast:
- Spoke to the Shyft customer-experience team about common problems, feature requests and where they believed the product could go.
- Ran a 2-day scoping session with the client to understand needs and expectations, then proposed how the 12-week engagement would work.
- Studied dozens of international products - from Marcus to Acorns and Robinhood - to learn how they had evolved and what that meant for Shyft's roadmap.
- Interviewed and surveyed Shyft users, friends of the product, and target-market customers who had never used it.
Armed with rough paper prototypes, we ran over 50 concept-validation interviews - one per archetype - before a single screen was designed.
Key decisions
Forex had owned the main screen. Moving it into a dedicated tab freed the most valuable real estate for a broader view of the product - and let the forex tab finally hold everything FX needed.
A single dashboard showing where in the world a user's money sits - wallets, cards and currencies at a glance - reframed Shyft as a place to manage money, not just exchange it.
On day two of each workshop, the client's key decision-makers ranked features by value to the user and the business - so the roadmap was owned, not handed over.
Every new screen left room for currencies and features that didn't exist yet, so the next releases could slot in without another redesign.
Design response
A complete UI refresh, built around three moves that carried the new product story.
A new dashboard showing all of a user's wallets, cards and currencies at once - where in the world their money is, and an overall view of their assets in Shyft. It brings together a global map widget, indicative rates, wallet and card balances, and a currency calculator, with deliberate room to expand as new currencies and features arrive.
Forex had owned the main screen. Moving it into its own tab freed the home screen for Globalview - and gave the exchange experience all of its own real estate, with a clearer rate chart and a cleaner buy flow.
With more people spending on Shyft cards than ever, a new Transact tab gave prime space to a Card-vs-Wallet balance ring and a transaction history, with quick toggling between currencies.
The Shyft website
Impact
The engagement delivered a validated product vision and a prioritised roadmap for the next two releases, agreed across a 12-person stakeholder team - grounded in 50+ user conversations rather than opinion. The new direction shipped as a complete UI refresh that future-proofed the app, with Globalview reframing Shyft from a forex tool into a holistic money app.
The updated product is live - you can see the current Shyft here.
Reflection
The most valuable thing we did was test blue-sky ideas with real users on paper, before committing a line of design or code. It meant the client could commit to a roadmap with evidence behind it, not just ambition.
Persona-led prioritisation was what kept a 12-person stakeholder group aligned - and designing for expansion, rather than just the features in front of us, is a habit I've carried into every product role since.