Case study

Simple Investing — Hands-off Investments

We built a hands-off investing experience inside the banking app: automated funding rules, clear risk profiles, and goal-based tracking to reduce the friction of getting started if you're a first-time investor.

For users who don't know where to get started, it can be a daunting task to learn the terminology, risks, and popular investing strategies - we sought to eliminate the confusion by allowing clients to fund their investment account and let it grow automatically.

Role
Senior Product Designer
Timeline
4 Months
Audience
Core Banking Clients
Responsibilities
Discovery · Flows · Prototyping · Motion
Sprint Type
Concept → Pilot

Problem & context

Investing is intimidating and time-consuming. We needed a low-effort, high-clarity flow that helps clients start and stay the course.

Why this matters

  1. Friction: Too many steps and forms at kickoff.
  2. Confidence: People want guidance on risk and goals.
  3. Consistency: Auto-funding helps build the habit.

Goals & metrics

Prove that clients can onboard faster, fund consistently, and understand performance at a glance. Competitor experiences like Wealthsimple continue to offer experiences that are pulling clients and funds away from the Big 5.

Activation

Time-to-first-fund

Reduce setup friction and initial drop-offs.

Retention

Auto-fund adoption

Drive recurring contributions with rules.

Clarity

Portfolio understanding

Improve comprehension of risk/reward.

Feature highlights

The entire experience revolves around plain-English language that educates users without feeling overwhelming, and intuitive moments to adjust investments as easily as possible.

Auto-funding rule setup
Educational Tidbits: Providing explanations where necessary, based on the level of user expertise.
Goal progress and projections
Future Projections: Adjustable sliders for real-time projections, promoting informed decisions.
Onboarding

Guided risk profile

Plain-language trade-offs with progressive disclosure.

Funding

Auto-fund rules

Round-ups, pay-day boosts, scheduled top-ups.

Clarity

Goal tracking

Progress to goal, milestones, and projections.

Key Findings

The design and content trade-offs that shaped the experience.

Prioritize Understanding Client Intention

Generic onboarding questionnaires don't serve the true financial goals of clients - understanding their investing experience, knowledge of terminology, and risk appetite through plain language prompts led to improved success.

Comparison Tools and Suggestions

The key to quicker and more confident client decisions was being able to compare different investing options at a glance.

Informative & Interactive Visualizations

A combination of graphs, contribution breakdowns, and future projections were most effective at allowing clients with little to no investing experience understand the impact these decisions would make on their long-term finances.

Ease of Funding Options

Reducing friction to fund account as much as possible benefitted both clients (utility of investing platform immediately available) and business by having more successfully funded investing products.

Automation and Insights

Hands-off tools that can be adjusted when necessary, and prompts to view and adjust activity as needed form the core of a good and useful client experience.

Results

What we measured through user testing questionnaires in moderated sessions.

Time-to-First-Fund
–30%
Auto-fund Adoption
+50%
Investment Interaction
+40%