TradeStation Trading Platform Design
Today’s online brokerages offer investors multiple ways to manage their portfolios— applications, web apps, mobile apps, and websites. With users switching between these platforms, inconsistencies between them can cause confusion—leading to losses and missed opportunities. TradeStation hired us to audit all of their trading tools and redesign them to be more visually and functionally aligned.
My Role
Strategy
UX Research
UI/UX Design
Visual Design
Timeline
3 Months
The Opportunity
With multiple trading products managed by separate product managers—each with different roadmaps and launch schedules—the TradeStation suite began to diverge in both UX and visual design. To address this fragmentation, TradeStation hired me to align their Pro Desktop app, mobile app, and web app into a cohesive experience. This was not a full redesign; instead, we worked closely with engineering and SMEs to find a solution that required minimal development effort while ensuring consistency across platforms.
The Process
To ensure that our design decisions met the specific needs of professional traders, TradeStation connected me with experienced users for direct feedback. Through interviews and design reviews, their insights played a crucial role in guiding the direction of the work.
Our efforts began with the Pro Desktop app, TradeStation’s most heavily used product. Once the new design system was established, we extended it to the web and mobile apps, ensuring a seamless experience across all platforms.
Research
- User Demographics
- Define User Goals
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Customer Interviews
Empathize
- User Personas
- User Scenarios
- User Testing
- Journey Map
Create
- Flows
- Wireframes
- Visual Design
- Prototype
Test
- Usability
- Track usage
- Design Refinements
Cross-Functional Collaboration
This project required close collaboration between professional traders, engineering, and myself. As the designer, I facilitated communication between all parties, ensuring the final outcome met both user needs and technical constraints.
Playing to the Pros
Professional traders have highly specific expectations for their tools. Key takeaways from our research included:
- Dark mode preferred for reducing eye strain
- Dense data display – More rows, less white space
- Traders favor speed and familiarity over discoverability
By designing with these principles in mind, we ensured that the updated products met pro traders’ expectations while improving usability for all users..
Finding Efficiencies
In professional trading, every second counts. Our goal was to enhance usability without disrupting established workflows. One major improvement was on the order ticket screen:
- The quantity field is preselected upon landing.
- The keypad is in full view, reducing the need for extra taps.
- Traders can enter and execute trades immediately
By focusing on high-impact, low-friction improvements like this, we were able to enhance productivity without forcing traders to relearn their tools.
The Solution
The final design created a unified experience across TradeStation’s Pro Desktop, web, and mobile apps while maintaining the efficiency pro traders expect. The Pro and Web apps were nearly identical, and the mobile app followed the same visual and interaction patterns for a seamless transition. A standardized dark theme was applied across all products, aligning with traders’ preferences. Small but impactful optimizations, like streamlining mobile order entry, improved speed and usability without disrupting existing workflows. By working within existing frameworks, we ensured alignment with minimal engineering effort, delivering a faster, more cohesive, and intuitive trading platform.
Redesigned Mobile Screens
Mobile order ticket before and after redesign
Pro Desktop App before and after redesign