When we think of tables, usually we think of relatively manageable data structures — perhaps with a dozen of columns representing data, all sortable by a particular column and perhaps containing statuses or some sort of indicators of trends (downward/upward).
Unfortunately, tables usually don’t come alone; they bring filters, sorting, search, inline-editing, batch actions, pagination, tabs and plenty of setting along with them. Plus, tables are very difficult to manage for mobile screens. Fortunately, you’ve just received two incredible offers from two large companies, and ironically both projects are very much focused on tables just like the ones described above.
You’ve been approached by Finviz, one of the largest stock screeners for investors and traders, featuring complex financial visualizations, crypto trading and portfolio tracking. The application is tracking stocks and trading nearly real-time, providing its users with real-time updates about the markets around the world, and helping them to understand trends and avoid money loss or gain significant profits.
The business model relies on selling Elite, that not only monitor public information, but also provides deep-dive analysis by experts, technical studies, export of data and customization features, such as advanced layout customization. There is advertising on the site, and often users complain about how annoying and frustrating it is. The ultimate goal of the company is to sell more “Elite” tiers to their customers — that tier doesn’t include any advertising.
Unfortunately, they are quite far away from that goal as the current experience is suboptimal, to say the least. The vast majority of users accessing the site are experts who earn their living with day-to-day trading. It’s common to see them constructing very specific and quite complex combinations of filters that match their portfolios and their hunches best.
The ultimate goal of all users is to compare data. They explore trends, study development over time and try to make educated guesses about what is likely to happen next. Looking at the data from various perspective is critical for them, as well as comparing multiple data points quickly.
They don’t necessarily want to explore all data points though; the interviews show that they feel that exploring data is slow, and they want to understand trends faster, or ideally receive notifications and actionable recommendations from experts (with probability/likelihood scores) instead.
Most users are above 30, highly trained and specialized in trading, making money by buying and selling stocks at just the right time, and managing their portfolio. However, many of them also use the tool to manage other people’s portfolios. So it’s common to see one person managing up to 50-60 various portfolios of various people in the same interface.
When interviewing people about the reasons why they decided to sign up for Elite, a few common reasons have showed up: