Designing a zero-to-one fintech product that puts unclaimed money back in people's pockets
From zero to a product people actually trust
Chimo is a US fintech startup that helps consumers recover money they're legally owed, including class action lawsuit settlements, forgotten bank deposits and unclaimed state property. The product connects to 50+ official government and court databases, automates the paperwork, and handles the entire filing process on the user's behalf.
I was brought in from scratch to design the full product experience: brand identity, marketing homepage, two distinct claiming flows, SEO landing page system, and a component library, all handed off to development in 12 weeks.
$500 billion left unclaimed every year
More than 100 million Americans fail to collect money that is legally theirs. It spans class action payouts, expired gift cards, unclaimed property held by state treasuries, and forgotten government benefits. The brief identified three specific barriers blocking people from claiming what's owed:
The design challenge wasn't just making a form look nice. It was engineering trust and momentum in a context where cynicism runs high, the process is genuinely complex, and users are routinely asked for sensitive personal data (their Social Security Number, government ID, bank details) before they've seen a single dollar.
Every design decision served one of three goals — build trust quickly, reduce perceived effort, or reinforce the reward.
Trust vs. Playfulness
The client's brief included a strong desire for a gamified, playful aesthetic. It was a reasonable instinct. The brand story was built around "frontier justice" and the thrill of discovering hidden money. But I pushed back, and the conversation that followed shaped the entire visual direction of the product.
"When you're asking someone to submit their Social Security Number and government ID, whimsy creates doubt, not delight."
My argument was simple: people don't treat money like a game. The moment a product starts to feel lightweight, users in the financial space read it as unsafe. The playfulness the client wanted wasn't wrong. It was just being applied to the wrong layer.
My Recommendation: Frontier spirit in tone and language only. Clean, minimal UI that signals security. Warmth through color (burnt orange + cream), not through cartoons. Delight in moments of confirmation, not collection.
The result: a brand that keeps the cowboy metaphor alive in copywriting ("stake your claim," "we navigate the red tape") and in naming conventions, while presenting a UI that feels as secure as a bank and as approachable as a well-designed consumer app.
Frontier spirit, modern trust
The Chimo brand needed to hold two ideas in tension: the excitement of discovering money you didn't know existed, and the security of a platform trustworthy enough to hand your most sensitive documents to.
I built the identity around burnt orange, a color that reads as warm and approachable without sacrificing authority. Paired with a deep near-black and an off-white cream, it avoids both the coldness of traditional fintech blues and the childishness the client originally gravitated toward.
Typography follows the same logic. Yrsa for everything that earns trust: headlines, numbers, pull quotes. Open Sans for everything that moves the user forward: labels, forms, navigation. The pairing is deliberate. Warmth where it matters, clarity where it counts.
Typography follows the same logic. Yrsa for everything that earns trust: headlines, numbers, pull quotes. Open Sans for everything that moves the user forward: labels, forms, navigation. The pairing is deliberate. Warmth where it matters, clarity where it counts.
From brief to handoff in 12 weeks
The engagement started with a detailed product brief outlining the core flows, key requirements, and UX principles. My job was to translate those directions into a cohesive, production-ready design system.
Brief & Discovery
30-page product spec. UX constraints, conversion goals, edge cases.
Brand Direction
Color, typography, logo system, icon library, design principles.
Wireframes to HI-FI
Low-fi flows for both paths, then high-fidelity across desktop and mobile.
Systen & Handoff
Component library, annotated specs, responsive designs for development
Search. Find. Claim.
The unclaimed property flow is the product's primary conversion path. A user enters their name and state, Chimo searches 50+ federal and state databases, and presents them with a personalised results table, then guides them through a multi-step claim process with minimal friction.
Select. Qualify. File.
The class action flow serves users who may not even know which suits they're eligible for. Rather than requiring prior knowledge, the selector presents available claims in a scannable card format, each showing a potential payout, days remaining, and whether proof of purchase is required.
