Problem
Currently, there are no dedicated platforms available for stock traders to connect and exchange trustworthy information.
Similar to various other interest groups, stock traders often come together to form small communities. They connect with people they already know or find like-minded traders online. These groups become valuable spaces for sharing stock-related insights and gathering resources to make smarter trading decisions.
In today's stock trading landscape, platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook have become popular hubs for traders to interact. But these platforms have their own set of problems. The spread of misinformation and the influx of low-quality, irrelevant content have become significant concerns that traders need to carefully navigate through.
SOLUTION
A social platform with discussion forum as the main functionality with news, stock charts and messaging as key complimentary tools.
01
Prioritize live data and provide various information channels
Through market information broadcast, real-time market analysis live streams and news articles, the app provides customers with various reliable resources to cross reference information in hand.
02
Reward system for engagement and accountability
Users can get badges through completing tasks on the platform. These tasks encourage users to stay active (e.g. post more often) and keep them accountable (e.g while marked as helpful by other users).
03
Novice-friendly chart analysis tool
With the pro tool toggle, stock traders have the flexibility to switch between advanced and basic tools based on their trading proficiency level.
My design process
DESK RESEARCH
Uncovered market gaps and identified potential design directions
After a series of initial desk research sessions to better understand the world of stock trading, I took one step further to conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis, focusing on the various platforms already exist in the market. The main goal of this analysis was to pinpoint any potential gaps in the market and to uncover design opportunities that our product build upon.
The current biggest gap now is the challenge of finding reliable information and the distraction from low-quality user-generated contents.
INTERVIEWs
Understand user needs and painpoints through qualitative data
Through our desk research, we've not only identified the current challenges within the social platform landscape, but we've also come to understand that there are various types of stock traders, each facing their own specific needs and challenges in their trading journeys. As a result, we've made the decision to directly connect with stock traders and inquire about their unique experiences.
10 Interviews
2 Research Questions
#1 How do different traders react to the idea of social trading and what do they like and/or dislike about the idea?
#2 How do stock traders’ trading habits affect their decision-making process?
Through data coding and affinity diagram analysis, we identified the following 4 needs:
Reliable information source
Access to mentorship
See growth and progress
IDEATION
Developed user personas to further empathize with target audiences and inform design decision making
To make sure we can effectively tackle urgent issues for various user groups and have a reference while designing, we created 4 personas including: none trader, novice trader, experienced trader and expert trader. But considering the scope of the project, we would only focus on novice (0-2 years) and experienced (3-6 years) traders.
Design Objectives
I mapped out design objectives and prioritized them based on user needs and client’s product vision
We prioritized reliable information access and sharing since it was the biggest challenge faced by users with all level of stock trading experience. We put the educational aspect for this product as a secondary consideration since our clients has already been building another platform dedicated to stock trading education.
‼️ User Pain Points
🎯 User Goals
💡 Design Opportunities
Influenced by herd mentality(Especially novice traders)
Design
We brainstormed a handful of features and created information architecture to build the platform’s foundation
The main sections we wanted to include in
• Discussion forums (Main functionality)
• Live news
• Trending topics, stocks and news
• Stock watchlist
• Livestreams
• News room
• Stock analysis tools
• Profile (Posts hub)
DESIGN RATIONALES
Why discussion forum as the main functionality?
After analyzing the market and understanding user needs, it's clear that people are comfortable with discussion channels on various platforms for easy, low-effort interactions. Moreover, stock traders find discussion boards convenient for exchanging information and engaging in conversations effortlessly.
SKETCHES & WIREFRAMES
Created sketches to visualize designs nd presented to clients to gather feedback and ideas
I created sketches for the main sections of the platform and annotated the interaction touch points to facilitate the conversation with the team and our clients.
Turned initial sketches into wireframes to quickly test out features desirability and feasibility
MID-TO-HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
I led the prototyping phase and incorporated design system to create higher fidelity prototypes
EVALUATION & REFINE
Conducted user testings to evaluate the usability (including both functionality & visuals) of the product
We wanted to make more iterations before finalizing the designs.
4 User Testings
We had participants complete tasks on each flow and encouraged them to openly share their opinions and thoughts.
2 Metrics
#1 Test completion time
#2 Satisfaction level
Identified opportunity from user testings
ITERATIONS
Created Badges as a reward system to incentivize users
Adding next closest badges to the home page to show achievement and encourage interactions.
Adding badges display to increase users’ credibility.
Improved design consistency for better scalability
Nest Steps
Design across multiple devices
We started off by prioritizing desktop platforms since users often prefer engaging in stock trading activities from their office or home settings, where they have access to desktops and laptops. However, there are also times when users casually browse through community forums while commuting home or during flights, using different devices.
As I continue working on the project, I'll be considering the extension of this experience to multiple devices, including tablets and mobile phones, to cater to these varied usage patterns.
