iShares Conversation App
The Conversation app was a one-stop source for all of iShares research, market trends and debate. In 6 months after launch, it was downloaded by over 35,000 iShares clients.
Role – Senior UX/UI Designer
UX Team – Myself
Too much content, not enough interaction
iShares had a problem: the funds were publishing great research but distributing it on different channels. Small clients couldn't find it and felt ignored. iShares needed a central hub for their research and for fund managers to engage smaller clients.
Big discoveries: testing and learnings
After developing on a feature set, we A/B tested a number of different prototypes with both user groups. The results were eye opening.
The testing results
#1 Wins, Simplicity wins
We thought design #1 would feel light on content. But users love the simplicity of it; compact, yet easy to dig into research if desired.
The features worked
Users were very enthusiastic about the app's features. From commenting, to search, to live debates...we felt validated in our MVP feature set choices.
Create a Pro Version
The Financial Planner's needs were different enough from the active investor that we needed a "Pro" version with more of an emphasis on research.
Questions = Engagement
We featured current financial topics as both sentences and questions. The feedback consistently was that the questions felt much more engaging.
Fix the usability flaws
The #1 prototype was far from perfect. It had a number of usability flaws, like adding an expand icon, adding scroll bars, add more clearly defined labels, etc.
The icon design
Putting it all together...the app design
From commenting, to timely financial topics, debate, chats with fund managers, search and bookmarking, we put it all together and made it come to life in the UI design.
The Pro Version
For the Pro version, we created specific features that targeted the pain points of the CFPs, like bookmarking, the ability to "follow" funds, and search funds information and published research. A timely, one-stop source for all iShares information.
Small client satisfaction
Qualitative post-launch feedback was extremely positive. Small investors loved app's features and expressed greater satisfaction with iShares. And it showed in the downloads. Six months post-launch over 35,000 iShare clients downloaded it.