The Company & My Role

TD Ameritrade is a brokerage firm and financial advisory company. I worked as a Senior UX Designer in TDA’s Digital Guidance unit where I designed experiences for automated investment portfolios, otherwise known as robo-advisors.

The Product

Presales is the account opening experience for new clients in Digital Guidance. They enter the experience from a marketing page for Essential and Selective Portfolios. The prospective client then proceeds through a mad-lib style wizard that collects information about their finances, goals, risk tolerance, and other criteria. The output is a recommended investment model based on the client’s inputs. Here is a snippet of the old Presales experience where the client selects their goal:

The Problem

The visual style of Presales was no longer consistent with TDA’s design system. There were a series of visual defects (one shown in the right screenshot) and various bugs. Presales was also not built with accessibility in mind and had numerous violations.

The goal of this project was to give Presales a visual overhaul, including colors, icons, fonts and more. I would catalogue and prioritize the defects and champion accessibility throughout the process.

The Process & Delivery

I began by referring to TDA’s design system, noting discrepancies, and identifying patterns that were unique to Presales. I met with several developers to understand the codestack as I was not involved in the development of the original Presales. They helped me understand the technical reasons for the bugs.

I set to work in redesigning the pages of Presales, accounting for responsive breakpoints for desktop, tablet, and mobile. I enlisted the help a visual designer in the creation of icons and other assets. I presented the designs to the UX team, developers, product owner, gathered feedback and iterated the designs.

From there I worked closely with developers as they implemented the designs in our Agile process. I helped write Jira cards, broke down each design in digestible parts, and paired with developers as they worked. It was highly collaborative and I had to negotiate on some designs in order to get them built pragmatically. Here is a sample of my designs:

The Outcome

Like in any design project, I had to negotiate on my designs and not all of my work was implemented. Nevertheless, the outcome of this project was an account opening experience that gave clients a great first impression of TD Ameritrade. It demonstrated my commitment to creating a great experiences through visual design, effective usability, and conscious accessibility.