td Fractional investing
Enabling users to trade in dollars
TD was the first major bank in Canada to offer fractional trading.
The challenge was to make this new way of investing feel simple, intuitive, and familiar. Through competitive research, prototyping, user testing, and iterative design, my team and I explored how investors naturally think about placing a trade and used those insights to design an experience which would be used across all three of TD’s direct investing platforms on web and mobile.
Role: Team lead, UX, UI, Strategy, Research facilitation
Project walkthrough and prototype available on request
testing interaction models
Three rounds of user testing were completed using interactive prototypes with novice to seasoned investors.
We compared different approaches for trading in shares or dollars. The two-way calculator emerged as the strongest direction, eliminating mental math while giving investors the flexibility to enter either value.
Preferred by 11 of 12 participants with a usability score of 85, it became our final interaction model.
Designing the experience across three platforms
The fractional trading experience was rolled out across all TD direct investing platforms: WebBroker, Easy Trade, and the TD Mobile App and encompassed the entire trading experience—from buy and sell to order changes, cancellations, currency conversion, security transfers, account details, and educational and help content.
Each touchpoint introduced its own business rules, edge cases, and platform dependencies. This meant designing not just a new way to place a trade, but a cohesive end-to-end experience that worked across three distinct platforms.
From requirements to implementation
To manage the complexity across three platforms, we worked epic by epic, translating business requirements into detailed user flows and comprehensive, annotated wireframes.
Each design was mapped directly to business requirements using Confluence, documenting interactions, states, edge cases, and expected behaviours. These artifacts became a shared reference for product and development teams, helping maintain alignment and consistency as designs moved into implementation.
Buy Order ticket functionality, including educational content on hover of fractional icon.
Change order of a fractional buy with interaction notes.
Market order sell, using dollar input calculator field.
A high-visibility initiative
As a keystone initiative for TD Direct Investing, the project received significant executive visibility. I presented the evolving experience multiple times to TD senior leadership, and the work was showcased internally as a key investment in the future of TD’s trading experience.