Angel One
One of top three online investing platforms in India.
TYPE
Professional (During my tenure at Thence)
TEAM
Maitri Bhateja
Jai Prasanna (Project Manager)
Prem Jakati (Lead UI designer)
PRACTICES
UI and UX Design
User Research
Data Visualization
Design Systems
TIMELINE
Feb 2021 - Feb 2022
MY ROLE
Lead UX Designer and UI Designer
UI and Bug Testing
MVP Prioritization
MODULES I WORKED ON
Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs)
Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs)
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Stock Overview, Derivatives
Orders, Positions, Holdings
Watchlist, Search, Homepage
Profile, Trades & Charges
Reports, Your statements
Angel Assist (Help Center)
*Note: For this case study, I will elaborate upon three key modules: First: IPO, Second: NCDs + SGBs, and Third: the Homepage
Fintech best practices
DISRUPTING THE BROKING SPACE
Angel one: Democratizing investing for more than 20 Million Indians
Angel One (formerly Angel Broking) is one of India’s leading retail full-service broking houses, providing a comprehensive range of services including online trading, investment advisory, and margin trading.
With over 2 crore users and 25 years of experience, Angel One offers seamless access to stocks, mutual funds, IPOs, and more, catering to both novice investors and seasoned traders.
Trusted by 50+ banks
Over 44 Million downloads
25+ Years of Trust
RECOGNITION
Best Banking-as-a-Service Platform of the Year
Africa Bank 4.0 Summit 2024
Launch of the Year Award for ARQ services
Global Marketing Excellence Awards, World Marketing Congress
Best Mobile Trading Application
Global Marketing Excellence Awards, World Marketing Congress
WHO WILL USE THIS PRODUCT AND WHY?
Designing for novice investors & traders
NOVICE USERS
The predominant part of the user group belongs to Tier 2 and Tier 3 (Lesser developed) cities in India. Most users belonged to the lower middle-class segment, working in the private and government sectors and small-scale business owners.
MENTAL MODELS
The stigma that financial planning is only for the rich
Should not trust online investing services
Investing is complex, hard and can't be done on a small scale
OTHER USER ARCHETYPES
RETAIL INVESTORS
DAY TRADERS
Individuals trading stocks, mutual funds, and other securities for personal investment.
Users who engage in frequent, intraday trading to capitalize on short-term market movements.
OPTIONS TRADERS
Individuals trading options for hedging or speculative purposes.
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
ALGORITHMIC TRADERS
Entities managing large portfolios seeking advanced trading tools and comprehensive market insights.
Users leveraging automated trading strategies via SmartAPI.
LONG-TERM INVESTORS
Investors focused on building wealth over extended periods through buy-and-hold strategies.
ANALYZING USERS' PAIN POINTS V/S BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
User & Business Discoveries
I conducted interviews with a pool of 24 users and the Customer Support (CS) team at Angel One, aiming to identify the users' challenges and the frequent inquiries received by the CS team. Following this, my Product Manager and I established correlations between these insights and categorized strategies based on MVP and later builds.
USERS
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Difficulty in establishing trust in new financial products
Navigational Issues: Where to find what they're looking for
Too many jargons and numbers make it hard to focus on what's required
Don't hear back after raising an issue
Find it hard to track the status of their investments
Customers felt that they couldn't trust where their money was going
Most complaints were about how to invest/steps required
Users felt there were hidden charges that were not conveyed
Customers asked about terms & what they meant
Customers did not know where to track their investments
IDENTIFYING COMMON THREADS & POINTS OF MAXIMUM IMPACT
Recurring theme:
Both the Users and the Customer Support Team raised and received maximum issues related to trust in new financial products and how to begin investing in those products.
What does it mean for the users?
Trust ensures clients feel secure with their money and personal information, fosters long-term relationships, and reduces legal risks by adhering to regulatory standards. Transparent communication and effective risk management are required for customer confidence, loyalty, and sustainable business growth.
What does it mean for the business?
Increased trust for Angel One means higher client retention, enhanced reputation, better regulatory compliance, and potential partnership opportunities. This strengthens its market position, fosters customer loyalty, and drives sustainable growth and success in the industry.
FOR TIER 2 AND TIER 3 CITIES OF INDIA, WHERE TALKING ABOUT MONEY IS A TABOO
How might we break the stigma of online investing?
The previous exercise where we looked at both sides of the system: the Users and the Business proved extremely beneficial in setting our design ethos. Further, we took the cybernetics approach of taking feedback from one system and using it as input for course correction for the other.
Meeting customer expectations
Making sure information, policies, terms and conditions are always present for transparency
Embracing product complexity
Being mindful that the data may seem overwhelming at times, hence, it's crucial to prioritize the information
Clean and simple UI: No ambiguity
Being mindful that the data may seem overwhelming at times, hence, it's crucial to prioritize the information
Break down complex processes
Using helpful visualizations to help kickstart users to invest in a new product
TURNING INSIGHTS INTO OPPORTUNITIES
Envisioning the Rise of the Indian Retail Investor
Based on the insights collected from our users, business and tech executives, I had a couple of sessions with my Product Manager and other team members to identify opportunities and set the tone of our design. We established reform principles (from both tech and design perspectives). For each principle, we also mapped MVP feature sets that we released in the earlier builds.
