Designing a New Standard for Stock Trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for mobile and web platforms.
Stock trading on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) is currently traditional with a high-entry-barrier for non-stock brokers, digital and mobile traders, etc. Also Stock brokering by digital platforms is hugely impacted by the unavailability of any gateway/API providing this service. This platform provides a service that allows for stock brokering, and trading seamlessly for B2B merchants and also for B2C users respectively.
Today if you want to trade on the NSE you will have to trade via a 3rd party agent known as a Stock Broker, and this is often done in person or via proxy. Also, the market is currently run by legacy organisations, preventing new digital entrants into the market. The key challenge to solve was to provide a platform that serves as a gateway/API access for businesses/merchants to become stockbrokers while delivering to mobile users to trade easily on their phones.
The research for this project was a closed one, and the participants during the surveys were hand-picked based on the criteria set by stakeholders. Although, I conducted a personal open research to understand how stock brokering in Nigeria worked, the demography of stock traders and how the current merchants serve their stock traders. Here are a few findings:
Active Stock Brokers
All accredited by the Nigeria Stock Exchange
No available data on digital stock brokering/trading
Customers trade via agents or by proxy
StanbicIBTC Stock Brokers
Largest Stock Broker on the NSE
Has a digital trading platform 'Stanbic E-trade'
Very complex and not-so-appealing UX
research participants trade on the NSE
9 Trade on the NYSE via digital mobile platforms
All assume trading on the NSE is hard
All within the age range of 22 - 29
Digital Mobile Trading Platform
Access to over 3,000 stocks listed on U.S Exchanges
Mobile app with market data, listings and portfolio
Plans to list Stocks on the NSE soon.
After my first survey, I carried out a Semi-structured interview to have a more in depth conversation with participants. I recruited 7 participants who are financial services experts, 3 participants who trade stocks internationally, and 2 participants who showed interest in stock trading but are yet to try it out. I grouped the outcome of the interview into four main headings; Trading Literacy and Trust, Lack of Personalization, Tedious Processes, and Market Performance. I illustrated the outcome using a mind map.
This was probably the most informing part of my process, as I got to learn a lot about how stock trading works in Nigeria, the misconceptions, and this particularly informed the communication and copy (Ux Writing) direction for this project. Here is a funny comment from one of my participants;
The first time I decided to look into stock trading, it felt completely complex! I saw a lot of numbers moving around, and a lot of abbreviations and it felt like I need a degree in Maths and Statistics!
After gathering data from surveys, interviews, and market research, I synthesized my findings to align with stakeholder and business goals to come up with a solution hypothesis that addresses each of the categorized problems.
How might we simplify the stock trading experience for the average user?
Stock trading terms should be easy to grasp
Market data should be visualized in simple charts
Information provided should aid decision making
How might we reduce drop off at sign up for stock brokers and traders?
Users should be able to sign up without hassle
Documentation should not be cumbersome
Data collection should only happen when neccessary
How might we personalize the stock trading experience for traders?
Users should experience control of their trading
Remove the obvious 3rd-party influence
Domicile trading activities within their reach
How might we build trust to enable digital stock trading adoption ?
We can't fix the market, but we can fix the perception
Provide highlights on key performers and predictions
Communicate events and their influence on the market
Due to legal constraints, I am unable to show the details of this part of the project
After communicating product requirements with stakeholders, and aligning on several drawbacks using a Feature prioritization matrix , I proceeded to design the solutions agreed on while also intentionally highlighting my rationale behind each direction.
To achieve a seamless sign up experience, it was important that I came up with a flow that is easy but also collects the required data of the user. I streamlined the entire flow into successive steps as the user progress through the application.
How Stock trading works and how users navigate a stock trading app happens to be one of the most important challenge to solve. After iterations, and employing the help of a UX Writer, we were able to craft an on-boarding experience that takes a New User through a tour.
During this tour several key features are highlighted and also the meaning of terms. For our beta test, we intend to collect data on terms that seemed confusing or difficult to understand byusers and then iterate on that feedback to improve the overall in-app communication.
A huge part of the on-boarding experience is personalized as per the clients requirements, unfortunately my non-disclosure clause prevents me from sharing it. But hey! I got more screeeeeennnnnssss!!!!
For Businesses & Merchants, I designed an API Gateway Interface that allows new dealers to Sign Up as dealers/Stock brokers. This means, anyone with the required documentation can easily sign up to become a digital stock broker on the NSE. This will see an enormous increase in the number of Stock brokers (184 at the moment) and also increase market competition too.
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