Connecting advisors and investors through financial software as a service
CircleBlack
Background
CircleBlack is a wealth management app that connects investors with financial advisors and transforms the way they interact with their finances. The app seamlessly integrates all aspects of wealth management, from account aggregation and performance reporting to financial planning and risk assessment. Its intuitive interface and robust features empower users to gain a comprehensive view of their financial portfolio, track investments, and make informed decisions.
In January of 2023, I joined the CircleBlack product team as a UX Designer. The team consisted of several different squads working on three different interconnected digital products. In July of the same year, I assumed the role of Lead UX Designer. As UX Lead, I have built various new feature designs from inception to implementation while maintaining, updating, and modernizing our overall visual design standards and improving user experience across all products, including desktop and mobile offerings.
Role
Lead UX Designer
Timeline
January 2023 - Present
The product
CircleBlack offers three distinct products:
A web-based advisor platform where advisors can connect with their clients and collaboratively manage their finances and investments.
A web-based investor portal where users can connect with their advisors, manage their finances and investments, and store and share documents with different authorized users.
A branded mobile app for financial partners to provide to their clients that allows them to access the CircleBlack investor portal while on the go.
Design system
CircleBlack’s user interface consists of a modular design system that provides the user with a comprehensive card-based dashboard. Here, an advisor or investor can quickly get a grasp of their financial data and gain valuable insight that allows them to form a more informed financial strategy.
Advisor Dashboard
On CircleBlack's advisor platform, advisors can efficiently manage client portfolios, monitor performance, share documents with client, and provide personalized recommendations. The platform's advanced analytics offer valuable insights, enabling advisors to make informed decisions and deliver tailored financial strategies to their clients.
In my time as UX lead, a lot of work has been done to further refine and modernize the advisor platform while adding and improving features valuable to the user.
Investor Portal
The investor portal seamlessly consolidates a vast array of financial accounts, providing a comprehensive overview of assets, investments, and performance directly to the investor and managed by the advisor.
As UX lead, various improvements have been implemented for the investor portal, including added customizability, usability, improved data visualization, and improved communication features to facilitate the advisor-client relationship.
Light theme
While our product was primarily designed with a dark theme, a common request from our users was the addition of a light theme. This presented an opportunity to me as lead UX designer to evaluate how our visual language portrays itself in terms of accessibility as there were many elements of the design that needed to be adjusted when presenting on a light background.
Mobile light theme
For our mobile users, I adapted the light theme design to take advantage of our simplified user interface by minimizing the complexity of its color palette, while adding neumorphic depth to convey navigational hierarchy.
There’s more to see
My time at CircleBlack has had me coming up with all sorts of solutions to all sorts of problems. I’ve worked on document management systems, user credential validation interfaces, informational workflows and much much more. What you’ve seen here is just a basic rundown of the product and small fraction of what I’ve worked on.
If you’re interested in learning more about the kind of work I’m doing at CircleBlack, please don’t hesitate to contact me! We can set up a call to chat about UX and SaaS. Looking forward to it.