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Brel Financial
Client portal for a leasing company
Brel is a Mexican boutique leasing company with more than 15 years of operation. Its premium positioning wasn't reflected in its client portal. The goal was to redesign the platform around its main user, rebuild the information architecture around tasks and raise the visual quality.
The problem
The portal mixed the needs of the CEO, accounting and operations. The most frequent user was the client's finance team, mostly accountants around 50, and the hierarchy didn't follow their workflow. The design also felt generic for a premium brand.
Information architecture
I evaluated two structures: by legal entity, aimed at executives, and by task, aimed at high-frequency finance users. I validated three proto-personas with the client, who confirmed the accountant as the primary user.
That decision set the scope and led to task-based navigation: Summary, Assets, Account statements, Payments, Documents, Claims and insurance, and a help call to action.
Constraints
- One legal entity per session.
- Users 50+: 16px minimum text; 14px only for badges; 12px only for legal or footer text.
- An informational portal, not a transactional one.
- Multi-contract structure: one client can have several contracts.
- Figma as the design tool.
Design strategy
I used the Assets section as a pilot, moving from wireframe to high fidelity and iterating with the client before building a complete system. The remaining screens reused those decisions, with tokens and components built to make engineering handoff easier.
Design system
It starts from three brand colors (gray, blue and black) and is organized in three layers: foundations, components and patterns.
Where it stands
Delivered in high fidelity for mobile and desktop, with a documented design system. It hasn't launched, so there are no results yet. The metrics defined to validate it: portal adoption, how often accountants use it, fewer support tickets and time to complete tasks.
What I take from it
The project started with one question: who uses the portal every day, and for what. I designed the hierarchy around the accountant, not around the client's org chart.
If I did it again, I'd validate the architecture with real accountants before building the full system, and define from the start how to measure adoption and task completion.