Designing and building a seamless FDC3-enabled trading desktop experience for a large US-based bank

The US-based bank runs sophisticated global credit trading operations across a number of interconnected desks. Adaptive was tasked to re-envision and implement the company’s overall desktop strategy to increase interoperability, as well as to design and develop a single user interface to consolidate and launch various credit trading applications.

Challenge:

Design and deploy an efficient and intuitive user interface (UI) to consolidate the bank’s credit trading applications, improving workflow efficiencies and user experience across the business.

Solution:

Adaptive’s Experience Design (UX) and Development team (UI) worked closely with the client, holding frequent workshops to understand the bank’s credit trading ecosystem and workflows. Adaptive’s domain expertise and technology accelerators allowed for the design, prototyping, and deployment of a modern micro app model that significantly reduces delivery times.

Cutting complexity through consolidation

The rapid electronification of fixed income markets has driven the adoption of trading technology across trading desks. For many organisations, this has resulted in the siloed development of multiple trading applications. While these trading technologies work well in isolation, interoperability across trading desks is increasingly important to give traders a consolidated view as workflows become more complex and intertwined.

This parallel evolution of disparate trading systems has resulted in a need for greater focus on user experience. In challenging market conditions, traders need to be able to respond quickly to capitalize on opportunities and navigate risk. With an increasing number of workflows, traders need well-designed interfaces that allow them to operate quickly and efficiently. The combination of intelligent design and cutting-edge technology has therefore become indispensable.

The brief

Adaptive was tasked with building a new algorithmic trading management tool for the bank’s Credit Trading operations. The relationship quickly expanded and Adaptive was entrusted to develop a desktop strategy, with several key objectives:

Adopt modern design principles:

Move away from a traditional siloed application development model in favour of a micro app model that provides flexibility and scale.

Interoperability:

Ensure that new and legacy trading applications from across the credit business are interoperable.

A seamless UI:

Improve efficiencies by bringing together various trading applications through a single, intuitive user interface (UI).

Collaboration with the client team:

Train the bank’s internal team to develop and refine new micro applications in the long-term.

Technical challenges

There were three key challenges when approaching the project:

Mapping the trading ecosystem:

With sophisticated and far-reaching credit operations, a challenge was identifying and connecting the various applications used by the bank’s teams. This effort was critical to understanding the ecosystem hierarchy and interoperability issues.

Cross-team collaboration:

Design and development were equally important factors in this project. Adaptive’s UX and UI teams worked closely with the bank’s technical teams to rapidly develop a high-fidelity prototype to show the client how the desktop strategy could be executed.

Fast prototype delivery:

A key principle of the project was ensuring that the desktop improved the workflows of a diverse group of globally dispersed traders. The UX team delivered a working prototype within a few weeks that clients and users could interact with to validate and iterate on designs. Throughout the process, the system was continuously refined and new workflows were added.

Adaptive addressed these technical challenges through its agile development and design processes – ensuring fast delivery of a high quality, tailored product. The team followed rigorous two-week sprint cycles to deliver against a roadmap of goals agreed with the client team.

The solution

In late 2022, Adaptive delivered the end product: a streamlined FDC3-enabled desktop UI for the bank’s traders.

This interface seamlessly integrated legacy applications and introduced a set of new micro-applications, all built upon a wellknown desktop interoperability solution as the desktop integration tool and following Adaptive’s best-practice development principles.

With design being such an integral part of the project, Adaptive delivered a globally available UI toolkit, using common components, colours, and fonts that could be utilised across all applications throughout the bank to create reusable, unified patterns and a common look & feel across the desktop.

A critical component of the project was to ensure that the client could take ownership of the platform. Adaptive worked closely with its development team to ensure a successful handover.

The end product

The bank’s credit traders utilize the new desktop interface to tailor their workflows according to their individual preferences, whilst being able to conveniently access and launch the necessary applications through this unified desktop framework.

The client now owns an interoperable, modern desktop environment that it can evolve and adapt to the needs of its credit team. This ownership of innovation enables them to incorporate new functionalities as credit traders navigate the everchanging market conditions.