Project

Deutsche Bank | Interest Rates Swap Trading Platform

Role

Sr.UX UI Designer
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IRS Trader Desktop was envisioned as a cohesive, workflow-centric platform to streamline the complex trading operations of Deutsche Bank’s front office teams. Instead of forcing traders to adapt to fragmented, multi-screen setups, the goal was to bring their workflow into a unified, intuitive environment.

Note: Due to strict confidentiality and security policies at Deutsche Bank, I am unable to share any screenshots, prototypes, or visual mock-ups related to the UX process or the IRS Trader Desktop application. I appreciate your understanding and respect for the sensitivity of this work.

Problem Statement

Traders are forced to juggle between various disjointed applications to complete a single trade lifecycle — from pricing to booking and monitoring risk. This results in loss of time, increased error rates, and mental fatigue.

Challenge

One of the biggest challenges in the IRS project was getting a deep understanding of the business, the trading domain, and most importantly the traders themselves. Their workflows, behaviors, and decision-making processes are fast-paced and highly specialized. Grasping the terminology was absolutely critical without that, it’s nearly impossible to navigate the complexity of the system or design something meaningful.

Research & Process

Who are the Users?

Users: Traders | Support Teams

Stakeholder Interviews
  • Stakeholder workshops conducted including devs, Product owners, and support teams. The goal was to identify operational inefficiencies, business goals, compliance needs, why the business wants to build new application and trading priorities. These discussions provided valuable input into current processes and toolchains. The key outcome was the identification of critical bottlenecks and gaps in existing workflows.
User Research and interviews

The core objective of the user research was to understand the workflows, pain points, and unmet needs of traders and support teams using the existing trading systems. Conducted calls and 1 to 1 sessions with traders twice a week during the initial few weeks to

  • Gather information about their workflows.
  • How they manage daily tasks to understand the pressure points and usage patterns in real time.
  • To understand the pressure points and usage patterns in real time.
  • What are their decision making poionts.
  • Gain insight into their mindset and working environment.
  • Explore how each trade progresses through different levels of approval.
  • Assess the amount of time spent on each task/trade.
  • Determine whether traders feel they are wasting time during the process.
  • Evaluate opportunities to improve speed and efficiency.
  • Identify bottlenecks in the workflow.
  • Explore ways to simplify the overall process.
  • Understand the role of visual elements in the current application.
  • Identify key interface elements that traders interact with frequently to complete their tasks.
  • Learn about their expectations from the new application.
Pain points
  • Traders use 4–7 different screens to complete one transaction.
  • Multiple data-heavy screens and inconsistent workflows across desks.
  • No two desks were operating the same way, leading to poor cross-collaboration.
  • The application suffered from inconsistent behaviors and design patterns across different modules, leading to user confusion and inefficiencies. Additionally, Deutsche Bank's brand and design guidelines were not consistently followed, resulting in confusion among the users.

Primary User Goals

Key insights gathered from the stakeholder and user interviews were really valuable and helped us to define product / Business goals and User goals:

  • Execute trades quickly without navigating between screens.
  • Need all the information at hand to make decisions and execute trades in as little time as possible.
  • Need quick and easy shortcuts for repetitive tasks — speed and clarity.
  • Able to monitor and execute multiple trades at the same time.
  • Easily search, filter, or take over trades.
  • Able to view the history/blotter of executed trades and their details.
  • Prioritize or categorize trades depending on their value.

Strategy & Approach

Mapping User Flows
  • Defined complete user journeys touching different entry points to executing trades.
Design & Prototyping
  • Created high-fidelity prototypes using Figma to design fully interactive trading screen flows that simulated real-world interactions, allowing for early validation with users and stakeholders.
  • Visual hierarchy to highlight key metrics.
  • Designed lightweight animations and system feedback to help users stay in control of real-time processes.
  • Designed for ultra-wide, multi-monitor setups common in trading environments. UI auto-adjusted based on screen real estate and task context.
Iterative Validation
  • Weekly demo sessions with traders from different parts of the world.
  • Feedback loops led to refinements in navigation logic, interaction flow, and screen density.

Outcomes

  • Significant reduction in trade lifecycle time.
  • The redesigned journey reduced complexity and improved the efficiency of user interactions.
  • Positive feedback from user demo sessions and increased engagement indicated strong adoption and usability.
  • Frequently used tools like blotters, analytics, trade history, and compliance checks were integrated into a single, cohesive environment.
  • The interface now reflects DB’s Autobahn design language, improving internal consistency and professional polish.
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