How I reduced data retrieval time by 25% and cut input errors by 20% through streamlined workflows and a cleaner, more intuitive interface for high-volume portfolio management.
(Conceptual redesign created to simulate a real-world improvement initiative for an internal portfolio management dashboard. Metrics are theoretical projections used to demonstrate UX impact.)
So Here's The Problem.
Dashboard Difficulties
⚠️ Challenge
An outdated but sophisticated internal dashboard used for managing hedge fund trades was slowing administrators down. Frequent data retrieval delays, confusing trade entry processes, and a lack of timely notifications were frustrating users and risking costly mistakes.
✅ Objective
Simplify the workflow for trade entry and updates
Improve information visibility
Reduce user error and stress during high-volume trading periods
Projected Impact
Let's Hear It From The People.
What Do The Users Say?
What does the dashboard do well — and where can it improve? The internal dashboard had been a cornerstone for trade processing and data maintenance for years. It's used by my team in Fund Order Processing, as well as our overseas teams, Accounting, Auditing, and many others who'd worked with it daily for years.
🧑 "It's sophisticated but slow."
👩 "It works, but it makes you work for it."
Goal:
update the interface, modernize the trade entry experience, and make daily workflows more intuitive and less error-prone.
Dashboard's Place in the Ecosystem
Though my perspective comes from my role on the team, the dashboard is utilized by multiple teams including custody reporting, auditing, and client managers.
Current Workflow
Using the current process as a use case, for a user needing to make revisions, this maps how difficult it was to locate updates and make changes to trade records.
Early Research.
Identifying the Gaps
Through conversations with two key users — Wendy (fund administrator managing multiple clients) and Ralph (senior administrator) — several friction points became clear:
Information visibility: Updated trade data was difficult to locate, slowing revision cycles.
Trade entry overload: Newer administrators were overwhelmed by unnecessary fields.
Lack of notifications: No reminders to update wiring instructions or follow up on aging trades.
Insight: The core issue wasn't a lack of features — it was data discoverability.
"When I receive a revised trade, I want to quickly identify its status in Dashboard so I can process and continue without digging through emails, reports, or asking colleagues."
Desired Outcomes
- Navigate and act with fewer clicks
- Work from a clean, relevant interface
- Upload/update documents seamlessly
- Generate reports faster
- Identify workflow ownership at a glance
- Avoid printing/saving locally
- Instantly see revised, new, canceled, or urgent trades
Forces Diagram (Push/Pull)
Push (current frustrations)
- Laggy, outdated UI
- Hidden or unused data fields
- Email-dependent workflow
- Manual printing/editing
- Slow reporting
Pull (future benefits)
- Clear trade status indicators
- Visual workflow / Kanban-style progression
- Inline editing or overlays
- Cleaner detail pages
- Seamless document handling
Anxieties / Habits
Anxieties
- Removing something other teams use
- Losing audit needs
- Overchanging familiar workflows
Habits
- Email first
- Printing documents
- Using quick filter search instead of global search
- Opening multiple browser windows
Opportunity Areas
- New / revised / canceled tags
- Visual workflow progression (Kanban or timeline)
- Alerts that actually work
- Remove unused fields
- Collapse sections
- Cleaner layout for trade detail pages
- Overlay entry screens
- Fewer pages
- Fewer clicks
- Clearer access
- Faster generation
- More relevance
So What Does A Dashboard User Need?
A way to surface the needs of users while running into as few obstacles as possible became a very important goal.
How Do I Approach This?
Designing The Solution
🔍 Reduce trade entry time by focusing on relevant fields first
🔔 Introduce timely notifications for revised or aging trades
📋 Simplify the homepage with quick access to essential reports and personalization
Create A Trade — Lo-Fi Design
One of my sketches showing how a new design could look, simplifying the process of adding a trade.
Find And Download Workflow — Lo-Fi Design
Another lo-fi sketch exploring the search and download flow.
"Why this, and why now?"— Senior VP
Two Questions That Changed My Perspective
I had an opportunity to present to a second VP. She had been a part of the inception of the Dashboard system, so I prepared as much as I could beforehand to avoid coming into the project cold with just ideas for a redesign. While presenting, I was met with two unexpected questions.
"Why this, and why now?"
Answer:
Because the dashboard had been redesigned informally too many times. With the skills to improve it, I wanted to make everyone's jobs easier.
After reviewing the prototypes, the VP identified several critical additions for future versions:
- A review queue for senior leadership.
- A cross-team audit with oversight to consolidate or remove redundant fields.
Low Fi Sketch
Some early sketches mapping out what the first few steps would take.
Mid-Fi Design
Once in Figma, I began building out each segment of the homepage wireframe.
First Hi-Fi Design
It's rough, I know — but this was my first attempt.
Then The Bombshell
While most of her feedback was manageable, the VP I presented to was previously aware of updates that the bank was initiating — an update I had heard about in passing but wasn't fully aware of how it would affect my project's responsibilities. When sharing my trade addition flow, she commented on something that threw me off track.
I understood the necessity of this change to decrease risk in the event of a paper trail issue. Without missing a digit or two in my day, the trade addition process needed to adapt.
When it came to my design, it hit me that the trade addition task flow wouldn't be relevant in the new version of the application.
And The Opportunity
This was the question that I posed after the VP revealed this update. Up to this point, entering trade payment details had been manual, with admins manually keying in the banking information for funds — meaning the system had to be updated ahead of any trade disbursement. In my opinion, that made us among the first to move from manual entry, reducing the risk of incorrect payment information causing delays when it came to wire transfers.
After considering my question, the VP noted that the process would indeed shift, but that it had not yet been fully scoped. This gave me a new opportunity and a new goal:
Design the payment information flow to accommodate for the phasing out of manual entry.
AI Assisted Pathway
Using AI, this is the build-out of the payment upload sequence.
Walkthrough Video
A short recording demonstrating the automated payment entry flow in action.
Key Takeaways.
What I Learned
This dashboard that I have worked with for six years has been a mainstay in my department long before I came along. Though it comes with its difficulties, it is essential to my everyday work and retains a great deal of vital information. As a user, I know all of this very well. This process has taught me to appreciate this program for the information repository and complex system that it is.
That said, I also know that there are many ways where this dashboard can be improved — some of which I wasn't privy to at the moment. My hope is that I'll get the chance to make it better for everyone.
Lastly, I learned that improving systems that everyone uses (and everyone has their own personal gripes with) should always be a team project. Had I known that manual processing for trade entry was being phased out, I would have known where to direct my energy with the redesign. Looping in more people and more perspectives should have been my intention from the beginning. But with this knowledge came a new opportunity to improve the system. For that, I'm grateful. 😊
❤️ Legacy systems deserve modern empathy.
🎯 The best redesigns honor the original's vision while pushing it forward.
✅ Finding ways to simplify commonly used features saves time and headaches.
🪙 Users shouldn't have to hunt for information — ever. Time is always a factor with finance. Like money, it should be spent where it really counts. Collaboration from the beginning can reduce headaches at the end.
High Fidelity Designs.
Next Steps
Planned Improvements:
- 🌙 Add Dark Mode for accessibility and comfort.
- 📥 Enable batch trade uploads to save time.
- 📊 Export reports as Excel or PDF.
- 📱 Develop a responsive mobile version for on-the-go visibility.
- 🔄 Implement A/B testing for new navigation and report layouts.
Final Product
Above is my product's final design. It includes a small icon of the user in the top right of the screen, a list of notifications relevant to the user, and buttons at the top allowing users to pull reports corresponding to the trades that they need.
Try It Out!
Pulling the redesign together, the new ideal path looks like this: a user opens the dashboard to a clean, relevant homepage, sees exactly which trades need attention through visual status indicators, updates records inline without hunting through email threads, and generates the reports they need in a few clicks — no printing, no digging, no guesswork.
Click the preview to open a working version of the dashboard in a pop-out window and take on the three challenges: add a trade, run and download quick reports, and add a payment record. It's a prototype, so anything you change resets when you close it.
