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Case Study: Monetary Authority of Singapore

Licensing Dashboard for FIs & MAS Officers

Designing a dual-audience regulatory platform that transformed Singapore's financial licence application process — reducing manual review time and empowering both financial institutions and government officers.

ClientMonetary Authority of Singapore
My RoleSenior Product Designer (Lead UX)
DurationOct 2021 – Jan 2025
PlatformWeb Dashboard (Desktop-first)
Domain
RegTech / eLicensing
Users
FI Applicants & MAS Officers
Key Outcome
+5% submission rate improvement
Methods
Research, Testing, Design Systems
01
Context & Challenge

A paper-heavy process in a digital-first world

The Monetary Authority of Singapore's eLicensing division handled the applications of financial institutions (FIs) seeking regulatory licences — a process deeply embedded in email threads, PDF submissions, and manual review workflows. MAS officers lacked a centralised view of application status, and FI representatives had no visibility into where their submissions stood in the review pipeline.

The project mandate was to design the first dedicated digital licensing dashboard — serving two fundamentally different user types simultaneously — while meeting MAS's strict regulatory compliance and data governance requirements.

The Problem (FI Side)
Financial institution representatives had no real-time visibility into their licence applications. They submitted forms via email and waited weeks without structured feedback, leading to incomplete submissions and re-work cycles.
The Problem (Officer Side)
MAS officers managed applications across fragmented tools — spreadsheets, email, and legacy internal systems. No unified dashboard meant time-consuming cross-referencing and missed SLAs.
Design Constraint
Both user types needed to use the same system — but required entirely different views, permissions, and workflows. A single UX had to scale to two distinct mental models without creating confusion.
Compliance Requirement
All design decisions required alignment with MAS regulatory standards: data security, audit trails, role-based access controls, and an accessibility-first approach for government digital services.
02
UX Research Process

Listening before designing

Before any wireframes were drawn, the team embarked on a structured discovery phase. The goal was to understand not just what users did, but why the existing system had failed them — and what a better version would need to feel like.

Phase 1 — Discovery
Stakeholder Mapping & Contextual Interviews
Mapped all stakeholders across MAS eLicensing: compliance officers, relationship managers, system administrators, and FI applicants ranging from startup fintechs to established banks. Conducted 12 contextual interviews — 6 with MAS officers and 6 with FI representatives — shadowing their existing workflows to understand pain points first-hand.
12 interviewsContextual inquiryStakeholder mappingAffinity clustering
Phase 2 — Synthesis
Card Sorting & Mental Model Mapping
Ran open card sorting sessions with 8 participants (4 officers, 4 FI users) to understand how both groups naturally categorised and labelled licensing concepts. Results revealed significant terminology mismatch between MAS internal language and FI-facing terminology — a critical IA insight that directly shaped navigation structure.
Open card sort8 participantsMental model mappingTree testing
Phase 3 — Definition
Persona Development & Journey Mapping
Synthesised research into two primary personas representing each user type. Mapped the end-to-end licensing journey from initial application to licence issuance, identifying seven distinct friction points — three of which became the prioritised design focus for MVP.
2 primary personasJourney mappingFriction auditJobs-to-be-done
Phase 4 — Design
IA, Wireframing & Prototype Iteration
Built the information architecture from card sort findings. Developed low-fidelity wireframes through two iteration cycles, escalating to interactive Figma prototypes. Held three internal design critique sessions before stakeholder review presentations to senior MAS leadership.
IA sitemapLo-fi wireframesFigma prototypingDesign critique
Phase 5 — Validation
Usability Testing & Iterative Refinement
Conducted moderated usability testing with 10 participants across two rounds. Tests focused on task completion rates for core flows: submitting an application (FI view) and processing a review queue (Officer view). Findings fed directly back into design iterations before final handoff.
Moderated usability tests10 participants2 test roundsTask completion metrics
03
User Personas

Two users, one platform

Research synthesised into two primary personas that guided every design decision — from navigation structure to information hierarchy to notification logic.

