Webull

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Webull Lite Redesign: Empowering Beginner Investors

Webull Lite is a simplified trading app designed to make investing more accessible for beginner investors. The redesign focuses on improving feature discoverability, customization, and educational resources, ensuring users can easily navigate the app's robust tools. By enhancing the user interface, the app empowers users to make informed investment decisions with greater ease and confidence.

An Easier, Smarter Approach to Investing

Redesigned Webull enhances investing with intuitive navigation, personalized portfolio management, and easy access to educational resources—empowering beginner investors to make confident, informed decisions while ensuring a seamless and engaging user experience.

Enhanced “Awareness” and Visibility of Key Features

The redesigned interface enhances feature visibility by placing key elements like the transition button and notifications at the top, with Feed and Learning sections in the navigation bars for easy access.

Categorized Learning with Interactive Practice

The Learning section is categorized by investment types, making it easy to find relevant content. Quizzes and paper trading are integrated, allowing users to reinforce their knowledge through quizzes or apply what they’ve learned via simulated trading.

Enhanced Investment Portfolio Overview

The addition of an investment portfolio provides users with a clear summary of their holdings, enabling them to easily track performance, assess distribution, and make informed decisions at a glance.

Enhanced Selling Transactions for Greater Flexibility and Accessibility

The selling screen was redesigned to support seamless switching between shares and dollar amounts, making it easier for retail investors to make small investments.

BACKGROUND

Today, more people are managing their investments and finances through mobile apps.

As technology advances and financial services become more accessible, people increasingly prefer mobile apps for managing their investments and finances. The convenience of real-time updates, intuitive interfaces, and on-the-go accessibility has made mobile finance solutions an essential tool for users seeking greater control and simplicity in their financial lives.

DISCOVER

Where do users struggle with mobile investing apps?

Secondary Research

Understanding the Problem on a Deeper Level

We conducted secondary research to gather insights from existing studies and reports on how users interact with vehicle touchscreens, focusing on common behaviors, challenges, and usability trends.

01. Young Investors Focused on Growing Their Wealth

Faced with financial uncertainty, young investors are increasingly turning to no-fee trading platforms and online financial resources to grow their wealth, as markets are beginning to democratize.

02. Financial Literacy: A Key to Financial Well-Being and Long-Term Wealth Creation

Globally, financial literacy averages around 35%, with many individuals deterred from investing due to complex, jargon-heavy financial information and stock market unfamiliarity.

03. The Growing Influence of Social Media and Online Communities on Investing

Social media platforms and communities have created a digitalized investing enviornment that provides investors with a more efficient way to access a variety of onliine information.

User Survey

Understanding User Perspectives

A total of 20 Webull users, residing in the United States, participated in the survey. The questionnaire consisted of 26 questions and took approximately 5 minutes to complete.

Insight 1/4

Lack of Awareness Due to Oversimplified Interface.

Insight 2/4

50% of users struggle to adapt to Webull due to Navigating the app features.

Insight 3/4

75% of Users Prioritize Individual Portfolio on First App Launch.

Insight 4/4

75% of Users Prefer the Option to Sell Stocks by Number of Shares as well.

Affinity Map

Connecting the Dots: Unveiling User Patterns

Using the affinity map, We organized and synthesized the survey findings to uncover patterns and connections between user feedback.

DEFINE

Who would users need?

Empathy Map

Let’s See It Through the User's Eyes

I aim to understand user needs, frustrations, and behaviors to ensure the redesign meets their expectations and improves their trading experience.

Problems

From Data to Definition: Identifying User Pain Points

I gained insights from data, synthesizing survey results and research through an empathy map to define key user pain points.

01. Difficult access to the learning section (too many steps to access, not a clear direction to access)

The learning section isn't directly accessible via an education menu and instead can only be found within the detailed view of each individual stock or asset.
After accessing the learning section in the app, users need to navigate to additional menus to access more materials, there is a risk that they might overlook or miss out on valuable resources.

02. Challenges with Feed Accessibility and Usability

Feed feature is hidden at the bottom of the Watchlists page, making it hard to find."
"Commenting requires clicking [View More], adding an extra step to access."
"Feeds are limited to selected companies, making it difficult to view a comprehensive live feed."

03. The absence of a visual portfolio that allows users to view their investments across different criteria

Limited Insight: Users struggle to understand overall performance and distribution without a visual portfolio.
Reduced Clarity: It's harder to see how investments align with goals due to the lack of visual representation.

04. Limitations in Stock Transactions Conducted by Shares Instead of Dollar Amounts

Conducting transactions only by shares can make it harder for users to control investment amounts precisely, especially when aiming for specific dollar values

IDEATE

How Can We Design a Simpler and More Accessible Investing Experience for Beginners?

Idea Sketch

Exploring Concepts Through Idea Sketches

After completing the research and defining key insights, we began brainstorming design solutions and sketched initial ideas on paper.

Paper Prototype

Paper Prototype: Visualizing Initial Design Concepts

We quickly sketched low-fidelity designs to explore layout ideas and gather early user feedback. This process allowed us to identify usability issues, iterate rapidly, and refine key interactions before moving to digital prototypes.

Implementing Feedback

What We Improved Based on Feedback

We improved the design based on user feedback, addressing usability and enhancing key features.

01. Enhancing Visibility: Relocating the [Feeds] Section to the Top Menu

To enhance visibility, the [Feeds]section was moved to the top menu alongside [Positions] and [Watchlists], making navigation more convenient.

02. Simplifying Data Visualization for Clearer Insights

The redesign moves away from complex shapes to linear, easy-to-read formats, ensuring that users can quickly grasp their portfolio's distribution and sector breakdown.

PROTOTYPE

Building the Foundation: Sketching Ideas to Life

LowFi Wireframe

Bringing Ideas to Life: Prototyping

I designed low-fidelity wireframes to visualize key layouts and user flows. This process focused on structuring content, defining core interactions, and testing layout ideas without detailed visuals. By iterating quickly, I identified early pain points and refined the user experience before moving to high-fidelity prototypes."

Task 1/5

Reviewing Personal Investment Status and Portfolio

Task 2/5

Exploring Investor Reactions to Stock Market Trends

Task 3/5

Finding Educational Resources

Task 4/5

Viewing Notifications and Messages

Task 5/5

Selling stock by dollar amount

Style Guide

Building Consistency

We developed a comprehensive style guide to ensure consistency in visual elements and functionality.

01. Typography

02. Color System

FINAL DESIGN 1/3

Simplified Navigation with Separate Sections

A top navigation bar with three distinct sections—Positions, Watchlists, and Feeds—for easier access and improved discoverability.

FINAL DESIGN 2/3

Seamless Access to Learning Through the Navigation Bar

The navigation bar provides seamless access to educational resources, with a top menu for quick, category-based browsing.

FINAL DESIGN 3/3

Comprehensive Portfolio Insights for Informed Decision-Making

Provides a detailed breakdown of investments across stocks, ETFs, and options, along with industry allocation insights, empowering users to make more informed investment decisions.

REFELECTION

What I Learned

Through this redesign project, I gained key insights on balancing simplicity with usability, ensuring feature visibility, and enhancing user navigation.

01. Balancing Minimalism and Usability: Key Takeaways from the Redesign"

While redesigning the app with a focus on simplicity and minimalism, I learned that usability can be compromised when essential features are hidden. By striving for a cleaner UI, we unintentionally reduced feature discoverability, making it difficult for users to access important tools. This experience highlighted the importance of balancing minimal design with intuitive feature placement to ensure users can easily navigate and utilize the app's functionality.