Creating a best-in-class watchlist feature for Citi’s self-directed brokerage web experience.
For this project, I lead the design and worked with another designer and the product team at Citi. I regularly presented work to the client throughout the engagement and lead internal and external discussions and workshops to achieve the end result.
Citi Bank tasked W12 with creating the watchlist feature for their web platform. The watchlist feature had to be seamless and intuitive for existing and also new users who would flock to the website post launch. Citi Bank is the bank of the people in America and the client really wanted to convey this across in the design. Main deliverables were user research, wireframes and finalised UI. Because trading is such a common activity, it was important that the final output was innovative, yet didn’t stray too far from an already established experience.
The project began with various competitor audits to understand the market and see how other products were doing watchlists. We looked at market leaders such as Robin Hood to see what was being done well, features regarded highly by users and to see if there were any gaps Citi in which could capitalise. Audits were presented back to the client and we began mocking up prototypes which we tested iteratively with users on testing sessions over Zoom. From the user testing sessions we were able to build a low-fi prototype which the client signed off. Then we took the flow into UI and worked with Citi brand team and developers to create the UI using an already established design system.
The project saw the design and build of the watchlist feature which rolled out in 2022. By working with the team at Citi and collaborating with product team, we designed and built a feature that solidified Cities reputation as the ‘bank of the people’. The feature underwent a staged rollout in order to mitigate risk, gather valuable user feedback and make any amendments before full launch.
In Conclusion
The feature performed extremely well when it launched. The outputs generated by W12 integrated seamlessly into the existing experience. William Bergner, PO at Citi Bank said the following:
“Monumental effort to all involved in the rollout of Watchlist. Everyone at Citi Bank is truly grateful for all the hard work in the launch of this new feature, so thank you!”