RN
Rachel Ng
Compliance Manager, Fintech Startup
Age 34 · Singapore
Tech literacyHigh — uses multiple SaaS tools daily
FrequencyMonthly (licence applications/renewals)
Goals
  • Submit a complete application without back-and-forth emails
  • Track application status in real time without calling MAS helpdesk
  • Understand exactly what documents are missing or incorrect
Pain Points
  • No visibility into review progress after submission — feels like a black box
  • Required document checklist buried in a PDF, not surfaced contextually
  • Error messages are cryptic; hard to know how to fix a rejected field

"I just want to know what's happening with our application. Even a status bar would help."

AH
Ahmad Haris
Senior Licensing Officer, MAS
Age 42 · Singapore
Tech literacyModerate — comfortable with gov portals
FrequencyDaily — processes 15–30 cases per week
Goals
  • Get a clear, prioritised view of pending applications each day
  • Easily request additional documents with structured feedback
  • Maintain an auditable trail of all review actions
Pain Points
  • Currently manages cases across email and three separate spreadsheets
  • No way to delegate or reassign cases when colleagues are on leave
  • Searching for historical applications is extremely slow

"If I can see all my cases in one view with their status, that alone would save me an hour a day."

04
Card Sorting

How users naturally organise information

Open card sorting sessions revealed how each user group mentally categorised the features and content of the licensing system. 28 cards were sorted by 8 participants. Three distinct groupings emerged with high agreement, while several "contested" cards highlighted terminology and workflow misalignments between user groups.

■ Card Sort Results — Majority Groupings (n=8, open sort)
My Applications
Application status tracker
Document upload checklist
Submission history
Draft applications
Feedback & clarification requests
Renewal reminders ⚑ contested
Review Queue (Officer)
Pending review cases
Case assignment
Application details view
Request for information (RFI)
Approve / Reject action
SLA deadline indicator ⚑ contested
Licence Management
Active licences list
Licence conditions
Conditions compliance status
Annual fee payment ⚑ contested
Licence certificate download
Entity profile & contacts

⚑ Contested cards were placed in different groups by FI users vs MAS officers, highlighting key IA decision points resolved through tree testing.

05
Information Architecture

Structuring two views from one system

Card sort findings and tree testing results informed a role-based IA — a single platform with two distinct navigation structures surfaced based on user type. The IA was validated through two rounds of tree testing with 6 additional participants before being locked for wireframing.

FI Applicant View
Level 1
MAS eLicensing Portal
Level 2
Dashboard
My Applications
Licences
Notifications
Profile & Entity
Level 3
New application
Draft applications
Submitted applications
Pending FI action
Active licences
Licence conditions
Renewal due
MAS Officer View
Level 2
Dashboard
Review Queue
Case Details
Reports & Analytics
Admin
Level 3
Assigned to me
All pending cases
SLA at risk
RFI sent — awaiting
Approved cases
Volume by licence type
User management
06
Final Designs

The platform in action

Seven key screens from the final Figma prototype, spanning both the MAS Officer and FI Applicant experiences — from the assignments dashboard through to application detail, IPA stages, and clarification flows.

Officer Assignments Dashboard
Officer View
Assignments Dashboard
Officers see a prioritised queue of all assigned cases with status indicators — due dates, in-progress, pending assignment, and in-principle approvals at a glance.
FI Applicant Dashboard
FI Applicant View
My Applications Dashboard
FI users land on a personalised home showing active licence types, submitted applications, and draft applications — with one-click access to start a new application.
FI Pending Actions
FI Applicant View
Pending Actions — Clarifications
The Pending Actions tab surfaces applications that require FI response. Status badges ("Under review", "Pending response") and an expandable clarification tree make required actions immediately clear.
Form Clarifications and Amendments
Officer View
Form Review — Clarifications & Amendments
Officers review submitted form data section by section with a persistent left-nav showing all 11 sections. Inline comments allow structured clarification requests directly against specific fields.
Application Details - Details tab
Officer View
Application Details — Details & Documents
The case detail view shows regulatory history, assigned officer, days outstanding, and all associated forms and documents — with a five-stage pipeline tab (Details → Screening → Assessment → IPA → Licence issuance).
Application Details - Assessment and Approval
Officer View
Assessment & Approval Stage
The Assessment tab surfaces IPA requirements, a team comments thread, and key officer actions — Generate Put Up, Generate Offer Letter, Terminate — alongside an FI document upload area and a configurable tasklist.
IPA Stage with comments thread
Officer View
IPA Stage — Requirements & Communication Thread
The IPA tab tracks offer letter acknowledgement, outstanding requirements with document uploads against each item, and a full threaded comments log between MAS officers and the FI applicant — creating a complete audit trail of all correspondence within a single case view.
07
Key Research Findings

What the data revealed

Usability testing across two rounds surfaced clear, actionable insights that shaped the final design. Findings were documented, prioritised by severity, and presented to the product and engineering teams with design recommendations for each.

