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Stockwatch Ticker

Stockwatch provides news and real-time quotes to both serious and casual retail stock market investors.

Project
Mobile App Improvement / Redesign
Role
UX & UI Designer
Year
Late 2019
Stockwatch App Mockup

Objective

Worked with the Stockwatch Ticker app developer to discuss business and user goals, while reviewing how to redesign and improve user flow and overall experience. The app is available for iPhone and Android, and as a separate desktop version.

As a designer, I had to get myself familiar with the stock market and those who use it. Before I started the work:

  • Explore the stock market to build an understanding for the experience.
  • View competitors to compare current solutions that have already been addressed.
  • Understnding differences betwen casual and serious stock market investors, and knowing each of their goals.

Progress

With very little existing knowledge of the stock market, it was a learning curve to understand what the app was best used for, and how retail stock market investors could better interact with it. I had help from the developer to learn several terms that the serious retail stock market investors would be familiar with, but also having me explore the app with fresh eyes gave the perspective of a new investor. This enabled me to reword terms and clarify the existing content, which would assist casual retail stock market investors in understanding how to accomplish their most typical activities, such as tracking the progress of their stock portfolio.

Concluding research, I reviewed the current app, tested updates on iPhone and Android, and remotely exchanged notes and feedback back and forth with the developer, leading to notable improvements and takeaways to explore:

Biggest concerns:

  • No proper design feedback mechanism.
  • Reliance on investor feedback that contacted support in order to add, change or report bugs in the app.
  • The majority of the app was inconsistent and difficult to understand, disrupting the flow and experience.

As a Designer/Developer...

  • What is the main goal to accomplish?
    To improve the flow and usability of the app.
  • Who were the target investors for the app?
    The app was more specific to the casual retail stock market investors, since the majority of serious investors were already comfortable with, and had more options, using the desktop version.
  • What were the main issues?
    The app lacked consistent design; it needed fresh eyes and the point of view of a UX and UI designer.
  • What needs to be improved?
    Portfolio, Alarms, Navigation, etc.
  • Were there testers?
    There was only feedback from clients, who contacted support for specific changes/add-ons

UX Design

Concept Update (step 1):

Update current app structure, clean up design, and overall user flow.

Improvement (step 2):

Recommended proper UX course of action, Global navigation, Account Settings, custom Home screen with Quote and News updates and Portfolio lists.

Stockwatch App Mockup Stockwatch App Mockup Hover

UI Design

The intention for the overall design was to keep the interface minimalistic and readable. The original secondary colour was black, which is great for text, but would have made the icons, outlines and button colours stand out too much.

Keep the original red of the Stockwatch brand was a priority for the overall design of the app. However, having red buttons would have been distracting and difficult to read. Instead, we reached a decision to colour the icons red; this avoided making the buttons look disabled or unreadable due to the secondary colours.

Final thoughts

The developer had to move onto another Stockwatch project, and there was no other UX and UI Design work to be done at this time. Since the UX wireframes were followed as suggestions not all wireframes were implemented in the app.

I was able to complete the majority of the UX, however the only UI design completed was for the concept Home screen and icons. I also created suggestions for Global Navigation and Home screen for future implementation.

While working Stockwatch, I gained more knowledge of working with iPhone and Android designs, sharing details and feedback with a skilled developer, and learned about the stock market and trade. The client is interested in renewing my contract for future projects.

“Stockwatch” is a registered trademark of Canjex Publishing Ltd.

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