Case 04 · Vlum — Adry Salazar XP

01 · Overview

A gateway that acts as the intermediary between paying and getting paid.

Vlum is a payment gateway: the intermediary that lets you collect payments through multiple electronic methods. Like point-of-sale tools such as Clip or Mercado Pago, or the platforms behind Uber, online courses, and subscriptions that rely on a gateway to generate the purchase ticket and the deposit to the merchant.

Beyond moving money, a gateway validates fraud and laundering. This project stayed on the drawing board, but it gave me a deep understanding of how payment-intermediary processes work.

02 · Challenge

How do you earn trust without being a bank?

The biggest challenge was understanding the companies that already exist and, above all, their validation: the backing of their clients and users' trust to deposit — often in foreign currency, due to restrictions that sometimes exist.

Moving other people's money requires that people believe in the platform before they use it.

“

I don't associate payment gateways with payments, but I trust the product, so I take the risk.

Testimonial · Research

“

I don't know the processes between the payment and how my bank asks me to authorize the charge.

Testimonial · Research

“

Most of my payments are set up on autopay, and I didn't know payment gateways as an intermediary.

Testimonial · Research

03 · Process

Benchmark, personas, and brand building.

All the ideation, the benchmark, and the creation of brand and identity were made to present a solid proposal to the client, who wanted to understand the process and step into the world of payment gateways.

Competitive benchmark
Analysis of existing gateways —Conekta, Stripe, OpenPay, PayU— mapping their customer journey: search, first contact, information, service, and decision.
User personas
Three real market profiles: a small-business CEO, a tech entrepreneur, and a freelance consultant, each with their own payment motivations and frustrations.
Customer journey
Vlum's ideal journey against the pain points spotted in the competition.
Brand & identity
Naming, logo, palette, and voice: a brand that feels close to banking without being a bank.
Landing & design system
A complete design system and a landing that lands the value proposition.

Benchmark · Conekta

Benchmark · Stripe

Customer journey · Vlum

Small business

Entrepreneur

Freelance

04 · Solution

Banking colors, language of trust.

The solution was to lean on what people already associate with safety: banking colors, terminology that matches a bank's —even though Vlum isn't one— and graphics tied to finance. If people associate them with a bank, the brand had to speak that language.

Brand · Vlum

Landing · Hero

Vlum design system: colors, typography, components

Full design system

Landing · Payment methods

Decision · 01

Banking-associated colors

A palette people link to financial institutions, to inherit that perception of safety.

Decision · 02

Bank terminology

Language that matches banking, even though Vlum is a gateway and not a bank.

Decision · 03

Finance graphics

Iconography and illustration tied to financial themes to reinforce the context.

05 · Outcome

A project that stayed on the drawing board, but left a lot behind.

4

Gateways analyzed

Benchmark of Conekta, Stripe, OpenPay, and PayU with their customer journey.

3

User personas

Small business, entrepreneur, and freelancer, with real motivations and frustrations.

1

Brand + design system

A complete identity and design system ready as a proposal for the client.

What I take away from this project

I deeply understood how payment-intermediary processes work: from the ticket to the deposit and fraud validation.
In finance, trust is designed: inheriting banking's visual cues brings the user closer before the first transaction.
A project not reaching production doesn't make it less valuable: the ideation, the benchmark, and the brand are learning that stays.

Vlum: trust to pay and get paid.

A gateway that acts as the intermediary between paying and getting paid.

How do you earn trust without being a bank?

Benchmark, personas, and brand building.

Competitive benchmark

User personas

Customer journey

Brand & identity

Landing & design system

Banking colors, language of trust.

Banking-associated colors

Bank terminology

Finance graphics

A project that stayed on the drawing board, but left a lot behind.

What I take away from this project

Curious about my work?