Design Challenge
'Create Alert' for Bloomberg Trading platform with Logical and Nested comparison operators
Design Challenge Brief
Traders are some of the most information-hungry of financial users. They track hundreds or thousands of securities at a time and so need help to draw their attention to securities when certain data events happen.
Design requirements
1. Creating a “field-value” alert for a security: compares a given field to a constant value that the trader picks. E.g., Apple’s Last Price exceeds 600 or IBM’s Last Price moves by 10% in either direction.
2. Creating a “field-field” alert for a security: compares a given field to another field,
E.g., S&P500’s Last Price falls below S&P500’s 52-week Low Price.
My Role
This design challenge for an Experienced Interaction Designer at Bloomberg. I worked end-to-end on this design process.
Time taken to complete this challenge: 4 days
Design Process
1. Scoping the Problem
SCOPING THE PROBLEM
Defining the Problem Statement
SCOPING THE PROBLEM
Learning Fundamentals & Ideating
INSIGHTS:
Screens to to be designed in order to have an Alert System:
1. Create Alert Sources [CTA, Shortcut]
(Comparison Operator: Field vs. Constant and Field vs. Field)
2. Alert Setup Screen [Settings]
3. Alert Notifications Screen [Settings]
4. Alert Display [Pop up/Messages]
5. Delete/Edit Alert Screen
2. Research
• Qualitative Research
• Market Research/Competitive Analysis
• User Interviews
RESEARCH
Qualitative Research
Used platforms like Google, Reddit, Github, Facebook, Quora, Instagram to gain information of Trading and collect insights from the posts, articles, threads written by people and trading platform companies.
RESEARCH
Market Research/Competitive Analysis
Used platforms like Robinhood, TradingView, Zerodha, E-Trade, Investopedia, Investing.com, Yahoo, We Bull, TradeStockAlerts.com and a few other platforms to compare and see trends between the platforms. Below are the screenshots for reference.
RESEARCH
User Interviews
Posted a survey on Instagram to have understand users more. I reached out to the people who responded "Yes" on if they use trading platforms. Then I interviewed them for an initial understanding of "alerts system" and the trading platform they use.
INSIGHTS
1. People who trade also use alerts (Desktop notifications, Mobile notifications).
2. Screenshots they shared helped me understand the basics of those platforms.
3. Made me familiar with different platforms.
3. Analysis
• Persona
• Quantitative Analysis
• BrainStorming
• User Flows
ANALYSIS
Persona
On researching the users and their types, I found out there are two types of traders on a basic level: Day Traders and Passive Traders. There might be more types on a granular level. I started the project with these two types.
ANALYSIS
Quantitative Analysis
ANALYSIS
Brainstorming
After analyzing the quantitative data, I brainstormed the features with the users (archetype: Day Trader).
INSIGHTS
1. Features users would like to have.
2. Priority of those features.
ANALYSIS
User flow
User flow to create and edit alerts. According to the importance of "Alerts", I thought about having a shortcut key for Alerts on Bloomberg's keyboard. "Control+Shift + A" could be a possible shortcut.
4. Design
• Sketching/Wireframes
• User Interfaces - Version 1, Testing • Feedback
• UI/Design Interaction - Version 2
DESIGN
Sketching/Wireframe
DESIGN
User Interface - Version 1
Alert Screen placement (left) on the Bloomberg Terminal and zoomed-in "Alerts" window (right).
TESTING
Alpha Testing : User Feedback
After reviewing the feedback from the user, I made the following iterations:
• Added "Clear All" and "Dismiss All" CTA.
• Similar notifications clubbed together.
• Shortcut to Duplicate (Clone) and Delete the alerts.
• Shortcut to "Create Alert" from the list of favorite tickers.
Feedback Implemented
User Interface/ Interaction: Version 2
[Iterations highlighted]
DESIGN
Interaction Design: Complete Flow
Step by step user flow to:
• View Alert Notification
• Change Notification Settings
• Create an Alert
• Edit an Alert
• Delete an Alert
DESIGN
Prototype Video
Final Thoughts
• With my years of experience of designing Android, iOS and Web based interfaces, the biggest challenge was to design for Windows where I had to understand the UI, the problem statement, and propose a solution within 3-4 days.
• It was very interesting to work on designing the Alert System for Bloomberg Terminal that I have never seen or worked on before. In this process, I came across multiple challenges including mathematical and algorithmic problems needed to create trade alerts .
• It would be insightful to work with Data Analysts and Bloomberg users to better understand user behavior and test my designs with users, and implement changes based on their feedback.
• Collaborating with other stakeholders such as Product Managers, Engineers and other Designers would help to refine the experience.
© 2018-2020 Sadhvi Sharma. All Rights Reserved.