Background

During my time at Waypoint Building Group, I worked on several key projects, one of which was the Balance Sheet initiative. This project was aimed at enabling users to integrate balance sheets into their portfolios, providing a comprehensive summary of collected financial data, including assets, liabilities, and equity.

Problem

A primary challenge we faced was the diversity in data collection frequencies, which could be monthly, quarterly, or annually. We needed to provide users with a straightforward way to choose their preferred reporting period and the amount of data to view in the table, ensuring the process was easy to understand and not overly complex.

Proposed design solution
Digital Wireframes

To address user needs and specified requirements—which included six statistical cards, sections for assets over time, and asset breakdown—I developed preliminary designs that adhered to the company’s style guidelines. These designs featured three distinct filter options, simplifying the user interface for asset card settings and the balance sheet table configuration. By providing these tailored filters, we facilitated user interaction with the system, ensuring they could easily customize the display of their financial data.

Initially, I designed filter selections with two options: a modal view and a table view. Refer to the images below for reference.
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Modal view

Table view

Usability Testing & Feedback

To establish a definitive path forward, I developed an interactive prototype to demonstrate the functionality and gather preliminary feedback from both the team and the client.

Rather than restricting the display to a single value for data quantity, the ability to select a range, from a starting point to an ending point, appeared to be a more fitting option at the time.
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Updated Design Appoarch

Final Design

The journey to the final design was an iterative one, involving multiple cycles of design and feedback, which allowed for the integration of new requirements along the way. Each iteration brought us closer to a solution that was not only aligned with user needs but also ensured ease of use.

As we moved through the design phases, I tested and refined the prototypes, taking feedback from users and stakeholders. This ongoing conversation helped illuminating the necessity for flexibility within the design to accommodate unforeseen needs.

In the iterative process, I use Axure RP as the prototyping tool of choice. At that time, this tool has a powerful capabilities to simulate complex interactions and rich user experiences that closely mimic the final product. It could demonstrate dynamic data handling, emulate real-world user flows that allow stakeholders to engage with the mock-ups as if they were the end product, leading to insightful feedback that was important for refine the user interface.

By focusing on a user-centered design approach, I could iterate with purpose, ensuring each modification was a step towards greater usability and user satisfaction.

This design didn’t just solve the problem at hand; it provided users with a seamless and intuitive tool to manage their financial data with confidence and precision.

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