1. The role of User Experience Design in
developing financial software that people can
and want to use
Amir Dotan
Lab49
www.lab49.com

2. Amir Dotan
User Experience Architect at Lab49 in London
Before Lab49:
User Experience Researcher (City University London)
Multimedia Arts degree lecturer (SAE College London)
Web Developer (SHAPE Interactive Israel)
Blogger: ‘Usable Design’ – www.amirdotan.com
Founding member: User Experience Israel www.uxi.co.il

3. 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.

4. Lab49 was founded in 2002 and now
comprises over 200 people, with major offices
in New York and London
20+ Single-Dealer Platform projects

5. I’m going to talk about
1. What is User Experience Design?
2. How can User Experience Design improve
financial software?

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

7. 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

8. The business owner
The trade salesperson
The professional investor
The traders

9. What we usually aim to achieve:
Increase productivity
Informed decision making
Keeping users happy
Reduce training costs
Increase sales
Gain competitive edge

10. Reduce human errors

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

12. Easy?... Really?

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

14. How fast can the user perform tasks?

15. What can the user do with the system?

16. How do people feel about using the system?

17. User Experience Design – The Approach
1. Research
2. Concept
3. Evaluate
4. Design
5. Confirm
6. Iterate

18. My day to day work

19. Specifying what people will be able
to do with the system

20. Specifying the steps the user will have to take

21. Specifying the navigation

22. Specifying how information is grouped

23. Specifying how information is grouped
http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/financial/eikon

24. Specifying how information is visualised

25. Specifying how colours are used

26. Swap
SPOT
Call
Volatility
Put
Specifying the terminology
CCY
Short
Liquidity
Hedge
Straddle
Pip
Principal
Bid
Margin
Maturity
Delta
Position
Yield
Blotter

27. Can the user personalise this interface?
How well does the interface fit in the user’s work environment?
How well does the interface help users recover from errors?
Does the interface enable users to work quickly?

28. Will the user understand the meaning of
various terms and icons?
How will the interface appear on a large screen?

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

30. http://www.etoro.com/
How effective is the data visualisation?

31. 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

32. Thank you
Amir Dotan
adotan@lab49.com
www.amirdotan.com
Twitter
@AmirDotan
@UX_for_Finance