the role of user experience design in developing financial software that people can and want to use

The role of User Experience Design in developing financial software that people can and want to use

Amir Dotan Lab49 www.lab49.com

Amir Dotan

User Experience Architect at Lab49 in London

Blogger: ‘Usable Design’ – www.amirdotan.com Founding member: User Experience Israel www.uxi.co.il

Before Lab49: User Experience Researcher (City University London) Multimedia Arts degree lecturer (SAE College London) Web Developer (SHAPE Interactive Israel)

Lab49 is a consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and advanced technology solutions for the financial services industry. Our clients include many of the world’s largest investment banks, hedge funds and exchanges.

Lab49 was founded in 2002 and now comprises over 200 people, with major offices in New York and London

20+ Single-Dealer Platform projects

1. What is User Experience Design?

2. How can User Experience Design improve financial software?

I’m going to talk about

User Experience Design The practice of analysing business requirements, user needs and the available environment in order to develop useful and usable products

Being the users’ advocate

Get to know the users and champion their needs

Analyse the users’ needs, abilities and limitations

Specify the user-system interaction

The business owner

The professional investor

The trade salesperson

The traders

Increase productivity

Informed decision making

Keeping users happy

Reduce training costs

What we usually aim to achieve:

Increase sales

Gain competitive edge

Reduce human errors

Easy! Let’s make sure the system is user friendly!

Easy?... Really?

How long does it take to learn how to use the system?

How fast can the user perform tasks?

What can the user do with the system?

How do people feel about using the system?

User Experience Design – The Approach

1. Research 2. Concept 3. Evaluate

4. Design 5. Confirm 6. Iterate

My day to day work

Specifying what people will be able to do with the system

Specifying the steps the user will have to take

Specifying the navigation

Specifying how information is grouped

http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/financial/eikon

Specifying how information is grouped

Specifying how information is visualised

Specifying how colours are used

Specifying the terminology

SPOT

Volatility

CCY

Liquidity

Principal Maturity

Hedge

Call

Put

Pip Margin

Yield

Short

Position

Blotter

Swap

Straddle

Delta

Bid

How well does the interface fit in the user’s work environment?

How well does the interface help users recover from errors?

Can the user personalise this interface?

Does the interface enable users to work quickly?

Will the user understand the meaning of various terms and icons?

How will the interface appear on a large screen?

How will the user feel after using this interface for more than 10 minutes?

http://www.etoro.com/

How effective is the data visualisation?

In conclusion

Ensuring a positive user experience by constantly researching and evaluating designs with real users may seem obvious, but in reality isn’t that easy at all and requires a methodological approach

In order to deliver financial software that people want and can use we have to provide high quality user experiences that take into account what people know, need and want to achieve

Thank you

Amir Dotan

adotan@lab49.com www.amirdotan.com

Twitter @AmirDotan @UX_for_Finance