Executive summary
Perlas Network had built its financial services business around a nationwide network of physical terminals. But as online payments became increasingly common and competitors introduced mobile alternatives, the company wanted to extend its services to mobile and reach customers who preferred managing payments digitally.
Perlas Go needed to bring together different payment types, service providers, and more complex tasks — including managing payments for multiple households and combining different bills into a single cart — without making the app difficult to use.
Working closely with Perlas, Helmes took the product from early user journeys through to a tested UX/UI design, supported by the documentation and recommendations needed for development.
Meet the customer
Perlas Network is Lithuania’s largest trade and financial services network, with more than 2,400 terminals across the country. Located in supermarkets and stores throughout Lithuania, the network makes financial services accessible beyond traditional business hours, including in smaller towns and villages.
Through its terminals, Perlas provides a broad range of services, including bill and tax payments, mobile account top-ups, bank transfers, insurance and credit services, as well as cash deposits and withdrawals.
The challenge
Moving everyday financial services from a physical terminal to a mobile experience meant more than reproducing the same processes on a smaller screen.
The new experience needed to work for existing Perlas customers while also appealing to a younger, digitally confident audience. As a financial product, it also needed to feel straightforward and trustworthy, while giving Perlas a distinct identity in an increasingly competitive mobile payments market.
Behind the interface was considerable complexity. Different payment types and service providers followed their own processes, yet users needed to experience them as part of one coherent product.
The challenge was to preserve the functionality of those different services while making the experience straightforward enough to navigate on mobile.
Our approach
Helmes worked closely with the Perlas team throughout the design process, using workshops and brainstorming sessions to turn business requirements into clear user journeys. Rather than moving straight into visual design, the teams first focused on how people would move through the different payment tasks and where those journeys could be simplified.
The work progressed from early concepts to a design that could be tested and refined:
- Mapping the journeys: User flows and wireframes helped the teams work through different payment scenarios and establish how they should fit together within the app.
- Designing the experience: As the main journeys took shape, the team moved into detailed interface design, considering how information, interactions, and visual cues could make the experience clear and consistent.
- Prototyping the solution: High-fidelity prototypes made it possible to experience the proposed journeys more realistically and assess them before development.
- Testing with users: Helmes tested the proposed design with 10 participants to identify usability issues and understand where further refinement was needed before handover.
Feedback from Perlas and the usability testing was incorporated throughout, allowing the team to refine the experience before the final designs were prepared for implementation.
The solution & outcome
Within a few months, Perlas had a complete UX/UI design for Perlas Go. The final design brought different payment types and providers into a single, consistent mobile interface, with more complex tasks integrated into the same overall experience.
The design gave users access to payment history and spending information and incorporated different ways to access the app, including fingerprint and facial recognition. Illustrations, icons and micro-interactions helped guide users through different actions and provide visual feedback along the way.
Following testing and refinement, Helmes delivered the key user journeys, interactions and visual elements, supported by documentation and recommendations for implementation.
For Perlas, the outcome was a defined mobile product experience ready for development — translating its established approach to everyday financial services into a design built specifically for mobile use.
A few visuals
From complex payments to a simpler experience
The Perlas Go project showed the value of working through complex user journeys before development begins. Close collaboration with Perlas, combined with prototyping and user validation, helped the team identify issues early and provide a clear, implementation-ready design within a few months.
For organisations creating financial products or bringing established services into digital channels, Helmes combines business understanding, UX/UI design and user testing to turn complex processes into experiences people can navigate with confidence.
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