WE NEEDED TO MAKE COMPLEX DATA SIMPLE

During my internship at M1 Finance, the intern squad worked towards solving user pain points around dividends on the M1 platform. Our team focused on improving three areas where dividend information was lacking: explaining negative dividends, showing the status of earned dividends, and displaying historical dividends.

I worked with seven other interns in product and engineering during the internship. I met with web engineers and our team's product manager almost daily to conduct design QA and discuss different design decisions that I made.

WE INCREASED USER ENGAGEMENT BY 20% AFTER SHIPPING

The dividend improvements yielded promising results. While the specifics of post-internship data remain confidential due to an NDA, we noticed an encouraging near 20% uptick in user engagement with the dividend features. Further testament to our success was the palpable positive buzz within public domains like the M1 Facebook group and Reddit community. Discussions flourished around these improved features, with users praising the enhanced clarity and transparency.

INCOME INVESTORS WANT TO VIEW SPECIFIC DIVIDEND INFORMATION

The dividend project was prioritized because there was an increase in support tickets regarding dividends, ranging from confusion about the difference between earned and paid dividends to requesting more information about their dividends. The current M1 product does not put much emphasis on dividends.

Negative dividends are shown on the activity page without explanation, confusing users because they do not know what they are. On the portfolio page, the total amount of earned dividends is displayed, with neither an indication of what company they came from nor how much.

GATHERING DATA FROM MARKETING AND CLIENT SUCCESS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND INVESTORS

The product manager and I talked to several different departments throughout the company, such as the content strategy manager, client success, and marketing. Throughout these meetings, we started to see similarities and common problems that users faced.

THE GREAT DESIGN WORKSHOP

To kick off our project, we had a design workshop where we brainstormed and discussed the current problems surrounding dividends on a broad scale and worked toward potential, actionable solutions. At the end of the workshop, we concluded that we would focus on three areas: explaining negative dividends, showing the status of earned dividends, and displaying historical dividends. Based on the results of the dot voting, we decided to focus on one of the problem areas in three different sprints. As seen below, we documented them in the form of the three how might we statements:

1. How might we explain negative dividends?

2. How might we break down earned dividends?

3. How might we display users’ dividend history?

USING TOOLTIPS TO EXPLAIN NEGATIVE DIVIDENDS

There are three different types of negative dividends: ADR fee, foreign tax, and a reversal.

Before the implementation of this feature, users did not receive an explanation of negative dividends, only so a deduction from their account. This caused them to constantly be confused, which in turn caused several complaints to customer success.

During a meeting with our backend engineer, we learned that we could not decipher the difference between a foreign tax and a reversal. To solve this, we combined them into one tooltip called “deduction,” which explained what a reversal and foreign tax is and that it could be either.

USING A MODAL TO BREAK DOWN EARNED DIVIDENDS

Users were uncertain about the difference between earned and paid dividends, the status of earned dividends, and the timeframe from earning to payment. One issue was that the total amount of earned dividends was displayed on the portfolio page without any indication of which company they came from or how much came from each company. This lack of specificity made it difficult for users to track and understand their dividend earnings accurately.

When designing the modal for displaying the breakdown of earned dividends on the web platform, I made the strategic decision to leverage the total amount of earned dividends on the "My Portfolio" page as a call-to-action button.

Finally Having My Design Decisions Challenged, and Having to Defend Them 😱

The web engineers raised concerns about this approach, particularly regarding user discoverability and the lack of apparent interactivity in the text-based CTA. While I was confident in my design, their feedback highlighted the need for a more collaborative approach and the importance of addressing potential usability issues.

I sought a solution that balanced both perspectives. I understood their point that making the CTA more prominent could disrupt the existing visual hierarchy and potentially overshadow other important information on the page.

After exploring various options and integrating feedback from the engineering team, we settled on adding a dedicated "View" button next to the total amount of earned dividends. This solution proved to be a more intuitive approach for users, enhancing discoverability without compromising the design's overall integrity and visual balance.

USING A STATIC COMPONENT BECAUSE OF BACKEND CONSTRAINTS

Given the time limitations, our team made the decision to make the time frame static in order to save development time and meet the overall project deadline.

By implementing a static time frame, we were able to simplify the implementation process and allocate more time to other critical tasks, such as displaying historical dividends.

Please note that even though the time frame is static, the earned dividend data displayed on the screen still corresponds to the specific time range selected on the previous page. This ensures that users can accurately track their dividend earnings based on their selected time frame.

The Death of the Dividend Stepper: A Clear, Simple, and Transparent View of the Dividend Process

My team and I came up with a great solution to address both the earned and negative dividend issues. We planned to create a stepper feature that would track the status of a dividend over time.

Due to backend constraints, we couldn't retrieve the exact date when a dividend was earned, making it impossible to display the status accurately. In the future, I will consult with a backend engineer before pursuing such ideas. Nevertheless, the concept of the stepper feature was brilliant.

USING AN INTERACTIVE BAR CHART TO VISUALIZE HISTORICAL DIVIDENDS

When working on displaying historical dividends, I was obsessed with three questions: how to display the data, where to place the feature, and what data to show. I surveyed the current data visualization in the app and explored various options to ensure that the historical dividend information was presented in a clear and informative manner.

Dividends are often received at regular intervals, such as quarterly or annually. The bar chart effectively visualizes how dividend earnings have changed over time, allowing users to identify patterns or trends in their dividend income. This time-based visualization is essential for users to track and analyze their dividend performance effectively.

I LEARNED TO MINDMELD WITH THE ENGINEERS EARLY AND OFTEN

Communicating with my team was my most challenging obstacle during the internship. Sometimes, I would update a mobile design with the iOS engineer and forget to mention the changes to the Android and Web engineers. This led to confusion and inconsistent design. Eventually, I adapted and made sure to communicate all design updates during stand-ups.

In retrospect, if I had more time at M1 finance, I would have liked to take the dividend project further. While our team made significant improvements to the m1 dividend experience, it has the potential to be even better. Right now, dividend information is located in several places. If both earned and paid dividend information were in one place, users would have a better experience. The stepper iteration was started. Even if it is impossible today, there is still hope for the future.