EMS Indicators of Interest
The Problem
A requirement of EMS was to track indicators of interest (IOIs) from banks. Users needed a place to see the offers from banks on multiple securities and interact with them in different ways. In the current Portware implementation, there were several issues:
There was no way for the user to execute based on a given IOI.
Users couldn’t see what orders matched a given IOI.
The UI needed to be updated to fit the visual style and information architecture of EMS.
The old IOI area was just another blotter that allowed users to see IOIs and the details. Incorrect labeling like ‘TradeIOI’ only showed details and didn’t interact with the execution ticket.
The breakdown
The EMS agile team knew we could get to parity with Portware’s current offering quickly and provide value to our users. We started there and sought feedback based on several different prototypes in Figma for users to interact with.
The basic IOI shows a rolling list of broker IOIs, matching orders, and other details.
The first design showed matching orders in an expandable ‘row details’ area.
A second option showed matching orders in a permanent right-side section.
The last option showed orders in a drawer from the bottom.
The Solution
We received feedback to finalize our routing solution and added in the ability to link to different trade blotters as well. More feedback was received and we learned two new points about this workflow.
If there was a great IOI that matches well with an order, users wanted access to that quickly.
Users wanted a way to ‘upvote’ and ‘downvote’ IOIs and see broker performance on IOIs over time.
We added the ability to link to separate blotters, a drawer for matching orders, and updated the order column to be more visible.
The Results
A new prototype was created to build out the top five best matches across all trades. I moved the matches to the top of the screen and gave them a separate visual treatment. We tested this with a small subset of current and former traders with great results. As for the broker performance, we created a separate story for that and I’m currently (January 2020) working on a UI to test.
The most recent version includes the best IOIs in actionable cards across the top with price, order coverage, and broker details. On hover users can route immediately, or ignore.