Trader Wallet
Timeline
2022
Role
UI/UX Designer
Team
Pierce Balmer, Emily Abeltins, Jordan Putnam
1000+
Surveys Distributed
12
Stakeholders interviewed
08
Workshops completed
Overview
At 26 Degrees Global Markets, we identified a significant opportunity to improve the trading experience for clients managing multiple brokerage accounts. Many traders held accounts with multiple brokers for reasons such as product offering, price point, risk mitigation, and legacy benefits. However, the fragmented process of transferring funds between these accounts often led to inefficiencies, margin calls and financial setbacks. TraderWallet was conceived as a solution to streamline account management and revolutionise how traders interact with their funds across brokers.
Problem
Traders often faced issues with margin calls across different brokerage accounts. Meeting these margin calls required transferring funds between brokers, a process that could take several days due to the involvement of banks as intermediaries. These delays often resulted in positions being forcibly sold by brokers, leading to client dissatisfaction and financial losses.
Solution
The solution we proposed was a unified platform to manage multiple accounts, facilitating Broker to Broker fund transfer in a single place and the ability to link a card to brokerage account.
Key Insights
Clients hold multiple accounts: Surveys revealed that a majority of traders held multiple accounts across brokers, primarily for diversification and risk mitigation.
Paint Point - Fund Transfer: Feedback indicated frequent frustrations with the time required to transfer funds between accounts, especially during margin calls.
Widespread validation: Interviews with the sales team validated that delayed fund transfers were a common source of client complaints, significantly impacting their trading experience.
Approach overview
Our approach was guided by both user research and internal expertise:
User Research: We conducted client surveys to initially explore the problem space, user interviews were then conducted for further validation.
Expert Input: Guerrilla interviews were conducted with internal stakeholders to gain additional context and validate why identified problems exist. Given the sales team’s regular client interactions, they provided valuable insights to inform design decisions in the absence of extensive user testing.
Design thinking workshops: Multiple workshops were conducted utilising research insights. Methods such as Affinity Diagrams and Card Sorts helped shape User Flow diagrams. During UI design, workshops were used to provide group feedback on wireframes and high-fidelity screens.
Solution Breakdown
TraderWallet was designed to address the identified pain points with the following key features:
Broker-to-Broker Fund Transfers: Eliminating the bank as an intermediary, significantly reducing wait times for fund transfers.
Unified Account Management: Providing a single platform for traders to view and manage multiple brokerage accounts, enabling better visibility of balances and margin calls.
Linked Debit Card: Allowing users to make small purchases directly from their brokerage account, reducing the need for frequent bank transfers.
Initial exploratory designs
High-Fidelity designs
Google's Material Design system was used as a guideline for many High-Fidelity design components.
Evaluation
TraderWallet was a forward-thinking project with the potential to disrupt the brokerage industry by addressing long-standing inefficiencies. A prototype was created, unfortunately however, the project was indefinitely placed on hold at the user testing stage. If testing had proceeded, the next steps would have included:
Defining success criteria with stakeholders.
Developing realistic scenarios and tasks for usability testing.
Recruiting participants for comprehensive evaluation.
Despite its pause, TraderWallet remains a highlight of my work at 26 Degrees Global Markets, demonstrating the potential for innovative solutions in an industry resistant to change. It underscored the value of combining user insights with strategic design to tackle complex financial challenges.
