The Lowdown
AJ Bell is one of the leading online investment platforms in the UK. They provide customers and advisers with wide investment choice, low-cost delivery, market-leading online functionality and first-class service to help them manage investment portfolios within SIPPs, ISAs and Dealing accounts. They are part of the FTSE 250 on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.
Discover
User interviews
Stakeholder interviews
Constraints
Explore
Persona building
Task analysis
Journey mapping
Test
User group outreach
Benchmark testing
Accessibility evaluation
Listen
Analytics Review
Usability bug review
Feedback review
The Problem
AJ Bell wanted to introduce a new fintech mobile platform for easier investing. So they were looking for a digital product agency that could help them identify and develop what would make this particular mobile app stand out.
This was the first time AJ Bell had ever outsourced an entire digital product build to a third party. For this reason, they required a partner with the design and engineering expertise to deliver an impactful, user-focused, Flutter-based mobile app.
In the end, they decided to work with hedgehog lab on this new hybrid technology language to build a flexible and innovative app.
The Solution
Prior to this project, AJ Bell already had other investment apps that were mainly targeted to people who had a more advanced understanding of investing. However, Dodl is intended for people who didn’t need to have any prior knowledge and guide them to understand how investing can work for them.
That meant that hedgehog lab’s UX research team, had to identify and better understand those users’ raw behaviours. The team carried out extensive user research which went beyond their recorded opinion and realised a hesitation. That led to the understanding that the target audience was feeling overwhelmed by too many choices and proceeded to focus on improving that experience.
More specifically, it was extremely crucial for the team to realise how the audience might react to design updates and work faster during the development.
Features
- Invest in shares in the UK
- Transparency in the investment opportunities with easy-to-understand themed investment categories
- Invest for pension plan
- Optimised onboarding journey – Simplified user experience with fewer steps
- Enhanced user guidance and information by assuming they were new to investing
- Detailed analytics connected to AJ Bell’s MI systems for detailed understanding of product experience
The Product
Our in-house team designed and built the new mobile apps on Flutter. After meticulous testing, it was launched on April 2022 for iOS and Android, to a waitlist of over 5000 people.
This brand new investment app is now award-winning with the BIMA 2023 Award on User Experience, making investing easier. Ultimately adding to the growth of the UK economy as a whole.
