Stocks in The Future
Through next-level design strategy and service goals I partnered with John’s Hopkins University’s developed program Stocks in the Future to create a redesign an innovative and incredible simulated economic stock market to empower inner city youth to provide an educational platform for economic literacy and empowerment.
Problem:
The Challenge:
Reducing user drop off rates for administrators and students utilize the platform for educative program
Context:
Collaborated on programming for 80 schools, 180 classrooms, 80 teaching professionals, and 80 administrators across two states to conduct UX research. This process inherently analyzed and processed pain points and system breakdowns, focusing on the psychological beliefs and behaviors of Black and Brown inner-city youth regarding their agency and engagement in school. Redesigned the Stocks in the Future (SIF) financial education tool with a cross-functional team of product managers, developers and stakeholders to support teachers teaching the SIF curriculum, decreasing user abandonment by 35% during their stock research​​
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Tools
Team
My Role
Timeline
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Pen and Paper
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Miro
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Figma
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Zoom
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Notability
Research
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Overall: 8+ Weeks
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Discovery & Research: 2+ weeks
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Design & testing: 4+ weeks
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4 Engineers
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3 Developers
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1 Product Manager
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1 Artist
Ideation
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Overall: 8+ Weeks
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Discovery & Research: 2+ weeks
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Design & testing: 4+ weeks
Production
Overview
My Role & Impact
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Strategic Alignment: Partnered with product management, directors, executives, and staff to align business goals with user needs and program objectives.
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Design Leadership: Led the redesign process from concept through implementation, overseeing prototypes and final designs while guiding product managers, engineers, and designers.
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User Research & Insights: Conducted competitor analyses, industry research, and developed user journey maps to uncover pain points and opportunities for improvement.
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Cross-Functional Collaboration: Facilitated communication between design and development teams to ensure seamless execution and consistent user experience.
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Data Protection Oversight: Liaised with the data protection officer to ensure compliance in user consent, data collection, and processing.
Research
Product Audit and Evaluation of Current Standing
I conducted a full product audit, competitor analysis, and in-depth user interviews to evaluate the existing Stocks in the Future platform.
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Product Audit: Assessed layout, navigation, and content to identify usability barriers and distinguish between quick fixes and long-term design improvements.
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User Interviews: Engaged six students and teachers in one-on-one sessions to uncover motivations, pain points, and behaviors driving (or hindering) stock research and classroom participation.
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Competitor Analysis: Benchmarked the platform against Google Classroom, Acorns, and other e-learning tools to highlight gaps in responsiveness, clarity, and engagement.
Product Audit
Competitor Audit
As a next step, I wanted to explore more the functionality and benefits that are offered by the platforms offering similar kind of product - providing knowledge and education. I compared direct and indirect competitors with a couple of important components of UI and product in general to discover the areas where the Stocks in the Future experience could improve. I explored online learning spaces like Google Classroom, and online teaching stock platforms like Acorns.
The leaders of the e-commerce and stock market trading were more advanced when it comes to make their design responsiveness, highlighting the user benefits, and generally excelling in the usability department.
Interview and Findings
Engaging in one-on-one, in-depth user interviews with a younger demographic, I aimed to uncover the student motivations driving their success rates in going online and completing the action of buying a stock and teachers success rates approving attendance/grades within the "Stocks in the Future" platform. Specifically, I interviewed six individuals with an interest in psychology to delve into their habits and motives in this context. The key insights gleaned from these interviews revealed...
Top motivations for people:
Insights from research snapshot 📸 :
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Students needed clearer guidance and real-time feedback to stay motivated.
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Teachers struggled with administrative workflows such as managing rosters and tracking student progress.
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The platform’s information density created unnecessary cognitive load, reducing engagement.
Persona Development
When building personas for Stocks in the Future, it is essential to center the lived experiences of under-resourced youth while also considering the perspectives of teachers, administrators, and families who engage with the program. The youth participants often come from communities where financial education and wealth-building opportunities are limited, making qualities like economic curiosity, resilience, trust-building needs, and motivational triggers critical to understand.
Ideation
Sitemap
Based on the research and persona discovery, I brainstormed, compiled and organized the necessary website content and functionality. Pre-redesign, the Stock in the Future website was heavy in redundant and obsolete information that didn’t provide much substance. I decided to include the most vital information in the new version to make it clean and easy to navigate. I also wanted to create a more fluid paralegal between the curriculum and emphasis on students sense of agency in investment in both their performance and their financial future could be evident. The greatest emphasis was in the interactive quality with the user and the online curriculum and experience of SIF stock tools.
In the process, I was able to reduce the overall number of pages from 60+ down to 12, and the main navigation user pathways (for student, teachers, and admin) went down from 5 to 3.
Overall Map
Sitemap
User Task Flow
I created the user task flow for both students and teachers performing core tasks within the Stocks int eh Future program. The following screenshots demonstrate student navigation to purchase a new stock with their Stocks in the Future gained funds. Moreover, I also share the pathway of a teacher and admin that is one of the most important site’s functionality. Task flow assumes a visit by a guest who’s not a member of the Society yet.
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Low Fidelity Wireframes
Streamlining the 'Stocks in the Future' user experience involved a strategic approach to wireframing and testing. After defining the primary user tasks, including student portfolio checks, managing 'Stocks in the Future' stocks, and simplifying admin/teacher tasks like adding students to the roster, I crafted lo-fi wireframes for initial user testing. This early testing phase proved invaluable, providing insights that informed subsequent high-fidelity prototypes. Key iterations focused on enhancing event information visibility, guiding users toward fluid stock exploration by optimizing sitemap clarity and image placement, and refining text information hierarchy to highlight critical details. These adjustments, based on user feedback, not only saved time in later stages but also significantly improved the overall usability of the platform.
Wireframes
Focused on Admin ease in administrative task completion, increasing task completion for adjustments to class roster each semes
Key Features Implemented in mockups:
In the stock visualization we improved the visualizations that correspond with current other major stock trading and educative platforms - utilizing Jakob’s Law, understanding that to foster ease of use by riding industry connections and standards to reduced cognitive load for learnability. Another design principle and goal aspect implemented was I provided youth with incentivized messages and updates on their grades-to-wallet accomplishments to help aid their understanding between their successful participation with their access to purchase new stocks and other program perks - the core of the product’s mission and product revamp. I maintained menu categorization for continued internal design internal consistency, and brand identity.
Hi-Fidelity Prototypes
I​n response to the initial review of wireframes by stakeholders and surveys from youth, I created the following hi-fidelity mock-ups and prototypes:
Test
Usability Testing
To get even more insight and feedback on the branding and usability, I tested the prototype on 5 potential users (age 31-39) to get enough feedback to implement it into the second round of iterations. The test validated my stock purchase pathway, and Stocks in the Future method of stock evaluation process with a 100% successful completion rate.
Insights from Usability Testing
Usability Testing
To get even more insight and feedback on the branding and usability, I tested the prototype on 5 potential users (age 31-39) to get enough feedback to implement it into the second round of iterations. The test validated my registration process with 100% successful completion rate.
Conclusion & Next Steps
Comparison
New
Old
Next steps
Overall it was a successful improvement and achieved
1. Came up with AssessmentMetrics monitor that is user friendly for youth and captures the grade monitoring achievement progress. ​
2. Added gamification of progress in performance within program
3. Integrated more live updates from news on a subpage or supplemental portal to support youthfulness of user experience for users.
Good ideas for next steps:
1. UX Survey and feedback