CHAKA
Project Type: Mobile Design / Responsive Web Design
Roles: Product Designer
Industry: Finance Services
Making global stocks trade and investment easy.
Overview
Chaka is an online investment platform for Nigerians, that allows them to trade and invest in global brands with any amount of money, no matter the price per share. It calls itself the investment passport for Nigerians. Chaka was launched in 2019. The project brief called for a redesign of the mobile application and the website pages.
This redesign was spearheaded by New York based creative agency Mosina. I functioned in the capacity of a UI/UX designer.
The Challenge
The problem this product redesign aimed to solve was to simplify the experience users have when trying to invest in stocks on both the Chaka web and mobile i.e. Android and iOS application. The new flow focuses on a structure for this objective.
The target users for the Chaka app are beginner investors between the ages of 18 and 40 years. There are two major product offerings on the platform; SmartInvest which allows users to entrust their investment portfolio into the hands of the platform, and ChakaStocks which allows users to purchase, sell, and hold stocks from over 40 countries globally including the US and UK.
The Design Approach
Designing for finance can be complex for the average user. A well designed and thought-out interface can make this experience seamless. The approach that makes this work is presenting information in an understandable format. Particularly, presenting the most relevant and useful information to customers as clearly as possible so they can make informed decisions about how to manage their assets.
For this project, a workflow was structured such that the designers were working on different sections of the redesign at a time, because the project was time bound.
The redesign had a team of two designers and product people working together. Some of the team members were in New York and others in other countries, we had to leverage on communication despite the different time zones to keep everyone onboard with work being done.
Similar products I drew inspiration from include Robinhood and Coinbase. A moodboard with different structures for the various design components required gave a direction for the redesign. The current Chaka colours and branding were maintained for design consistency.
Two iterations were created during this redesign using Figma. The first round of designs were reviewed with the stakeholders, from which observations and comments were noted. This resulted in slight adjustments to some screens. The updated designs were reviewed again.
Designs for Mobile
The new designs for the Chaka mobile app focused on improving the experience users have when trying to invest. The sign up process made allowance for both pin and fingerprint, such that subsequent logins can be fast and easy.
Bold fonts (Sora and Helvetica) were leveraged on to create visual hierarchy, grab the user's attention and reduce confusion across the pages.
The Portfolio page serves as a section to track particular investments for each user. It was necessary to arrange the statistics so each value is easy to monitor as they change often. Actions that can be taken on these investments are nested in a button that opens up when clicked.
Designs implemented had a quick navigation, and color updates users on critical changes in stocks and their personal portfolios. This makes it easy for them to know the state of their investments. Green indicates an increase and Red shows a decline in stocks.
The Browse page for popular investments and stocks was redesigned in such a way that information can be easily seen, read and understood. The in-app Wallet design makes it easy to buy investments from the global or local wallet.
Selecting a particular stock or investment opens up a screen where users can buy shares. The Exchange page makes it easy to exchange currencies being used for investments within the app. The exchange converter shows the value of one selected currency in another’s rate. Real-time notification provides information on how stocks are performing.
To delight the users, an engaging and welcoming atmosphere was designed. Microinteractions were utilised for actions that can be taken on stocks.
Designs for Desktop
The web app design takes inspiration from screens created within the mobile app. A new landing page was designed that features new design assets and shows information about Chaka.
Information contained on the landing page shows the stock options and companies users can invest in. As well as, app features and the platforms Chaka can be downloaded on.
Existing pages such as Wallet, Accounts, Browse and Portfolio were replicated for the web app designs. The web view provides a wider look at portfolio and stocks performance. Real-time data and graphs informs the users about the state of their investments.
Users can easily see the value in their global and local wallets. They can initiate a withdrawal, exchange their wallet value or add more funds. Similar to the mobile view, the currency exchange section allows users to see the value of one currency to another. Accounts section allows users to view history of their transactions, check their account statements, learn more about investment and make changes to their account settings.
Handover and App Launch
A session with the developer was scheduled to walk him through the designs, after which proper handoff was done. A prototyped version of the designs was created and reviewed with the clients for approval. Consequently, this closed the redesign work done for Chaka.
The Outcome
The Chaka redesign had a timeline of two months, and the redesign was made possible with proper collaboration and communication. Being able to work in a team to bring it to live helped me navigate relating with stakeholders and implementing feedback better in designing products for users. Particularly, with products that have peculiar user needs.
Chaka has since gone on to be one of the top five stocks and investment applications in Nigeria.