Watson for Wealth Management

Cognitive assistant for wealth managers

My role: visual designer, HTML/CSS

The Watson for Wealth Management demo was created to showcase how a Wealth Manager could use cognitive computing to communicate with his clients using evidence based insights. Utilizing structured and unstructured data, Watson is able to successfully navigate the vast amount of financial data that's available and make personalized recommendations based on the clients current portfolio, financial data, past activity, and market trends. Financial considerations that Watson recommended were presented with it’s confidence, supporting evidence and overall sentiment.

The Challenge

The demo was requested for the grand opening of the new IBM office at Astor Place in New York. This coincided with the $1 billion Watson expansion that was being launched in the beginning of 2015 which would include the new Watson Experience Center.

There was already an existing demo but it needed to be updated. The current design felt dated and didn't convey the confidence that a trusted advisor should.

The Process

We were given a couple weeks to transform the existing demo. I worked closely with a small group of engineers, a financial advisor and designer on the redesign. Together, we created a user journey through the tool that would be representative of a typical day in the life of a financial advisor. This allowed us to create a cohesive story and showcase different aspects of the tool.

Working closely with the financial advisor, we determined the best way to organize the content hierarchy. It was tremendously helpful getting insight from a domain expert so that I could better understand the user needs.

I also helped the design team that established the design guidelines for the Astor place demos. I worked with them to design the brand system and prototyped the style guide that would be sent to all the development teams. The objective was to have a cohesive look and feel across all the demos and provide technical guidance that could influence the final designs.

During the Astor Place opening, the demos would be displayed on a large wall monitor that was controlled by a docent and on 55" touch enabled devices that potential clients and visitors could use. I designed the visual experience for the Wealth Management demo with a dark UI and high contrast so it would appear the best under those conditions and made the interactive elements touch friendly with a target area of at least 44px by 44px.

The Outcome

In just a few days, we successfully gave the design a major overhaul and had the demo ready for the Astor Place opening. The demo was well received. It went so well in fact, that it was decided to turn this demo into an actual product.