The Client

Tradovate, is a Commodities and Futures trading platform. Their aim is to provide modern, seamless cross-platform trading for their users. Though somewhat new to the finance field, Tradovate has a user base of over 2,000 and growing. 

The Problem

Helping create a complete and uniform design that speaks to the overall brand of Tradovate.  

Our Solution

Research and revise the visual design of the registration process and messaging to make it more intuitive and to align with the overall brand.

Our Tools

Sketch, Principle, InVision, Keynote

The Timeline

4 weeks

My Responsibilities

Design Strategy

User Interviews

Moodboards

Style Tiles

Desirability Testing

Wireframes and Prototypes

Usability Testing

Client Interactions

Annotated Screens

Style Guide

Our Approach

When meeting with our client they shared that their company, despite their success, was relatively young compared to their competitors and was only beginning  to market their product. Our task was to create a holistic brand look with a focus on how the brand could be marketed. 

We conducted research to gain a better understanding of the product. This included looking into several direct and indirect competitors to evaluate effective design patterns and areas of opportunity. 

As a team, we collaborated on creating a Competitive Analysis and then synthesized all of the information. A couple takeaways we gathered was:

• We needed to make conscious choices with color and typography.

• There was an opportunity to design something that was both credible and bold.

After looking into competitors and researching the current market, we were able to come up with 3 Design Principles to guide our designs:

Credible - We wanted our designs to feel trustworthy and secure for users

Vibrant - We wanted our designs to have elements that were engaging and bold

Goal Oriented - We wanted our designs to incite action from users

Style Explorations

In our first round of testing, we focused on desirability testing the style tiles we created. Users were given a list of 30 adjectives to help them describe each design. During testing, users enjoyed the design explorations that aligned most with the current Tradovate brand. Users also reacted positively towards my style tiles, stating some of the explorations felt credible, vibrant, and modern. 

Finding Solutions

For the second round of testing we took the style tile that tested the best amongst users and created an initial high fidelity mockup. We were challenged to find the best solution to fit into our scope of work and also meet our client’s needs. We came to the conclusion of building out a prototype focusing on the registration flow of a new user signing up for a live trading account. For testing we aimed to evaluate the overall usability of each prototype. 

Users, during testing, expressed the importance of making the registration process fast and intuitive.  We found areas, as users went through each prototype, where users experienced trouble points. Testing revealed that certain steps in the process, such as selecting a membership plan, could be incorporated at a later stage of the process. Another area provided an extra page and step to read and sign certain legal documents before completing registration. I would later find a solution to this could be for this step to utilize a pop up module, where the document can be read and signed. Our team looked to take this feedback and make iterations in hopes to minimize steps and make the registration quicker for Tradovate’s users. 

Final Prototype and User Flow

For the final round of testing we iterated on our prototypes and also incorporated a template of the account approval email users would receive at the end of registration. In my second iteration I focused on including small visual details, such as adding icons indicating the site is secure and an information button for easily accessible assistance. All of these changes were taking the feedback we learned from testing and incorporating changes to make the process easier for users. 

During our final round of testing, our team focused on navigation and whether the designs of the emails aligned with Tradovate’s current brand. Users responded positively to the layout of my designs, as well as the way I gave importance to actionable elements that users could engage with to further connect them with Tradovate’s brand and platform.

Based off of testing and user feedback we presented some future considerations for the client to consider. One aspect users continued to share was on presenting only the necessary information during registration, and our consideration was continuing to explore what information is truly required to complete an account. Also, the majority of users tested expressed a great desire to be involved with interviewing and testing. Another consideration we shared was further acknowledging Tradovate’s users and building up the community aspect in their product. 

Along with future considerations, we presented our clients a final prototype, UI Kit, and a Style Guide to be passed on to future developers. 

• Style Guide

Lessons Learned

There’s a lot of value to the feedback users provide during interviews and testing. The users we get to interact with give important insights into what directions our designs should take and it was encouraging to hear a client also see the value in our work.

“I now see the importance of talking to our users.” - Rick, Tradovate CEO

Our time with Tradovate allowed me to work hand in hand with a great client to help build their visual brand. They were very happy with what we were able to design and they even requested some of our assets to immediately implement. I learned a lot from the project and look forward to how our designs can further market their brand as Tradovate continues to grow.