Bespoke dashboards, built by the analysts who use them

First things first: extinguish a fire

As Mo learned his way around the users and functions he was supporting, the first order of business was the bottom-up creation of a much needed new dossier management tool to replace the geriatric application used to manage investigations. Following Design Thinking methodology, he began meeting with internal users to understand their needs. The culture of FINRA discouraged designers before him from interviewing users, so they didn't. Mo made the case for greater access to end-users, but the FINRA analysts were resistant to this "new" approach. Soon, however, they began to understand the value and later were eager to book time with Mo for Q&A interviews and task analysis sessions. He even created an ad-hoc "Customer Council." 

Early lo-fi annotated concept wireframe for an investigation management tool.

A later-stage wireframe of the home screen for the investigation management tool.

This is the query builder used to generate data visualizations.

Mo incorporated a novel capability: sticky notes amended to image files.

The next stage iteration reflected a step-wide investigation UX. These high-level concept wireframes demnostrate use of color and graphics for a more contemporary interface style.

The next step: primetime visualizations

The group that scans acres of haystacks for a needle operationalized a new mega-data pipeline. Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) transactions across seven global exchanges were samples on the nano-second scale (one billion times per second). These data needed to be scoured for anomalies in near realtime for evidence of fraud. Mo's job was to create the new dashboards. This required the creation of a new system. What the team got that they never expected to get from a designer was a way to connect two dots the that had never been connected before. The result was a major advancement in prioritizing fraud investigations to increase the chances that the very expensive process would lasso the worst "bad actors" and recover the biggest settlements.

Creating the foundational taxonomy for a new dashboard system.

Screen 1 of a two-screen set built from Mo's new system specifications.

Screen 2 of a two-screen set. 

Pushing into the future

Extending from the successful EFT visualizations (above) Mo began to push further into uncharted innovation and his vision of user-configured tools. The wireframes shown here document Mo's exploration into a systematic UI allowing analysts to assemble various charts, tables, and graphs that enable bespoke workflows. This approach reduced reversed the trending feature creep that was pushing the platforms into higher levels of inefficiency and complexity. At the same time, it supported the variety of analytical activities responding to an expanding inventory of financial instruments such as crypto-currencies and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). One thing to note: Mo was not hired to pioneer platform UX, but a natural instinct to innovate sought and found a place to do so.

GLASS. Next generation UI

GLASS is Mo's paradigm-shifting concept for DIY dashboards: a node-based visual editor that lets analysts build their own visualizations instead of waiting on a designer. Inspired by the Lego bricks of his childhood, it gives users a library of discrete functional blocks they can wire together, output to input, with machine-learning assistance surfacing likely connections. On completion, the system generates a finished presentation-layer UI, which users can save and revisit from a shared dashboard library. While the video below is a concept video, Mo worked with a staff frontend engineer to produce a working prototype.

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