Interactive Brokers Challenge
This page details my work on a UX challenge provided by Interactive Brokers LLC, one of the largest electronic brokerage platforms on the market. I saw this as an opportunity to gain proficiency in designing for heavily data-driven sectors of business, such as the finance industry. The challenge was split into two projects; one to improve upon a pre-existing user experience, and the other determining one's ability to convey data in an engaging manner.
The first project of the challenge tasked the designer with redesigning a section of the Interactive Brokers Group Mobile app. Specifically, the Trade Assistant, where users configure alerts about the market, their account and/or their portfolio. The delivery was a proposed redesign that would improve usability, clarity and visual appeal for an overall improvement to the user experience of this section of the application. The second project was to to design an engaging display of data derived from analyst forecasts of Microsoft stock over a seven-year period. The goal was to display this information in a visual medium that would quickly and thoroughly convey the forecast status to relevant stakeholders.
Trade Assistant Redesign
Redundant info plagued IB's Trade Assistant screen. The status of notification elements were given their own sections despite this info being clearly conveyed via switch buttons. Also, some sections allowed the user to add elements to this already-cluttered page, further creating a visually-overwhelming UI.
I granted each section a dedicated page to avoid conveying too much information at once, bolster visual appeal and improve usability. This gave the redesign more breathing room, while also keeping key information from being obscured by the user's thumb when holding the device.
Notification Settings
By granting notification types their own page, we would not only adapt pre-existing functionality to a new screen (resulting in cheaper development costs), but also 'future proof' the app in that additional sections/functions could be easily added without cluttering the overall UI.
Within the induvial pages, users can fine-tune the specifics of each type of notification via sliders. Disabling notifications will 'grey out' the page sections, and directly inform the user; "You'll be notified" versus "You will not be notified." A further layer of conveyance to ensure clarity of functionality.
Addressing Potential Issues of the Market Notifications
A serious potential problem exists within the current Market Notifications section. At present, as the user adds Security/Indexes, it threatens to bury crucial information under a potentially ever-growing list. Imagine having to tediously scroll through this list every time to access 'Delivery Method' options!
Luckily, the 'page' approach I proposed handily addresses this issue. With the list regulated to a dedicated page, the user can continue to add Security/Indexes freely without worrying about imposing on the other sections of the app or burdening themselves with needless scrolling.
Displaying Analyst Forecast Data
Lastly, we come to the second project in the challenge; designing a display for analyst forecast data. Interactive Brokers provided a table displaying MSFT (Microsoft) Forecasted Book Value per Share from 2015-2022; it was my job to ensure the data was conveyed in an engaging manner.
A 'heatmap' gradient was used to illustrate stock performance versus the majority of estimates, with a contrasting green line indicating actual value. 'Total estimate' numbers grow larger with higher values to help visually-reflect the relationship between prediction accuracy and the quantity of estimates made.