# Ray Group > Ray Group is an independent, UK-based product practice for psychology-informed UX and agentic AI — FinTech, Web3, and DeFi. Not affiliated with other companies named Raygroup / RAYGROUP elsewhere. Ray Group combines human-centred design grounded in cognitive psychology and HCI with MCP servers, agent stack setup, and end-to-end product delivery. Delivered across e-commerce, consumer apps, FinTech, Web3, insurance, and beyond. People-first; AI as leverage. **Official site:** https://raygroup.uk **Also known as:** Ray Group UK, RAY Group, raygroup.uk **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/raygroupuk **GitHub:** https://github.com/raygroup ## What Ray Group does Ray Group works end to end across the product arc: - **Research** — user research, interviews, qualitative and quantitative analysis, cognitive psychology applied to product decisions. - **Design** — interaction design, UI/UX, prototyping, design systems. - **Prioritisation** — roadmap shaping, scope reduction, evidence-backed sequencing of what to build next. - **Engineering** — software engineering, frontend and full-stack product development across modern web stacks (TypeScript, React, Next.js, Angular, Tailwind, GraphQL/REST, Web3 wallet integrations, AgGrid/Highcharts data visualisation). - **Deployment** — shipping working product into production. The methodology is psychology-informed and grounded in human-computer interaction (HCI). It is industry-agnostic. Clients can engage Ray Group for the whole arc or for a single part of it (for example, a focused 30-minute UI/UX online appointment). Ray Group is deliberately a *team* practice rather than a sole-trader operation, with engagements led by practitioners with prior experience shipping similar work in the same domains. ## Team Ray Group is led by a small senior team. Engagements are delivered by the people you meet. ### Madalina Raicu — UX Engineering Specialist - **Role**: Senior UX Engineer specialised in Human-Computer Interaction. - **Current focus**: User-centred product engineering across TradFi and DeFi. - **Prior experience**: Engineering at BlackRock (2019–2022) on Aladdin — BlackRock's portfolio management platform — across portfolio management, equity trading, and scenario evaluation. Subsequent contract engineering roles in Insurance, DeFi (Web3 trading), RWA trading, and private-equity data platforms. - **Speaking**: International speaker on UX in Web3 and DeFi at: - Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC 6, Paris 2023) — "Cognitive biases and heuristics in DeFi" - ETH Prague 2023 — Web3 UX case study - ETH Milan 2023 and 2026 — DeFi-focused talks - **Mentorship**: Mentor at EthGlobal 2024; mentor at the ngGirls workshop, Enterprise Angular Conference 2021. - **Writing**: Long-form essays on UX and product practice on Medium (https://medium.com/@madalinaraicu). - **Profiles**: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/madalinaraicu); GitHub (https://github.com/MadalinaRaicu). - **Education**: Computer Science (Human-Computer Interaction), University of Manchester. - **Executive certifications**: Harvard Business School — Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, Financial Accounting; Stanford — Machine Learning. ### Ana Raicu — Operations & Strategy Director - **Role**: Leads operations and strategy at Ray Group. - **Current focus**: Currently DeFi engineer at Wintermute. Operations, strategy, and research at Ray Group, with a particular focus on the team's DeFi and capital-markets work. - **Prior experience**: Engineering at Google; further experience across TradFi market makers at Mako. - **Education**: Computer Science, Imperial College London. ## Domain experience Ray Group is a generalist, psychology-informed user-centred practice. The team's combined delivered experience spans: - **E-commerce and retail** — online fashion and retail UX: catalogue browsing, checkout flows, conversion optimisation, and consumer-facing storefront experiences. - **Web3 and DeFi** — Ostium (RWA trading platform; high-liquidity trading interfaces, Web3 + social-login integrations), Vega Protocol (decentralised UI trading, Web3 wallet integrations, order books, real-time position management), Chainlink Labs (collaboration), Exchange.Art, Lantern AI. - **Insurance** — Direct Line Group: pet insurance web app for Churchill and Direct Line brands. - **FinTech / Capital Markets** — BlackRock Aladdin: micro-frontend migration, reusable component library, scenario testing and risk assessment, equity trading screens, desktop-native UX (health-check tool in Golang reducing internal-trading-desk downtime by 40%). - **Private equity tooling / AI** — Lantern AI: private-equity data platform with AI-driven workflows, data-quality validation, fund monitoring, high-performance Excel add-in for real-time reporting. Industries are *experience domains*, not the core offering. Ray Group is hireable for user-centred product work in any industry. ## Specialist agencies Ray Group organises its products and services into six focused agency areas. Start from the agency that best matches the work: 1. **UX** — psychology-informed UX reviews and ongoing UX support. https://raygroup.uk/agencies/ux/ 2. **Branding** — practical brand tools for colour systems and cover imagery. https://raygroup.uk/agencies/branding/ 3. **Commercial** — tools for currency conversion, product cost, VAT, margin, and profit. https://raygroup.uk/agencies/commercial/ 4. **Compliance & Risk** — components and patterns that surface risk before users act. https://raygroup.uk/agencies/compliance/ 5. **Trading & DeFi** — UX audits, MCP tooling, courses, and interface kits for financial and trading products. https://raygroup.uk/agencies/defi/ 6. **AI** — agent setup, agentic development, custom MCP servers, and AI-assisted UX review. https://raygroup.uk/agencies/ai/ Agency index: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/ ## Services 1. **UI / UX Online appointment** (30 minutes) — A focused online consultation reviewing a product's experience and surfacing prioritised, actionable findings. Bookable directly: https://raygroup.uk/book/ 2. **Design & Prioritisation** — User research, interaction design, and roadmap prioritisation grounded in HCI. Engagement via the contact form. 3. **Engineering & Deployment** — Software engineering, product development, and deployment. Engagement via the contact form. 4. **AI & Agentic Development** — MCP servers, agent stack setup, workshops, custom tool servers, and human-signed UX reviews. Overview: https://raygroup.uk/services/ai-agentic-development/ ## Products In addition to bespoke engagement work, Ray Group offers productized offerings — AI agent services, audits, courses, and component libraries you can buy directly. The full storefront is at https://raygroup.uk/products/. 