Ally Invest
Brokerage UX · Acquisition Integration · Design SystemsProblem
Ally's acquisition of TradeKing in 2016 brought a robust but aging brokerage platform and a disgruntled development team resistant to the UX process. The existing trading experience was split between LIVE (modern) and Classic (legacy) platforms, each serving different customer types.
Solution
Modernized LIVE into a 2.0 release serving two distinct customer types — self-directed traders and managed portfolio investors — while navigating an acquired engineering team skeptical of UX. Full process: ethnographic research, persona development, journey mapping, whiteboard ideation, Sketch wireframing, InVision prototyping.
Role
Embedded UX team member leading design across: overview module, navigation architecture, self-directed vs. managed experience differentiation, accessibility compliance, mobile parity, implementation handoff, summary section, module styling, and data visualization.
Metrics
Full WCAG accessibility compliance | Cross-platform — desktop, mobile web, native app | Served two distinct customer types under one redesigned platform | Bridged UX process gap with acquired engineering team
