From Discovery to Action: Crafting a User-Centric Social Trading Platform
7 min read
Product
Sensibull by Zerodha
Task
Product Design
Responsibilities
Product Design, User Research, Prototyping
Timeframe
3 days
Overview
This is a brief presentation of a product design case study I worked on for Sensibull back in 2021. The project focused on designing a social trading platform where users could share trading strategies and insights with others, helping them make better trading choices. A prototype was designed and presented to the Sensibull team for feedback, with key design decisions highlighted during the presentation.
Background
As a trader, predicting market movements can be challenging. For instance, you might expect NIFTY to stay above ₹15,300 or SBI to remain within the ₹780–₹850 range but feel unsure about the best option strategy to maximize returns. Should you buy a call option, sell a put option, or use a call spread? Deciding on the right strike price and expiration date adds further complexity.
Options trading involves various factors beyond stock prices, such as volatility and time. In certain scenarios, selling a put during an upward trend can be more profitable than buying a call, while selling a call might be better than purchasing a put in a downward trend. This complexity often leaves traders uncertain about the most effective approach to manage risk and optimize returns.
The Sensibull app is a specialized platform designed to simplify options trading for retail investors, particularly those who may find the complexities of derivatives challenging.
The Design Challenge
The overall challenge was to improve the current app design and help traders input market predictions in plain language and instantly generate tailored, profitable option strategies aligned with their preferences.
Simplifying Trade Discovery and Execution
The first challenge was to design a screen to showcase the feed of the trades from the traders the user follows. This is where he or she sees trade ideas and takes the trade if interested. A key part of designing this screen is to decide on what to show on the card of each trade idea. Below are the current designs of the the trade idea cards- Kotak buy and Bharti long. There are also fields to search an idea or filter the feed.
Improving Leaderboard and Social Feed Interactions
The second challenge was to design a screen where users can discover all the traders and their trades and evaluate their performance. This screen would allow them to decide whom to follow. It was to represent a leaderboard of all the good traders. The goal was to ideate on what this social feed would look like along with the leaderboard, what are the interactions and what numbers one could show the end-user.
Improving Search and Discovery
From a search and discovery perspective, the challenge was to improve how users find and evaluate traders and trade ideas. The goal was to redesign the discovery journey to make it more intuitive and efficient, enabling users to seamlessly search for traders, apply filters (e.g., by risk level or performance), and explore detailed metrics. As of now, the search is not universal, users can only search for a stock.
The Approach
A direct user-centered methodology was applied. I gathered some insight from Sensibull team to identify valuable information for traders and priority metrics and used this to define the primary and secondary purposes of the app, created wireframes for a short review and went with the final design and prototyping.
Observations and requirement checklist
A UX Audit and a Benchmarking study was conducted on the screens shared from the existing design to gather more insight on the changes needed. On a review, the following key aspects were considered for improvement- Usability issues, Accessibility, Hierarchy, Color and Typography, Imagery and icons.
UX Audit
Observations revealed that the cluttered design of trade cards in the current app’s ideas feed overwhelmed users with excessive, unstructured information. The absence of a clear visual hierarchy forced users to expend unnecessary cognitive effort to identify key metrics (e.g., risk level, profit potential), slowing decision-making and increasing frustration. Additionally, poor accessibility practices—such as low contrast and inconsistent grouping—created barriers for users, undermining trust in the platform and reducing engagement.
In the traders feed, users struggle to discover and evaluate traders effectively because the current discovery screen lacks a clear and organized way to compare performance metrics. Without a well-structured leaderboard or social feed, users find it difficult to identify top-performing traders, assess their strategies, and decide whom to follow. This leads to confusion, inefficiency, and missed opportunities to connect with skilled traders.
Benchmarking studies
I also conducted a benchmarking exercise for inspiration and to identify areas of improvement. 3 different social trading and copy trading apps were listed. These apps have an integrated community. A common theme discovered across all these apps were that all of them had better accessibility, visual balance and ease of content discovery compared to Sensibull. A detailed list of observations prepared during the audit and benchmarking studies are presented below for reference.
