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Morgan Stanley helps people, institutions and governments raise, manage and distribute the capital they need to achieve their goals.

Morgan Stanley dashboard client, bonds and request for bonds

Morgan Stanley Overview

UX Team was hired to design the User Experience (UX) for a new application used by bond traders and sales reps on the trading room floor to capture bond quote requests that come in from client calls.

User shadowing was key on this project. Each user sits at a desk with 4-8 computer monitors in front of them and they are constantly interacting with multiple disparate apps, talking on phone headsets, speaking into intercoms and often standing up and shouting things back and forth to each other. So the one thing this software needed to do most was fit seamlessly into this high intensity, mega-multitasking, chaotic work environment.

Note: The data in the screen designs shown in this portfolio entry can not be disclosed for obvious confidentiality reasons.

Evidence Gathering

Purpose

  • Gain a deep understanding of the real-world work environment of the users.
  • Define the different user personas.
  • Understand how this UX will fit within the framework of an existing application.

Activities

  • Team Work Sessions
  • User Shadowing (on the trading room floor!)
  • Information Design
  • Visual Design
  • Prototyping
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Conclusion

The only true way to understand the needs of these users was to get in the trenches with them and spend a few days on their chaotic trading room floor. There simply would not have been any other way to design a UX for users in this high-energy, multi-tasking work environment. Accordingly, this UX needed to be as efficient as standing up and shouting across the floor for a quote — with the added benefit of capturing the quote data for future data-mining purposes.

Through several iterations of wireframes and visual design prototypes, we delivered a UX that was quickly developed, deployed, and adapted by the users as part of their daily processes.

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