Role
- Lead UX Designer
Date
- Nov 2023
Skills
- User Research
- User Experience Design
- Service Design
Tools
- Figma
- Jira and confluence
- Whiteboards
- Workshops
Outcome
Small bet
Developed a figma prototype / proof of concept for a Market orders within the Currencies Direct B2B interface. To help customers who struggle with committing to an exchange rate in a changing market.
Key challenges
Customers will not commit to a particular rate when prices are always moving
There are scenarios where a customer has an FX requirement in the future but the requirement is certain e.g. Invoiced, contracted, Purchase Order issued.
A forward contract is a binding agreement between two parties to exchange currencies at a predetermined rate on a future date
Rationally, they should be risk adverse and choose a forward contract.
However, there is a customer behavioural challenge: they find it hard to commit to a particular rate when the prices are always moving and they feel they could get better rates if they waited (which is a real possibility).
Research and Discovery
Free lunch workshop with traders and account managers
Scenario
As Alex Coates (Head of B2B) just wanted a quick prototype he gathered his team with the promise of a free lunch in a meeting room and we workshopped out a likely user scenario. I then sketched some interface ideas against them.
‘ Heimdall Ltd manufacture security cards. Jeff Fernsby is the MD.
In August, Currency Direct ‘Account Manager’ phones to ask what is in the pipeline for Currency over the next few months.
Jeff has a Project for which he will need €800,000 in December
He currently doesn’t have the money and the customer will be paying him a deposit nearer December
Jeff already has a rate in mind, but the market isn’t at that point at the moment.
Jeff doesn’t want to make a decision but he may want some limits so that he isn’t worrying about the rate all the time.
What does Currencies Direct want to achieve at this stage, for the customer?’
Expected user requirements:
The workshop established some goals and requirements for the Market Orders tool and allowed me to also sketch out some initial ideas, which I added to the service blueprint.
- The customer is procrastinating over the current rate
- Online and offline he is made aware of our OCO Forward order tool (let’s call it ‘Market Orders’ for example)
- They like the idea of the certainty and control it brings to their process, whilst they can also rationalise it’s use versus current rates
- The customer knows the rate they are targeting and types that in the target rate section
- The customer knows the amount they are buying/selling and types that it
- They also know when they need it by and enters the proposed value date should one of the orders hit (they may simply want that to be if/when the orders hit).
- The customer may or may not have a minimum rate in mind and may or may not enter the minimum rate.
- The customer wants to track this with a reference as they may enter other orders for different needs eg different invoices.
- The customer may want to place multiple orders and check how far they are in terms of percentage in terms of hitting the target
Reasoning behind the features:
Alex outlined his analysis of the users problems
- Loss Aversion: If consumers fear that they might make a purchase only to find a better deal shortly afterward, they may delay the purchase to avoid the feeling of loss.
- Expectations and Prospect Theory: Customers evaluate potential outcomes based on their reference point (usually they were hoping for) and are influenced by the perceived gains or losses relative to that reference point. If customers expect rates to get better in the future, they may delay purchases to capture those expected savings.
- Time Inconsistency and Hyperbolic Discounting – customers often have a preference for immediate rewards over delayed rewards, even if the delayed rewards are larger. This can lead customers to postpone purchases when they believe better pricing will be available in the future.
UX Design
NGOP stands for New Generation Platform and is CD’s name for its customer facing product/platform.
KISS. Keep it simple stupid
Working with the design system for CFX NGOP at Currencies Direct I created the screen flows and a simple clickable prototype in figma.
This was also just a concept piece for Alex so I didn’t have too much time to spend on the designs.
Simple accordion design to guide the customer through each stage. This enables the user to see the order develop as they go along.
The user adds their currency pair with a standard layout. But if the user like the rate they can make a spot trade right away. Otherwise they save the currency amount as an order and move onto the next stage.
The next step allows the user to set their ideal rate. This is a rate better than the current market rate. If the market moves in the user’s favour and reaches this rate during the timeframe the user sets, their order will be executed automatically.
The second step allows the user to set their budget rate. This protects the user from a unfavourable exchange rate shift. This is a “worst case” rate – if the market moves against the user and reaches this rate, the order will be executed to limit further losses.
The final step allows for the user to create a timeframe for the transfer.
The market order will remain active during this period. If your ideal or budget rate is reached within this timeframe, the order will execute automatically. If the timeframe expires without execution, the order will be cancelled.
Learnings
Naming and conventions
This concept explored Alex’s concerns about how the users rational economic decisions clash with their psychological biases. In response I created an interactive Market order tool, which was really a sort of hybrid OCO Forward Order tool.
The aim was to create a simple trading interface which helps the user overcome decision paralysis through the flexibility of stop-loss and take-profit orders.
We were unable to develop the concept any further as Alex left Currencies Direct.
Subsequently I have used the interface as a test case for AI prototyping tools such as Replit and Lovable in the summer of 2025. Loveable created (without specific prompting) very good copy in the design to make each step explicit.
The language and labelling needs further exploration. Should it be generic as in my mock up, for a non FX expert, ‘Set your ideal rate’ or more FX professional using phrases such as ‘Target rate’ or ‘Take profit’. For ‘Budget rate’ a more FX professional phrases like ‘Stop loss order’. My design also did not call out the ‘OCO’ nature of the tool, so should one of the two levels be met, one will cancel out the other and the trade will be made.