Five choices that mattered
01
Progress indicator on every step
Form abandonment is the product's biggest conversion problem. 80% of people quit midway through claims. A persistent progress indicator runs across the top of every screen in both flows. On desktop, all steps are visible simultaneously across a horizontal bar. On mobile, the header shows the step count ("Step 3 of 7") and the current step name. Tapping it expands a full step list with checkmarks for completed steps, the current step highlighted in orange, and upcoming steps visible but muted. Completed steps in the list are tappable, letting the user jump back to any previous step to correct a detail without losing their progress. Users always know where they are, how far they've come, and how much is left. That certainty is what keeps people in the flow.
02
Error messages that sound human, not robotic
Every error state in both flows was written in the brand's voice rather than defaulting to generic system language. No "Error: invalid input." Instead, errors speak directly to the user, name the specific problem, and tell them exactly how to fix it. The tone across all messages is direct and warm without being condescending. Research consistently shows that friendly, specific error messages reduce the abandonment that kills form completion rates.
03
Social sign-up at the highest-friction moment
Account creation was placed at the point where users had already seen their results and were motivated to proceed, not as a gate at the beginning. And rather than a full email/password form, Google and Apple sign-in options were offered first. Reducing that single step materially changes conversion at the flow's most vulnerable moment.
04
Social proof over statistics
The brief asked for a "$500 billion unclaimed" stat block, a number so large it loses all meaning. I replaced it with a live feed of real claims being found in real time: "Maria J. found $1,236, 2 minutes ago." That single row is more persuasive than any aggregate figure, because it answers the user's real question: does this actually work for people like me? Specificity creates belief. Statistics create skepticism.
05
Four versions of the hardest screen
The subscription screen is the highest-stakes moment in the entire product. The user has just seen money with their name on it. Asking them to pay before collecting it risks everything built up to this point. Four versions were designed, each testing a different hypothesis: plan-first with three commitment tiers, outcome-first with the user's potential payout anchored above the price, and two single-option variants at different price points to isolate pure price sensitivity.
Across all versions, one principle held constant: the payout is always visible before the price. "Submit your claim" reframes payment as a filing action rather than a purchase, a small copy change with significant psychological weight.
The homepage: building belief before the first click
The homepage was structured around four questions every skeptical visitor silently asks: is this real, is it worth my time, can I trust them with my data, and what do I have to lose? The visual system answers with rhythm and credibility. The copy answers with specificity: a live claim feed instead of an aggregate stat, loss aversion in the CTA, and a footer promise with zero filler: 'Zero paperwork. Zero guesswork.
An SEO system built to scale across every state and every claim
Users searching 'unclaimed money in Wisconsin' or 'Wheat Thins class action' are already looking for what Chimo offers. Rather than designing individual pages for each query, I built a single flexible template that adapts to any state or class action, keeping the trust architecture consistent while the content scales.
What I'd push further
This was a genuinely complex UX problem: two distinct claiming flows, an SEO content system, a brand built from zero, and a conversion funnel where the stakes, both financially and emotionally, are high. Shipping all of it in 12 weeks required sharp prioritisation and constant negotiation between what was ideal and what was buildable.
Given more runway, I'd invest most of it in validating the subscription screen with real users. Four layout variants were designed, and the hypotheses are clearly defined, but which framing converts best at this specific moment can only be answered with data. A proper A/B test across all four versions is the natural next step before committing to one direction in production.
I'd also explore motion design in the results and confirmation states. These are the moments when the product has a real opportunity to create genuine delight, and where the frontier brand story could come alive without undermining trust.
On the marketing side, I'd invest in A/B testing the hero headline, specifically whether the current 'Your money is out there. Go get it.' outperforms a more data-led variant like 'The average American is owed $2,000 they don't know about.' Specificity often beats inspiration in fintech conversion, and only a live test with real traffic would settle it definitively.
