Fidelity

An App for Active Investors

Responding to an influx of new users to the Fidelity mobile app, I acted as the Creative Director and contributing designer for a redesign of key features that support the needs of frequent traders.

Roles: Designer; Creative Director
Platforms: iOS; Android
Year: Early 2020

The Opportunity

Dissatisfaction with a key competitor brought a massive influx of new users with unique needs

After other companies restricted trading of meme stocks, hundreds of thousands of people downloaded the Fidelity mobile app.

News headlines about a competitor restricting trading in GameStop shares.

These new users were much more focused on actively investing and were quickly frustrated by the Fidelity app’s trading and investing features. User interviews and feedback through Reddit and Twitter quickly highlighted the main problems getting in their way:

Problem #1

Too many taps to see the most important information

Active traders frequently opening the app to check their investment performance were frustrated that it takes three taps to see their portfolio.

The three taps from the old Feed homepage to the portfolio. — Account balances and the value of investments did not appear on the "Feed," which is the app's homepage.

Problem #2

Dated visuals

These new users, accustomed to much more modern apps, felt the Fidelity app’s visual design was clunky, outdated, and unfamiliar.

The original quote screen, with dated typography and layout.

Problem #3

Trading is confusing and difficult

The existing trade flow placed all inputs on a single view, wherein selections made above could change options below.

The original single-screen trade ticket with all inputs stacked on one view.

Our research led us to these solutions:

Solution #1

Put the information users want to see up-front

Studying usage patterns revealed that the “Feed” was not serving our users’ needs, so we decommissioned it and replaced it with a new “Home” tab that contained the information these users monitored the most frequently.

The new Home tab with market indices at the top. — The only valuable information on the Feed was the market indices, which we placed at the top of home. This set important context as users assessed the performance of their investments.

Scrolled view of the new Home tab showing investments and watch list with company logos. — Scrolling reveals the user's investments and watch list. Company logos and bold colors make the interface easy to scan. Tapping the value on the right side lets the user toggle between different data points, and a tap on the whole row shows the position details. This is a familiar interaction to these users, as it mirrors other popular investing apps.

Solution #2

Fresh Quote visuals

With the correct information already present, we aligned the quote’s visuals to more up-to-date native mobile standards and made it accessible.

Solution #3

Overhaul the Trade transaction

We re-architected the trade flow, streamlining a single-screen transaction into a branching flow, which reduced the number of taps to complete a trade and created more space to complete each step. This also allowed us to include detailed explanations of key terms, improving the experience for novice traders.

Step one of the new trade flow: a list of common order types. — First-time traders are shown a list of the most common and simple order types with a link to more complex types, easing new investors into the complexities of trading.

Step two of the new trade flow: a detailed description of the selected order type. — Once selected, they see a detailed description, helping them better understand each order type.

Step three of the new trade flow, with the previous order type preselected. — In each subsequent trade they make, the previously chosen order type will be selected by default. They can still change their order type from this step.

A later step of the new trade flow, with clear visual hierarchy. — Breaking steps out into separate screens gave us the space needed to introduce visual hierarchy to the interface.

Release & Reception

Reddit announcement

It was online discourse on Reddit that led most of these new users to join Fidelity, so it was only appropriate that we announce the release of our updates there too. The community received the updates with praise and appreciation.

We relied on feedback and discussion in our sub-reddit to prioritize what to build and improve through every iteration.

The release announcement post on Reddit and community replies.

Validation

Launching, learning, and iterating in Beta

These design changes represent the first several iterations launched through a semi-open Beta app, which allowed us to more freely experiment, measure, and gather feedback.

Learn more about the Beta program

The beta trading experience toggle in the More tab.