ekogift — a new way to send money
A first-of-its-kind gifting feature for fintech — animated mascots, themed moments, and real delight, shipped without a backend rework.
Project overview
Beyond utility — designing for delight.
Background. EKO Wallet was a recognized, stable digital wallet platform looking to move beyond core transactional utility to capture a new segment of the market. The competitive landscape demanded a breakthrough feature that would meaningfully increase engagement, differentiate the brand, and establish EKO as a leader in experience — not just function.
Challenge. Create a highly unique, engaging in-app gifting feature — ekogift — that goes beyond static digital cards to offer a premium, emotionally resonant experience. That meant designing an intuitive gifting flow and integrating complex, themed animations and mascots (Birthday, Love, Just for Fun) that deliver real delight, while keeping the animation performant on a live mobile app.
Objectives
Market innovation & differentiation — launch a disruptive feature that sets a new benchmark for digital gifting in fintech and creates a compelling loop for acquisition and retention.
Maximize user engagement — make gifting simple, emotional, and delightful across three animated themes, increasing adoption and time in app.
Overcome technical animation hurdles — embed smooth, performant animated mascots into the live app without hurting load times or stability.
Deliver a premium, modern experience — align the visual design with contemporary standards, reinforcing EKO as innovative and premium.
Team
1 Product Owner
1 Product Designer
1 UX Designer
2 Backend Developers
1 Mobile Developer
2 QA Analysts
My role
Sr. Product Designer
End-to-end product design
Mentoring UX designer
User testing
Funnel analysis
Timeline
3 months
About the wallet
What EKO Wallet is
EKO is the Paraguayan digital wallet that lets users manage their money simply and securely, endorsed by Banco Familiar. The platform provides a free international MasterCard debit card for global purchases, and inside the app users can instantly send and receive money, pay bills, and recharge services — total control over their finances from a single application.
Context
Starting point
Uncharted market territory
No integrated digital gifting existed in the market. EKO Wallet had a chance to be the first-mover in defining a new, emotional standard beyond basic transfers.
Low engagement beyond core transactions
Usage was transactional only. The absence of a social, novel feature limited delight, sharing, and any real chance at viral growth.
Lack of feature differentiation
No signature feature existed. ekogift was essential to brand differentiation and to establishing a premium, innovation-led market position.
Initial premise
Three constituencies, one release window.
User's perspective
Ease the understanding of the product & deliver delight.
Business
Drive higher user engagement and transactions.
Tech
Seamlessly incorporate complex animations.
Process
A rapid innovation sprint, not a roadmap item.
The project ran as a rapid Innovation Sprint with a singular goal: establish EKO Wallet as the first-mover in digital gifting and break through the platform's engagement ceiling. A preliminary discovery phase confirmed the market void and the opportunity for a dedicated social feature capable of driving viral growth — a goal well beyond routine transactions.
The core work was a swift, cross-functional sprint where design, engineering, and business rapidly prototyped ekogift together. Success hinged on two things at once: creating genuine delight through complex, animated mascots (Birthday, Love, Fun), and holding the line on shipping that animation without a disruptive backend refactor. That constraint kept the experimental feature efficient to build and low-risk to core systems.
Deliverables
Product features
ekogift
Sending ekogift
Special themes
Receive ekogift
Result
A first-mover feature, adopted fast.
In its first quarter, ekogift drove over 13,000 transactions and more than $200K gifted through the feature — strong early proof that fintech customers want delight, not just utility, when the experience earns it.