HSBC Wealth Compass

Designing for Ai

HSBC Wealth Compass

HSBC Wealth Compass was developed as a digital-first advisory experience that combined
the simplicity of a robo-investing platform with access to human advisors when needed.

The objective was to make investing more accessible, less intimidating, and easier for customers who wanted a guided, low-barrier entry into professionally managed portfolios.

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HSBC identified a gap in its wealth offering: many customers were interested in investing but lacked the confidence, knowledge, or time to engage with traditional advisory models. At the same time, fintech competitors were gaining traction with self-serve robo platforms that made onboarding and portfolio selection feel intuitive.

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Context & Opportunity

Before Wealth Compass, investing through HSBC often required in-person interactions, phone calls, or complex product conversations. The core problems were:

  • High friction onboarding - Lengthy paperwork, unclear steps, compliance overhead
  • Low financial confidence among new investors - Customers found terminology confusing and intimidating
  • Limited digital advisory - No streamlined way to educate, assess risk, and recommend portfolios online
  • Advisor workflows lacked integration - Advisors did not have digital visibility into customer progress or suitability
  • Compliance and suitability were not automated - Suitability checks were manual, slow, and error-prone

The opportunity was to create a hybrid experience that:

  • Lowered the barrier to investing
  • Provided guidance without overwhelming the user
  • Offered advisor support where human judgment added value
  • Delivered efficient onboarding and compliance capture
  • Aligned with HSBC’s global investment and regulatory framework

User & Stakeholder Research

Research was conducted across prospective investors, existing customers, and wealth advisors. Key insights included:

  • Customers wanted simple, jargon-free explanations
  • Confidence increased when users could simulate or explore outcomes
  • Suitability conversations felt repetitive; automation would reduce advisor workload
  • Advisors wanted visibility into customer progress and the ability to intervene when needed
  • Many customers preferred self-start but wanted reassurance before funding an account

Design Strategy

The strategic design pillars were:

  • Turquoise light bulb icon with a heart-shaped filament on a dark background.

    Clarity & Education - Plain-language content, tooltips, scenarios, and calculators to demystify investing.

  • A turquoise compass icon on a dark background symbolizing guidance or navigation.

    Guided Decision-Making- Wizard-style onboarding to assess goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon.

  • Icon of a person with a digital interface symbol next to them on dark background.

    Hybrid Human + Digital - Enable users to self-serve while offering advisors a collaboration touchpoint.

  • Icon of a person with a star, symbolizing personalization or user profile.

    Personalization - Tailor recommendations based on goals, financial situation, and risk profile.

  • Shield icon with a checkmark symbolizing security and compliance.

    Compliance by Design - Integrate disclosures, suitability rules, and regulatory requirements into the journey—without overwhelming the user.

Key Experience Features

Key features delivered included:

  • Guided Investment Onboarding - A step-by-step flow captured user goals, time horizon, financial profile, and risk tolerance, automatically generating a recommended portfolio.
  • Portfolio Recommendation & Comparison - The interface enabled users to:
    - View recommended portfolio
    - Compare alternatives
    - Explore projected outcomes
    - Understand underlying asset classes
  • Plain-Language Education - Terminology such as “risk,” “volatility,” or “time horizon” was contextualized with tooltips, scenarios, and illustrations to boost comprehension.
  • Advisor Collaboration Tools - Advisors gained visibility into customer profiles and progress, allowing them to assist or intervene at critical decision points.
  • Automated Suitability & Compliance Capture - Suitability checks, disclosures, and investor attestations were integrated into the experience to support regulatory compliance.

My role

As Senior UX & Product Manager, I redesigned the website and worked across:

  • Wealth product manufacturing teams
  • Digital platform engineering
  • Global design & content teams
  • Advisor network operations
  • Legal & Compliance

Impact

The redesigned experience resulted in:

  • Reduced onboarding friction for new investors
  • Increased adoption of managed portfolios among first-time investors
  • Increased engagement with tools, calculators, and campaign content.
  • Improved investor confidence through guided, jargon-free education
  • Better advisor productivity due to reduced manual suitability work
  • Strengthened competitive positioning vs. fintech robo platforms

Project visuals at a glance

The below visuals demonstrate how UX, content, and product strategy came together to make investing more accessible, guided, and confidence-building for new and existing customers.

[interface] interface of ai tool (for an ai saas company)
[background image] image of contact office (for a general contractor)
image of game development process (for a mobile gaming) - conceptualization stage
image of beer tastings (for a craft brewer)

COLLEAGUES feedback

Trusted by HSBC Colleagues

Richard's depth of experience, product intuition, and unwavering commitment to customer-centric design have shaped some of our most critical digital journeys. From complex onboarding flows to multi-channel servicing experiences, his work consistently demonstrated both strategic thinking and meticulous execution.

Richard is collaborative, data-informed, and relentlessly focused on delivering experiences that feel simple and empowering to customers. His contributions have had a lasting positive impact on our digital adoption and customer satisfaction metrics.I strongly recommend Richard for any senior UX or product design role—he is an exceptional talent who consistently raises the bar.

image of historical photos of the preschool
Robert Schuster
Head of UX / UI Design for the Americas at HSBC Bank

Over nearly two decades, Richard played a pivotal role in the evolution of HSBC’s public website experience. His ability to balance brand, customer needs, regulatory constraints, and commercial priorities made him an invaluable partner in some of our most complex and high-visibility initiatives. Whether doing a full redesign, redesigning core product journeys or driving improvements to content structure and navigation, his work consistently elevated the quality and clarity of our digital presence.

image of community involvement for a furniture store
Tracy Wong
Head of Public Website for HSBC Bank Canada

Richard played a key role in shaping the evolution of our public website into a more personal, relevant and customer-focused experience. His ability to align brand, customer needs, regulatory considerations and commercial goals made them an invaluable partner across our most visible digital initiatives.He worked seamlessly across product, engineering, marketing and compliance teams, helping us move from static information delivery to tailored journeys and more intuitive paths to product discovery.

community outreach event: educational workshop
Kerri Dawson
Head of Digital Channels for HSBC Bank Canada

Working with Richard made an immediate impact on product quality. He proactively involved QA during design reviews, clarified edge cases, and documented behaviors that used to show up as late-stage defects. Our team felt empowered instead of reactive, and it significantly improved collaboration between QA, design, and development. I can confidently say UX played a major role in reducing defects and making our releases smoother.

[interface] image of a tablet showing a saas product interface (for an ai saas company)
Graeme Taylor
Senior Digital QA & Test Manager

Across many years and countless digital sales campaigns, Richard proved to be one of our most reliable and insightful UX partners. Beyond exceptional design skills, his breadth of digital knowledge — spanning UX, content, SEO, performance, accessibility and customer behaviour — made him uniquely effective at turning complex propositions into clear, relevant and commercially strong customer journeys.

image of office environment [interface]
Naomi Dias-Hawe
AVP Digital Sales at HSBC Bank Canada

Richard was a key contributor to HSBC Bank Canada's digital transformation programme. His strong UX expertise helped us redesign and streamline critical customer journeys, especially onboarding and account opening.Richard’s user-centered approach removed major friction points, resulting in smoother, more intuitive experiences, lower drop-off rates, and faster time-to-value for new customers. His collaborative style and focus on measurable impact made him an excellent partner in delivering a world-class digital banking experience.I highly recommend Richard for any UX or digital product role—he consistently puts the customer first and delivers results.

image of team member explaining a conservation project
Jun Shen
Head of Online and Mobile Banking Channels at HSBC Bank Canada
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