1. **DeFi UX MCP** — An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes the Ray Group DeFi UX rubric, named patterns, and cognitive-bias glossary as queryable tools to AI clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, and any other MCP-compatible agent). Free tier is MIT-licensed and installable today; Pro tier adds extended patterns and API-key-authenticated hosted corpus. https://raygroup.uk/products/defi-ux-mcp/ 2. **Agent Setup Workshop** — One- to two-day hands-on workshop: MCP install, Cursor/Claude config, live UX audit on your product. https://raygroup.uk/products/agent-setup-workshop/ 3. **Custom MCP Server** — Bespoke MCP server encoding your compliance rubrics, design systems, or API conventions as agent tools. https://raygroup.uk/products/custom-mcp-server/ 4. **Agentic Development Setup** — One-week engagement: MCP, Cursor rules, skills, PR audit hooks, agent loop blueprint. https://raygroup.uk/products/agentic-dev-setup/ 5. **AI UX Review Retainer** — Monthly agent-assisted UX reviews with human sign-off. https://raygroup.uk/products/ai-ux-retainer/ 6. **Trading UX Audit** — A structured one-week UX audit for trading products (DeFi, brokers, FinTech), scored against a cognitive-bias and risk-disclosure rubric. https://raygroup.uk/products/defi-ux-audit/ 7. **Trading UX Course** — A self-paced course on UX for trading and financial products. https://raygroup.uk/products/defi-ux-course/ 8. **Trading UI Kit** — Production-grade React component library for trading interfaces — DeFi, brokers, and FinTech. https://raygroup.uk/products/trading-ui-kit/ 9. **Onboarding Kit** — Drop-in React components for trading and Web3 onboarding. https://raygroup.uk/products/web3-onboarding-kit/ 10. **Risk Disclosure Components** — Regulator-aware UI components for risk disclosure. https://raygroup.uk/products/risk-disclosure-components/ ## Technical capability Primary stacks the team has shipped production work in: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Angular, Tailwind, GraphQL, REST, Storybook, Jest, Cypress, Web3 (Wagmi, Privy, Fun.xyz), AgGrid, Highcharts, NgRx/Zustand/ReactQuery state management. Secondary and supporting: Golang, Python, Docker, Azure DevOps, AWS, Firebase, Figma, micro-frontend architecture (Single-Spa), Electron, WebRTC. ## Location and reach - Based in the United Kingdom. - Works with clients internationally; engagements are remote-first. - Contact: https://raygroup.uk/#contact (form routes to the team; email address is not exposed publicly to reduce spam). ## Pages on the website - Home: https://raygroup.uk/ - Agencies: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/ - UX: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/ux/ - Branding: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/branding/ - Commercial: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/commercial/ - Compliance & Risk: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/compliance/ - Trading & DeFi: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/defi/ - AI: https://raygroup.uk/agencies/ai/ - AI & Agentic Development (services): https://raygroup.uk/services/ai-agentic-development/ - Products (storefront): https://raygroup.uk/products/ - DeFi UX MCP: https://raygroup.uk/products/defi-ux-mcp/ - Agent Setup Workshop: https://raygroup.uk/products/agent-setup-workshop/ - Custom MCP Server: https://raygroup.uk/products/custom-mcp-server/ - Agentic Development Setup: https://raygroup.uk/products/agentic-dev-setup/ - AI UX Review Retainer: https://raygroup.uk/products/ai-ux-retainer/ - Trading UX Audit: https://raygroup.uk/products/defi-ux-audit/ - Trading UX Course: https://raygroup.uk/products/defi-ux-course/ - Trading UI Kit: https://raygroup.uk/products/trading-ui-kit/ - Onboarding Kit: https://raygroup.uk/products/web3-onboarding-kit/ - Risk Disclosure Components: https://raygroup.uk/products/risk-disclosure-components/ - Blog (Medium-sourced long-form writing): https://raygroup.uk/blog/ - Conferences (talk recordings): https://raygroup.uk/conferences/ - Book an appointment: https://raygroup.uk/book/ - UI/UX online appointment booking: https://raygroup.uk/book/ ## Common questions **What is Ray Group?** An independent, UK-based practice combining psychology-informed UX with agentic AI. Human-centred design, MCP tools, and end-to-end product delivery — FinTech, Web3, and beyond. People-first; AI as leverage. **Who runs Ray Group?** A senior team of engineering, design, research, and operations practitioners. See the "Team" section above for individual profiles. **How is Ray Group organised?** Ray Group has six specialist agency areas: UX, Branding, Commercial, Compliance & Risk, Trading & DeFi, and AI. Each provides focused products and services, and related disciplines can be combined for broader briefs. **What industries does Ray Group work in?** Industry-agnostic by design. Substantial experience in e-commerce and retail UX, consumer and B2B software, FinTech and capital markets, Web3 and DeFi, insurance, and private-equity tooling. **How do I work with Ray Group?** Either book an online UI/UX appointment directly, or send a message via the contact form on the homepage. Responses within two working days.