78%
Status visibility gap
Of FI users in round 1 testing could not identify their application's current review stage without navigating to a secondary screen.
3.4×
Task time reduction
Officers completed a case review task 3.4× faster in the new dashboard prototype vs self-reported time using their existing email-based workflow.
6/8
Navigation mismatch
Participants in tree testing chose different top-level navigation paths for "renewing a licence" — confirming the contested card sort result and driving a dedicated renewal entry point.
92%
Round 2 task success
After incorporating round 1 findings, core task completion rate improved to 92% across the three primary user journeys tested.
100%
Officer preference
All officer participants preferred the consolidated queue view, with the SLA risk indicator cited as the single most valued new feature.
+5%
Submission rate lift
Post-launch: licence application submission rates improved by 5% within the first quarter, attributed to the contextual document checklist.
08
Key Design Decisions

Translating insights into interface

◎
Role-based dashboard personalisation
Rather than a shared homepage, the system detects user role on login and renders a completely different dashboard shell. Officers see a prioritised review queue with SLA indicators. FI users see a status timeline of their active applications. Reduces cognitive load by showing only what's relevant to each user type.
◈
Contextual document checklist (not a static PDF)
The primary cause of incomplete submissions was a static PDF document checklist that users frequently missed. The redesign surfaced a dynamic, step-specific checklist inline within the application form — showing only what's required for the current section, with inline upload and real-time validation.
◐
Progressive disclosure for complex forms
Licensing applications contain up to 47 fields across 11 sections. Rather than a single scrollable mega-form, the interface uses a stepped wizard pattern with a persistent left-nav and progress indicator — reducing perceived complexity without changing the number of required fields.
◇
Structured clarification & communication thread
Officers previously sent freeform emails requesting additional documents. The clarification module provides structured requests linked to specific form sections, with a threaded comment log shared between MAS officers and FI applicants — creating a complete, auditable correspondence trail within each case.
▣
Five-stage pipeline view for officers
The case detail view organises all review activity across a five-stage pipeline tab — Details, Screening, Assessment & Approval, IPA, and Licence Issuance — giving officers a clear mental model of where a case stands and what actions are available at each stage.
Figma View the full interactive prototype: Officer and FI Dashboard – MAS
09
Outcomes & Impact

First digital licence application — delivered

The platform launched as MAS's first fully digital licensing application portal, replacing a process that had been paper and email-based for over a decade. Impact was measured across both user groups following go-live.

+5%
Increase in application submission rates within Q1 post-launch
3.4×
Faster case review time for MAS officers vs prior workflow
92%
Task completion rate in round 2 usability testing

Beyond quantitative metrics, the project established the first user research and usability testing framework within MAS's eLicensing team — creating a repeatable methodology that continues to be used for subsequent digital service improvements.

10
Reflections & Learnings

What I'd do differently — and what I'd double down on

→
The dual-audience problem requires upfront role modelling, not retrofitting. Committing to two separate dashboard shells from the beginning — rather than building one view with conditional elements — was the clearest and most impactful architectural decision made early in the project.
→
Card sorting is most valuable for the questions it surfaces. The contested cards — the ones users disagreed on — were more valuable than the consensus groupings. They pointed directly to the terminology gaps that, if left unaddressed, would have caused findability failures in the final product.
→
Regulatory stakeholders are users too. Senior MAS leadership needed to feel confident in what they were approving. Learning to communicate design decisions in terms of compliance outcomes and user impact — not just UX principles — was essential to moving fast in a government context.
→
If I were to revisit: I'd invest more in the mobile-responsive view earlier in the process. Post-launch feedback revealed that several FI users at smaller fintech firms were checking application status on mobile — a responsive approach from the start would have been more inclusive.
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