Deaglo

The Overview

Building a renowned FX management product.

The CEO approached me with an ambitious vision: to elevate FX risk management to new heights. FX Hedging, or Foreign Exchange Hedging, involves executing transactions to safeguard existing or anticipated positions from unexpected market fluctuations. I was the primary designer for this project who worked alongside the project manager and CEO.

View the final product.

The Problem & Objectives

FX risks can throw a wrench into the plans of businesses trying to attract foreign investors. These foreign investors, who are entities that lend the funds (we call them 'counterparties'), often hesitate because FX risks can really put a dent in their returns. That's where Deaglo comes in – Deaglo wanted to create an experience that takes FX risks out of the equation, letting businesses concentrate on their performance without the gamble on FX rates. Here's what we aimed to achieve;

Build a product that allows for users to manage, simulate, and execute different hedge 'projects' to test outcomes
Hold a haven for businesses and investors to collaborate on a hedge project in the same place, at the same time

Solution

Collaborating closely with the CEO, project manager, and developers, I spearheaded the creation of a product tailored to assist corporations, investors, and banks in managing their hedging initiatives. It enables them to simulate outcomes and mitigate risks stemming from market fluctuations.

My Contribution

I assumed the role of the primary designer for this project, taking charge of all responsibilities that range from conducting user research, to creating designs. With the invaluable support of the project manager and CEO. Moreover, I I established translation of design to development by providing detailed annotations, video calls, and other essential forms of guidance to ensure a seamless collaboration with the development team.

Our Design Process

The Research

Entering an unknown territory and conquering it.

Diving into the FX industry was a bit of a leap for me. I'd heard about hedge funds before, but haven't really seen them in play. To make sure I could execute the vision, I did my homework. I dug into what the industry was all about, and learned about common pain points of users and what could make hedging against FX risks a more rewarding experience.

Industry Research

Before I could hop right into tackling the issue at hand, I had to gain an understanding of what FX was all about. I did some personal research through reading peer journals and articles, and talked with industry experts to learn the ins-and-outs of the FX management industry. Here are my findings.

The FX management process is a 'still' very manual and repetitive process carried out by treasurers of large corporations. Both Deaglo experts and peer reviewed articles highlighted the fact that the FX management process is painfully tedious.

One of the toughest parts of FX management is managing multiple counterparty entities at once. We can think of counterparties as brokers that facilitate a transaction. There could be a number of different FX projects with different counterparties. It would get messy quickly.

The time frame of FX project is vast. Very rarely do thy last less than a few months. This means that all parties involved have to take proper steps to ensure proper predictions for that particular time frame. Every second and every step counts.

FX risk management is becoming more technologically advanced, but for the most part, lots of corporations continue to remain relatively manual due to the lack of a cohesive tool that they can rely on. As a result, many of the industry professionals rely on cold calls and emails.

User Surveys

Following, I curated a list of survey questions that targeted my key concerns of transfer/exchange applications that are used today. My participants consisted of FX industry leaders whom have had 20+ years of industry experience and use transfer apps to not only assist them in their daily work, but also help them perform personal transactions as well. Here are some quick highlights from those surveys.

Survey Takeaways

Professionals in FX are very concerned about where there money is at all times. This isn’t a small amount of change being exchanged; we are talking hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Professionals not only want to know the best hedging options, but they also want to be able to see general market movement to plot for future hedging opportunities.

Professionals want to mitigate the amount of steps required to gets funds from their counterparties. With market fluctuation occurring often, time is precious.

Users want a one-stop-shop for viewing, managing and executing FX projects where all parties are able to spectate and make decisions upon.

The “Define” Process

Zooming in to pinpoint the problem.

With the valuable data collected, we now had to identify the problem to make sure we are solving for the right one.

Problem Statement

Synthesizing all of the data we’ve collected, we were able to identify themes and pinpoint the problems. Here was the main problem we wanted to solve.

How might we ensure that users and their counterparties are able to execute projects with confidence and with as minimal steps as possible?

User Personas

We followed the mapping of the problem with user personas for the two main use cases.

Persona 1

Persona 1 is our primary user. This is the persona that will be using the platform to view market movement, test different hedge exposures, and contacting counterparties to receive funds for project execution.

