FROM MOCKUP TO MARKET

FROM MOCKUP TO MARKET

Designing for Real Financial User Needs

Designing for Real Financial User Needs

TIMELINE


2025/2026

SKILLS


Figma

CONTEXT


University Project

TEAM


Tu Linh Tran


This project was part of a collaborative university course developed in partnership with Smartbroker+, a Berlin-based neobroker. The goal was to simulate real-world product design processes by working on actual product challenges within a financial context.


Over the course of the semester, we worked on multiple assignments of increasing complexity — moving from interface improvements to more strategic feature concepts. A key challenge throughout the project was designing for a domain that requires a high level of trust, clarity, and information transparency.

PROBLEM CONTEXT

PROBLEM CONTEXT

Financial applications often overwhelm users — especially beginners — with complex data, unclear terminology, and a lack of guidance.


Through Voice of Customer insights provided by Smartbroker+, we identified a recurring issue:

Users struggled to understand their investments and make informed decisions based on the information available in the app.


This became the central theme across our work:
How might we make investment information more understandable, transparent, and actionable for different user types?

Financial applications often overwhelm users — especially beginners — with complex data, unclear terminology, and a lack of guidance.


Through Voice of Customer insights provided by Smartbroker+, we identified a recurring issue:

Users struggled to understand their investments and make informed decisions based on the information available in the app.


This became the central theme across our work:
How might we make investment information more understandable, transparent, and actionable for different user types?

DIVIDEND OVERVIEW FEATURE

DIVIDEND OVERVIEW FEATURE

PROBLEM

PROBLEM

Users receive dividend payouts but lack a clear overview of:

  • how their dividends develop over time

  • how different investments contribute to returns

  • what their overall dividend performance looks like

APPROACH

APPROACH

We translated Voice of Customer insights into a structured feature that focuses on clarity and comparability.

Key design decisions:

  • Aggregating dividend data into a central overview

  • Visualizing performance over time to show trends

  • Breaking down payouts to make sources understandable

  • Highlighting key metrics to support quick decision-making

OUTCOME

OUTCOME

The final concept provides a clear and structured dividend dashboard that helps users:

  • track their earnings over time

  • understand performance drivers

  • gain confidence in dividend investing

INNOVATIVE FEATURES – Supporting Different User Needs

INNOVATIVE FEATURES – Supporting Different User Needs

In the final phase, we explored how Smartbroker+ could go beyond its core functionality by addressing different user needs — especially beginners.

  1. AI Portfolio Snapshot

  1. AI Portfolio Snapshot

PROBLEM

PROBLEM

Users — especially first-time investors — struggle to interpret portfolio data and understand what is happening with their investments.

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

An AI-powered snapshot that summarizes portfolio performance in simple, easy-to-understand language.

VALUE

VALUE

  • Translates complex data into actionable insights

  • Reduces cognitive load

  • Helps users build confidence and understanding

  1. DAILY BREAKDOWN

  1. DAILY BREAKDOWN

PROBLEM

PROBLEM

Users see changes in their portfolio but don’t understand what caused them.

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

A daily breakdown screen explaining which factors influenced portfolio performance.

VALUE

VALUE

  • Improves transparency

  • Supports learning over time

  • Enables more informed decisions

  1. THE FIRST STEPS (ONBOARDING)

  1. THE FIRST STEPS (ONBOARDING)

PROBLEM

PROBLEM

New users often feel overwhelmed when entering a financial app for the first time.

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

A guided onboarding experience that introduces key features and concepts step by step.

VALUE

VALUE

  • Reduces entry barriers

  • Improves initial user experience

  • Supports long-term retention

KEY INSIGHTS

KEY INSIGHTS

This project significantly shaped my understanding of product design in a real-world context.


Working with a complex domain like finance required me to:

  • break down unfamiliar concepts into understandable structures

  • design for clarity, trust, and usability

  • balance information density with simplicity


Presenting our concepts to the Smartbroker team in Berlin provided valuable insights into professional feedback processes and how design decisions are evaluated in a real product environment.

This work was created in the winter semester of 2025 as a study project at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with Smartbroker AG. It is an academic achievement and not a commercial commissioned work.

This work was created in the winter semester of 2025 as a study project at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with Smartbroker AG. It is an academic achievement and not a commercial commissioned work.

This work was created in the winter semester of 2025 as a study project at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with Smartbroker AG. It is an academic achievement and not a commercial commissioned work.

©Angel Pfitzmann, 2026