Key Takeaways
The following were the key takeaways from the audit and benchmarking study. The overall issues recorded were regarding information overload, accessibility and prioritization of critical data to improve the experience for the users.
- Information overload on the app directly contributing to decision fatigue.
- Lack of prioritization made critical data (e.g., risk/reward) hard to find.
- Accessibility gaps alienating users, affecting inclusivity and usability.
- Disorganised discovery feed and lack of social proof, skilled traders receive less visibility discouraging them from contributing actively.
Using the above key takeaways, I came up with a potential How might we statement shown below to brainstorm ideas for the redesign.
"How might we design strategy cards that build trust, prioritize key trader preferences, and motivate new F&O (Future & Options) users to confidently and repeatedly copy trades?"
Design Decisions
The following design decisions were made to address the "How might we" statement. These were derived from early research questions to guide brainstorming solutions.
What information on the card would quickly motivate new F&O users to copy a trade?
Highlight past accuracy, detail funds required and potential profit, show the number of copies made for social proof, and mention users watching the strategy for validation.
What do traders look for in a trading strategy, and how do they prioritize it?
Most prioritize profitability, win rate, and risk management. Some prefer high-risk high-gain, while others seek steady, low-maintenance approaches.
How can we build trust between long-term strategy builders and new users?
Trust is built through verified performance, transparency via credibility metrics, and community engagement through reviews and discussions.
Concept generation and Wireframing
As a starting point, using the understanding from research, I listed all the existing data from both the trader card and the idea cards, these were given a score by the team on what was more important for an experienced and a new user on the app. The results were then used to lay out information on the wireframe.
The search feature was also listed under a primary item and needed to carry equal score compared to the Ideas and Trader feeds. This was to be easily accessible along with the filters.
Wireframe Feedback
The key takeaways from a feedback session after presenting the wireframes were some minor rearrangements of data such as the total number of trade copies and trade watches. Placement of the filter feature was another feedback shared during the review. The grouping of information was well received, which was a major concern in the existing design.
The Design System
The idea was to keep the brand energy alive and improve only those colours and typography that aids in better accessibility for users.
Final Design
Below are the final screens that were presented for feedback. The design decisions were frequently referred to while proposing the final designs. These were shared as a link in AdobeXD which can be viewed here. The final designs had a cleaner layout with better whitespaces and improved readability. The colours were better accessible and button elements were clearly distinguished.
Simplifying Trade Discovery and Execution
As per feedback and design decisions, I improved the discovery of good traders and trade ideas, helped aid the execution of copying trades in the design. I showcased a trader icon and their accuracy on top to promote trust and confidence about the trade and the trader. 2 variants were presented for Ideas screen - one with a switch to turn the alerts ON and another with the alerts and favorites option. The highlighted data were the funds required to use the trade and the expected profit.
Leaderboard and Social Feed Interactions
The traders tab showcased a leaderboard with top traders to follow on Sensibull. The leaderboard showcased the top 3 all-time, monthly and yearly traders. Scrolling further would reveal more details about the trades, accuracy and net profit of each trader. This promoted repeatability and trust on the app.
Search and Filter
The search and filter experience were improved to reflect their crucial role in usability. Although the search filed was hidden along with the primary tabs, the search icon trigger was presented alongside the tabs. Top filter topics were presented right below the top navigation. An advance secondary filter was added a level below.
Feedback
The designs were presented to the Sensibull team for a final round of feedback. The use of improved color and typography were lauded and they liked the idea about the leaderboards, the universal search and commonly used filters. They agreed on combining the primary items- Ideas, Trades and Search to the top and moving the "new idea" action icon to the bottom navigation menu.
Since accessibility and repetative behaviours from users on the existing app were a concern, the improved designs were very much appreciated.
My Takeaways
The case study process was brief yet highly rewarding. It was amazing to engage with and learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry. I especially enjoyed my conversation with Abid Hassan, the CEO of Sensibull, and was thrilled to receive positive feedback from Kailash Nadh, the CTO of Zerodha.
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