Persona 2

Persona 2 is the counterparty of Persona 1. This persona will be the group who is lending funds in order for persona 1 to take the final steps of project execution.

User Flows

Next, we designed user flows to map out the interaction between each persona within the platform. These flows focus on the use case that persona 1 and persona 2 have yet to review and discuss pricing of a project.

User flow 1 is based on Persona 1’s journey through our platform. It starts with a typical login flow and then leads a user through creating an analysis, running tests on different exposures (projects), and requesting/confirming a quote from a counterparty. Once a quote is confirmed, they are then able to lock in the project through payment.

User Flow 2 focuses on the persona 2 or the counterparty receiving notice to lend funds. They gain access to review the profile summary via email, and accept the quote requested by persona 1.

The Ideation

Painting the picture of our idea.

It was finally time to start executing the solution and making it a reality.

Sketches

Once we mapped the problem, identified the user personas, and created the user flows, it was time to visualize the design solutions. Sketches based on the two targeted personas were created.

Wireframes

Through a series of sketch iterations, we were able to settle on a solution that best fit the needs of both the persona 1 and persona 2. We then brought those sketches to low fidelity wireframes.

Usability Testing

We used our wireframes to conduct a usability test with a few participants. Here are some things that we learned.

Usability Test Takeaways

Problem: There are a decent amount of steps within the execution process due to the number of FX tools available. Users got lost.

Solution: A progress bar was added to guide users through the usage of the FX tools to show users the remaining steps, the purpose of each step, and the next steps to proceed after a previous step has been completed. In addition, consultation was added upon project execution to further assist users.

Problem: Though informational, results had no other means outside of the testing user to see results. There were very limited avenue of sharing the results.

Solution: Many different methods of sharing has been added. Users can share via a link, within Deaglo to their organization network members, and download a file.

Problem: Participants felt there was no connection between executing a project and making/receiving payments. It was mentioned that the process of successfully executing a project, then manually having to request/send funds felt disconnected.

Solution: With each successful execution, users will be prompted to request/send funds related to a project that was executed via the notifications feature. In addition, when a user happens to go the the payment tab, there will be a notification within it that would highlight due requests/payments related to a previously executed exposures.

The Design

Adding some flavor to the foundation of the recipe.

It was time to focus on the designs, typography, and various other graphical elements to bring the design solution to life.

Typography & Color Pallet

The typography and color pallet aimed to maintain a professional feel. A design system was already in place, so I followed suit.

Iconography

The selected icons were meant to showcase a professional feel that also held a feeling of playfulness. This was to create a feeling of accessibility for all users interested in FX, not only experts.

The Solution

An MVP that shakes up the FX industry.

The final product brought to life.

01. Getting Started

Set up an account Take on the world.

02. Create a Project

Make an organization with your team and your counterparties. Manage trades, test parameters and execute projects. Update live project parameters as the market fluctuates

03. Test Project Parameters

Test your predictions with Deaglo’s industry changing FX tools. Review results, share outcomes, and take the next steps. Gain feedback from the Deaglo team on your market strategy.

04. Understand the Process

A step-by-step guide to execute a project with a progress bar. Use industry leading FX tools; Strategy Simulator, Margin Simulator, and Hedge IRR. Save instances of previous ran tests to ensure you get the best outcomes.

05. Execute Your Project

After testing projects and finding your desired outcomes, execute your project to lock in your position with just a few clicks Request quotes from your counterparty or Deaglo.

06. Complete Payment

Receive or request funds from your partners. Lock in market positions with Deaglo and complete trade interaction to profit.

Prototype

Here is a very brief look at the platform (only available on web and tablet).

The Conclusion

Final thoughts & next steps.

The product is currently in its second stage of the MVP, but is being used and field tested by corporations by 50+ clients across the globe. Things are still ongoing.

Tackling a project in this sort of industry was an interesting challenge. I went from having very little knowledge on the subject to now being able to comprehend complex concepts about FX and hold conversation about FX with industry experts and help execute their vision. Due to this being an MVP, there is still more to learn and work to be done. I am currently working on more iterations and improvements of the MVP with the Deaglo team to ensure that we can bring this to a full functioning product for users all around the world.

See More Work.

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