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Case study
nabtrade
Mobile Trading Experience
Case study
nabtrade
Mobile Trading Experience
Organisation: nabtrade (National Australia Bank)
Role: Lead UX Designer
Environment: Financial services · Trading platform · High-frequency decision-making
Timeframe: 2019
I led UX design for nabtrade's mobile trading app, helping make sophisticated trading tools easier to understand and use.
The challenge was to simplify complex interactions without removing the depth and control that experienced investors expect.
I worked closely with engineering to turn complex trading requirements into a coherent mobile experience that went into production.
Organisation: nabtrade (National Australia Bank)
Role: Lead UX Designer
Environment: Financial services · Trading platform · High-frequency decision-making
Timeframe: 2019
I led UX design for nabtrade's mobile trading app, helping make sophisticated trading tools easier to understand and use.
The challenge was to simplify complex interactions without removing the depth and control that experienced investors expect.
I worked closely with engineering to turn complex trading requirements into a coherent mobile experience that went into production.
The challenge
The challenge
Make trading simpler without taking away control.
Trading involves dense information, fast decisions and transactions with real financial consequences. Bringing that experience to a mobile screen created some difficult design problems.
The team was technically capable but had limited experience working with UX. There were no established design patterns to build on.
I needed to solve the product challenges while demonstrating how design could contribute to delivery.
Make trading simpler without taking away control.
Trading involves dense information, fast decisions and transactions with real financial consequences. Bringing that experience to a mobile screen created some difficult design problems.
The team was technically capable but had limited experience working with UX. There were no established design patterns to build on.
I needed to solve the product challenges while demonstrating how design could contribute to delivery.
What I did
What I did
I led the design of the core mobile trading journeys, from checking market information through to making and confirming a trade.
My work included:
Organising complex market information so traders could find what mattered.
Designing trading flows with clear steps, controls and confirmation states.
Building interactive prototypes, from early concepts through to detailed designs.
Testing with novice and experienced traders to understand different needs.
Producing designs detailed enough for engineering to implement without a separate UI designer.
I led the design of the core mobile trading journeys, from checking market information through to making and confirming a trade.
My work included:
Organising complex market information so traders could find what mattered.
Designing trading flows with clear steps, controls and confirmation states.
Building interactive prototypes, from early concepts through to detailed designs.
Testing with novice and experienced traders to understand different needs.
Producing designs detailed enough for engineering to implement without a separate UI designer.
Building trust through working prototypes
Building trust through working prototypes
I found that showing how something worked was more useful than explaining how it should work.
The team was engineering-led and wasn't accustomed to involving UX early in delivery.
So, from the first week, I started building high-fidelity, interactive prototypes that behaved like the intended product.
This gave developers something concrete to work with. We could explore interactions, discuss edge cases, identify technical constraints and make decisions together.
The prototypes became a shared working tool between design and engineering.
That helped establish trust, speed up decisions and make UX a practical part of how the team delivered.
I found that showing how something worked was more useful than explaining how it should work.
The team was engineering-led and wasn't accustomed to involving UX early in delivery.
So, from the first week, I started building high-fidelity, interactive prototypes that behaved like the intended product.
This gave developers something concrete to work with. We could explore interactions, discuss edge cases, identify technical constraints and make decisions together.
The prototypes became a shared working tool between design and engineering.
That helped establish trust, speed up decisions and make UX a practical part of how the team delivered.
Key design decisions
Key design decisions
Make the important things easier to see.
I designed dashboards to help traders orient themselves quickly, understand their position and identify what needed attention.
Make complex actions easier to follow.
I used progressive disclosure to break trading journeys into manageable steps without hiding important information or controls.
Make consequences clear before committing.
I designed explicit review and confirmation states so traders could understand what they were about to do before completing a transaction.
Make the important things easier to see.
I designed dashboards to help traders orient themselves quickly, understand their position and identify what needed attention.
Make complex actions easier to follow.
I used progressive disclosure to break trading journeys into manageable steps without hiding important information or controls.
Make consequences clear before committing.
I designed explicit review and confirmation states so traders could understand what they were about to do before completing a transaction.
Outcome
Outcome
The work contributed to a redesigned mobile trading app that went into production.
It also changed how the team worked. UX became part of the delivery conversation, with interactive prototypes helping design and engineering resolve problems together.
We established design patterns and an approach that could support future product development.
The work contributed to a redesigned mobile trading app that went into production.
It also changed how the team worked. UX became part of the delivery conversation, with interactive prototypes helping design and engineering resolve problems together.
We established design patterns and an approach that could support future product development.