Turning a cluttered trading dashboard into a product people trust
Aura came to us with a powerful but overwhelming platform — the redesign needed to keep every bit of functionality while making it feel calm, fast, and clear.
The Challenge
Powerful data, buried under years of feature creep
Aura's trading dashboard had grown organically for years — every new feature added another panel, another menu, another decision for the user to make before they could see what mattered. Traders were spending more time hunting for data than acting on it, and new users were dropping off during onboarding before they ever reached a "aha" moment.
The brief was clear but not simple: redesign the core dashboard without cutting functionality, rebuild trust in the interface, and make the platform feel fast even when it's rendering dense, real-time financial data.
Our Approach
Design around the decision, not the data
We started with structured interviews across three user segments — day traders, portfolio managers, and new sign-ups — to understand what each group actually needed visible at any given moment. That research reshaped the whole information hierarchy: real-time data stayed front and center, configuration and secondary tools moved into a collapsible panel, and the interface adapted its density based on how experienced the user was.
Research & Audit
Stakeholder interviews, usage analytics, and a full UX audit of the legacy dashboard to find where users were getting stuck.
Information Architecture
Rebuilt the navigation and layout hierarchy around task frequency instead of feature list order.
Design & Prototype
High-fidelity screens tested with real traders across three rounds of usability sessions before a single line of code shipped.
The Solution
A calmer interface that still shows everything that matters
The final design centers on a single customizable workspace — traders can pin the panels they use most, while everything else stays one click away instead of permanently on screen. We introduced a clear visual hierarchy using type weight and color instead of borders and boxes, cutting visual noise dramatically without removing a single feature from the legacy platform.
The Results
Numbers that moved after launch
-42%
Time to first action
+58%
Daily active usage
-35%
Onboarding drop-off
4.8/5
Post-launch user rating
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