Underwriter

Stock and investment research can be overwhelming, as confirmed through audience insights. With no consistent approach to research—mirroring the uniqueness of investment portfolios—Underwriter identified an opportunity to streamline the process. By integrating AI-driven personalization, Underwriter empowers investors at all levels to make more informed buy and sell decisions.

Role: Lead Product Designer

Accountabilities: UX/UI design, user research, art direction, animation, development-ready assets, AI assisted image and illustration creation with Midjourney

Delivered Features: Redesign of AI Chat assistant, Stock Collections, Underwriter Academy

Collaborated: Founder, Product Manager, development team, 3rd party vendors

Impact: Increase in average time spent in app, monthly active users, X

AI Chat Assistant

How can an AI chat assistant reduce research frustration and build trust with our audience? This was critical to explore and define.

Early designs favored a ‘wizard’ approach over simple text entry, catering to novice investors who often feel lost with a blank chat screen. To minimize tech and design debt, I leveraged a sheet pattern that we had at our disposal, to guide users from the start and set the stage for a consistent experience throughout.

Timeline: 3 weeks of design iteration, collaboration with team, testing, and hand-off to development

Responsibilities: UI/UX, research, art direction, animation

Screens representative of the main flow

This sheet interaction pattern allows for someone to be guided through prompting the assistant, and limiting cognitive load with too many prompts and options at the onset.

Show your sources

Following the chat assistant redesign, we prioritized a fast-follow to emphasize:

  • Underwriter’s trustworthiness

  • The importance of transparency

  • The AI’s unbiased output

Unmoderated user testing showed 72% of participants felt trust by simply seeing resources in a collapsed state. Based on this insight, we shipped the feature collapsed by default, with an option to expand and view details.

Timeline: 2 weeks of design iteration, collaboration, testing and dev handoff

Responsibilities: UI/UX, research

Screens representative of the main flow

Underwriter Academy

Personalized micro-lessons offer education on key investment themes. Users can start with foundational lessons or request a custom topic, delivered within 72 hours.

Unmoderated usability testing ensured smooth navigation, comprehension of foundation material, and clarity in quiz dynamics, reinforcing learning through clear correct vs. incorrect responses.

Timeline: 4 weeks of design iteration, collaboration, testing and dev handoff

Responsibilities: UI/UX, research, art direction, animation

Screens representative of the main flow