Trendlyn
User Research to Unlock Confident Tool Usage
Trendlyn is a fintech research platform for stock screeners, backtesting, and portfolio analytics serving Indian investors and broker partners. Powerful features existed, but beginners and intermediates hesitated to engage regularly with advanced tools.
Duration
2 months
Team
UI/UX Designer, Product Manager, Marketing Team
My Role
UI/UX Designer
Motion Graphic Designer
Problem & Business Context
The challenge
Users stuck to basic price checking instead of using screeners, backtesting, and portfolio analytics, creating UX debt that threatened retention and Trendlyn's positioning against simpler competitors.
Business goals
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Increase advanced tool activation from 18% to 35%
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Reduce screener abandonment by 40%
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Cut investor demo time from 15min to 3min
My Role:
UX Researcher & Product Strategist
Scope (no UI ownership):
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Led discovery research and journey mapping
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Created pre-launch explainer video (user validation + investor demos)
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Collaborated with founders, developers, 3rd-party vendors, marketing, design team
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Defined experience principles and flows
Process
Step 1: Stakeholder alignment
Interviews with founders → defined KPIs and research questions around confidence gaps.
Step 2: Pre-launch explainer video
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Built 2.5min animated video showing proposed flows
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Tested with 25 target users via email/LinkedIn
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32% flagged jargon, 28% wanted clearer "next steps" → shaped principles
Step 3: Primary research
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15 user interviews + 8 usability sessions
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Patterns: cognitive overload (84% mentioned), fragmented journeys, fear of misinterpretation
Step 4: Synthesis
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Mapped 3 core journeys (discover→research→track)
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Created proto-personas by confidence level
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Defined principles: "Explain as you go," "Overview first," "Clear next steps"
Step 5: Cross-team handoffs
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Design team: Shared flow diagrams + annotations ("put explanations here")
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Developers: Documented edge cases, tech constraints (vendor components), negotiated microcopy/sequencing solutions
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Marketing: Repurposed user-tested video for investor pitches
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Vendors: Pushed for better defaults in partner-controlled UI modules
Cross-functional challenges
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Founders: revenue focus vs. dev: feasibility vs. marketing: demo "wow."
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Resolution: Anchored in video insights + KPIs for objective decisions.
Key Insights from Research
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Cognitive overload from dense screens and unexplained metrics.
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Fragmented journeys lacking guidance between discovery and action.
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Fear of missteps eroded trust in advanced features.
Solutions delivered
Experience improvements (guided by research):
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Continuous flows: screener results → stock details → watchlist
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Contextual explanations for key metrics
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Clearer hierarchy: overview → signals → deep data
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Better onboarding to research tools
Pre-launch explainer video:
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Validated direction with real users before dev work
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Used by founders for investor/partner demos
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Shortened explanation time from 15-minute walkthroughs to a 3-minute video
Outcomes
Solutions delivered
What we achieved:
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Clearer team alignment: Research + video created shared understanding of user friction
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Faster prioritization: Founders had concrete evidence for roadmap decisions
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Investor storytelling: Video made Trendlyn's value concrete for partners
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Foundation for metrics: Set up tracking for screener activation, journey completion, support query reduction
What we learned for next phase:
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Video feedback predicted real usability issues
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Principles worked but needed iteration based on live usage data
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Vendor constraints limited some changes (solved via sequencing/microcopy)