About
Designing for experts in high-stakes environments
I'm Kim Lawlor — a product designer working in complex financial software. Since 2020 I've been at QuoteMedia, designing market-data and trading products used by major Canadian banking and enterprise financial clients.
My work sits at the intersection of complexity and clarity. The products I design carry a lot — real-time market data, multi-step trading workflows, expert users working under time pressure — and still have to feel controlled and predictable.
I work end to end: UX and UI, design systems and component libraries, responsive product workflows, and hands-on design QA through implementation and release. That means working directly with developers, QA, sales, marketing, and executive leadership — for roughly five years, reporting to QuoteMedia's owner and CEO.
Design Philosophy
Design for the expert, not the median
The most demanding users in financial software are professionals who rely on these tools under high-stakes conditions every day. I design for depth and efficiency first, and discoverability second.
Reduce cognitive load relentlessly
In trading and research environments, mental overhead is a risk factor. Every unnecessary interaction, ambiguous label, or visual distraction has real consequences. My process centers on removing friction before adding features.
Systems thinking over surface design
Good enterprise UX is a coherent system where every component, pattern, and decision reinforces the others. I work from the model outward, not from the surface inward.