Nova Finance Dashboard
Redesigning the investment experience for retail traders
Overview
The problem
Retail traders were abandoning the platform after their first trade due to overwhelming data density, confusing navigation, and a lack of trust signals. Onboarding completion sat at 34%, and daily active users had plateaued for six months.
The solution
A complete dashboard overhaul centered on progressive disclosure: a simplified home view that surfaces only relevant holdings and news, with clear paths to deeper analytics. We introduced contextual education, real-time portfolio health indicators, and a unified search for assets, news, and help.
My role
I led the design from research through to delivery, running 12 user interviews, producing the full wireframe set, building the interactive prototype for usability testing, and working directly with engineering on component specs and QA.
Process
Research
We ran a mixed-methods study: unmoderated task analysis with 40 existing users, plus in-depth interviews with power users and churned traders. Key insight: the interface was treating every user like a professional. We mapped five distinct trader mental models and prioritized the two largest segments.
Wireframing
I sketched low-fidelity flows in Figma, iterating on information architecture with card-sorting sessions. The critical pivot was splitting the dashboard into "at-a-glance" and "deep-dive" modes, reducing the average path to placing a trade from four steps to two.
Prototyping
I built a high-fidelity interactive prototype in Figma with realistic data states. We tested it with 8 participants, observing real trading scenarios. Findings led to adjustments in color coding for portfolio health and refinements to the asset detail sheet.
Visuals
Outcome
The redesign shipped to all users over a three-week rollout. Onboarding completion rose to 48% within the first month, and support tickets related to navigation confusion dropped by 61%. The product team adopted the progressive-disclosure framework for subsequent feature launches.