SIMPLICITY
Self-assisted onboarding, enabling quick trading via improved charts or stock SIP, kickstart options trading through Insta Trade, simplifying Margin Trading use cases.
RELIABILITY
Major rewrite of key backend services like Data Streamer, Payment Gateway, Login, Middleware connect to OMS/RMS, unboxing BackOffice and shifting to AWS cloud on IT infra front.
AVAILABLITY
Pioneer offline mode functionality, data centre modernisation, disaster recovery setup, creating redundancy in third party integrations and horizontal scalable architecture.
SWIFTNESS
Optimizing scalable broadcast, peak-time order handling capabilities, OTP+PIN / Biometric driven instant login, faster KYC, instantly updated ledgers, real-Time Billing or settlements, faster charting and near real-time charges.
MODULE 1
Initial Public Offering (IPO)
In India, the popularity of IPOs is driven by economic growth, supportive regulatory frameworks, increased financial literacy, and cultural factors that favor entrepreneurship and market participation.
​
While re-designing the IPO section, we were mindful of the sensitivity around IPO investments, which stems from the high potential for both reward and risk, the psychological factors at play,
and the limited information available about newly public companies.
SOME PROMINENT CHANGES:
New categories for existing policyholders, existing employees, existing shareholders and HNI (High Network Individuals).
NSE/BSE toggle on the order pad to switch easily between exchanges while placing orders.
Top gainers and losers of the day on the watchlist using tags on the scrips.
No more missing of IPO bid due to invalid UPI.
Live prediction, subscription updates along with latest company news in IPO details.
IPO Listing
BEFORE
AFTER
IPO Place Order
BEFORE
AFTER
MODULE 2
Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) and Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs)
Contrary to NCDs, SGBs were a late addition to the product suite. However, the re-design of both modules happened simultaneously. The re-design of these two core bond modules led to the re-design of the bonds portfolio which was a new addition to the existing portfolio — a place where all the bonds coexist.
OPTION 1
OPTION 2
OPTION 3 (SELECTED)
Since SGB was a new addition to the bonds suite, a new user flow was required to incorporate SGB as well as future products.
I along with my Project Manager, came up with three iterations. The first two were discarded as it was hard to place new orders and apart from bonds, any other product could not be put on the same page.
NON CONVERTIBLE DEBENTURES
Prominent prospectus download option, also avoids information overload.
Bond rating as an easy-to-glance infographic instead of the previous textual form.
Important NCD dates in a timeline format.
Incorporating all the series in one page so that the user can place multiple orders at once.
SOVEREIGN GOLD BONDS
Investment-related information first as SGB was a new launch.
Notifications for upcoming issues.
Decided to keep open and upcoming issues under the same tab as there is always one issue open at a time and there are a fixed number of issues per year.
BONDS PORTFOLIO (AFTER)
BONDS PORTFOLIO (BEFORE)
_edited_edited.jpg)
Consolidated invested amount, market value and overall gain/loss for all bonds.
Designed different expanded states for each kind of bond as the data points were different.
MODULE 3
The Homepage
I designed the Homepage for three different types of users—unregistered guests, registered users who have not yet invested, and registered users who have invested. As each user type had different motivations for the platform, it was imperative to design for all three kinds to cater to all kinds of audiences.
UNREGISTERED OR GUEST USERS
Need to understand what Angel Broking offers and why they should choose it over competitors.
Curated promotions and offers section for them to gain interest.
Nudge for creating Demat account
Exclusive videos and learning center for beginners.
Trust markers and testimonials of existing users.
REGISTERED BUT NOT INVESTED USERS
Curated promotions and offers section for them to gain interest.
Nudge to add funds and begin investing.
Section for Portfolio Advisory: to make it easy for users to begin.
More emphasis on today's picks and markets.
REGISTERED AND INVESTED USERS
Detailed Portfolio Advisory and Management Services card along with package breakdown.
Ready ot buy portfolios or stock buckets.
Portfolio summary card to let the user know about their current investment portfolio
Access to advanced tools like GTT, Stock SIP, Margin calculator, Trade Buddy. Options Simplified, Smart Buz etc.
REGISTERED AND INVESTED USER HOMEPAGE
UNREGISTERED OR GUEST USER HOMEPAGE
IMPACT OF DESIGN
Angel One's design and tech based advancements drove 73.55 million orders as of March 2022, a 76.3%YoY increase.
As per Angel One's 2022 Annual Report, the company recorded an extensive rise in number of orders at 73.55 million in March 2022, 210.80 million orders during Q4 FY’22, and 680.10 million orders throughout the year.
REFLECTIONS
What I learned and what I could have done differently
SETBACKS
The IPO module took way longer than we anticipated. The challenges we encountered were new and it took us longer than expected to move forward.
Some of the design decisions were purely driven by business requirements. The client was sometimes not on board with trying new elements outside the design system. In such scenarios, more experimentation with user flows and the IA could have been proposed.
More tooltips and how-to steps can be incorporated where there's ambiguity/complexity - especially for more complex modules like debentures and reports.
LEARNINGS
While we did our research before designing the product, we realized it was best to ask Angel One executives when we were stuck as they were the experts and helped us save time.
Practiced breaking down complex information and organize it in a digestable way.
Merged business objectives with clean and simple UI at every step of the way.
Got my designs developed and tested them myself to ensure pixel perfect execution.