People recognized their accounts by type and balance. Our navigation hid both.

Questrade Mobile organized accounts around numbers investors rarely remembered, making it difficult to know where they were or how their money was doing. Testing showed that people recognized accounts through type and balance, so I rebuilt the header, account list, performance view, and reordering around those cues. Switching became 25% faster, 92% found navigation easier, and access to detailed balances on the first interaction rose from 55% to 88%.

ROLEUser Experience Designer

YEARS2020 — 2022

SURFACEQuestrade Mobile, Android & iOS

SCOPEBalance header, performance visualization, account list, reordering

The first answer failed in testing

90% of users managed two to three accounts, and many held more than one account of the same type. The original tabs compressed those accounts into labels that were easy to scan and difficult to distinguish. The header also carried a larger job: help people judge the portfolio, understand the active account, and reach detailed balances when something needed attention.

Our first answer was to add account numbers to the tabs. People rarely remembered them. Testing showed that investors recognized an account through its type and current balance. That finding moved the team away from refining labels and toward rebuilding navigation around the way people already understood their money.

Original Questrade Mobile screen with tab-based account navigation — Before and after. The redesign turns the header from a row of labels into a portfolio summary and a way through the accounts beneath it.

Redesigned Questrade Mobile screen with the account balance summary header — Before and after. The redesign turns the header from a row of labels into a portfolio summary and a way through the accounts beneath it.

A hierarchy built around investor decisions

Framing the problem around the decisions people were making gave us a clear hierarchy:

Evaluate the whole portfolio at a glance. The first number should answer, “How am I doing?”
Understand the active account. The next layer should make its performance and available balance clear.
Move to the right account. Type and balance should help people distinguish accounts without memorizing identifiers.

Testing the tradeoff between overview and detail

I tested directions that gave different weight to the portfolio summary, total balance, and relationship between the figures. Two passed the find the balance task, showing that a portfolio first hierarchy could still keep account detail within easy reach.

Testing showed that numbers alone left performance unclear, so I introduced a six month trend. A compact chart felt detached from the balance. A full width chart pushed the supporting figures into a harder scan. The final direction kept the trend and key balances together as the same summary, preserving context without making the header feel like a dashboard.

Option one: the balance summary given full visual weight — The directions helped us compare hierarchy, findability, and the relationship between the figures.

Option two: the total balance highlighted — The directions helped us compare hierarchy, findability, and the relationship between the figures.

Letting people set the navigation model

The final design distributed the work across the header, account list, and reordering interaction. Each supported a different moment in the same decision:

Balance header: see the balance and six-month performance trend, swipe between accounts, or tap to open the full list.
Account list: compare every account using the type and balance information people relied on to tell them apart.
Reordering: put the most important account first and use that same order when swiping through the header.

That last piece is the one I would point to. It turns a preference into the navigation model. The order a person chooses is the order the interface uses, so control and speed reinforce each other.

Account balance header with a six-month performance chart and swipe navigation between accounts — Final design and interaction.

Account list showing every account with its balance detail — Final design and interaction.

What changed

92% of users found the redesigned account navigation easier and more intuitive than the previous version

25% decrease in the average time to switch to the right account

88% of users reached detailed balance information on the first interaction, up from 55%

I'm spending significantly less time managing my accounts, giving me more time for strategic trading decisions.
Active trader

The new design clearly presents detailed balance info, exactly the insights I need without digging through menus.
Product stakeholder

What changed in my approach

A user’s mental model can shape the structure of the product. Once we stopped asking people to remember account numbers, the header, list, gestures, and reordering began to support the same way of thinking. I have carried that balance between clarity and control into every financial product since.

The deck

The full walkthrough includes the account-list directions we tested, the options we set aside, and the reasoning behind the final system. Open the deck ↗