This is the story of how we helped an investment bank launch a new independent platform connecting companies that are raising capital with individual retail investors.
Peel Hunt is an investment bank based in the City of London. Following recent changes in corporate governance and a supportive regulatory change agenda, they saw an opportunity to create an independent business which would help retail investors (individual people) get access to opportunities (such as buying shares in an IPO) on the same terms as institutional investors. Put very simply, the platform connects companies that are raising capital with people wanting to invest.
The new product, called RetailBook, was to be based on a legacy technology platform, REX. However REX was clunky to use and didn’t have all the functionality necessary for a true business-to-business platform. What’s more, RetailBook existed as a name but had no visual identity as a brand. RetailBook needed a design consultancy to ensure an optimum and modern user experience for all sides of the platform, along with a brand identity suitable for the combined audiences of public companies, banks, financial advisors and retail brokers.
RetailBook is one product with two very different use cases. On one side the platform enables companies, through their banks or advisors, to gain investment by way of initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on placings (when public companies seek additional investment) or retail bond offerings. On the other side, retail investors get access to the opportunities available in RetailBook via their chosen intermediaries or wealth managers.
In order to fully understand the needs and demands of users, and to gain the trust of senior RetailBook stakeholders, we needed to quickly and competently get up to speed with primary market retail investing and all the concepts/jargon that it entails. To do this, we interviewed representatives from intermediaries and issuer banks, helping us understand the context in which they’d use the system.
From this user research we collaboratively agreed design principles for the platform. RetailBook should be:
Investment banks seeking to raise capital on behalf of companies need to input quite a bit of information. As well as all the company details and the nature of the offering, they need to provide legal documents too – the platform needs to enable companies to practise good governance and comply with regulatory obligations.
Through their brokers or intermediaries, investors need to see all the offers available, make a decision, and register their interest quickly. To help this, they need standardised deal processes and documentation.
Meanwhile banks and advisers shape the retail audience and maintain control over allocation. That is to say they need to keep track of who is investing, how much, and when.
In all cases, time is of the essence, so we prioritised fast data-entry. After talking to investors and sellers, we realised that scannability was key. Investors need to quickly scan the offers available. Sellers need to quickly scan the lifespan of an offer.
For investment banks, we designed an easily scannable dashboard. For investors, we designed an easily scannable group of cards:
But there’s far more to the platform than cards and a dashboard. We needed to map out and prototype entire workflows, design efficient data entry screens and effective behind-the-scenes administration. In order to ensure our designs were feasible, we collaborated with the development team on the API design which would power the entire application.
This design process was fast and iterative, and we learned a lot about involving customers and users in the design of our product.
The process of moving from user research to fully specified prototype began by making low-fidelity wireframes for the different user flows. At this point, the cost of change is low, meaning we could try out different ideas quickly, and play back learnings and understandings.
Once we were confident in the conceptual wireframes, we began to code a prototype to simulate the application. The prototype was higher fidelity, enabling us to finesse the finer iteration details, but without any branding initially.
Having an interactive prototype helped the RetailBook team understand what to prioritise in their proposition and initial phase of launch. Through backlog and prioritisation workshops, collectively we were able to see the project in context of the wider product roadmap.
As and when complete user journeys came together in the prototype, we tested the product to ensure everything made sense for retail intermediaries, companies and bankers. We could then iterate the prototype with any improvements identified during testing.
We really enjoyed working with the Clearleft team. The user-centred approach gave us a different way of thinking about RetailBook as a product.
While we were wireframing and prototyping to figure out RetailBook’s functionality, we were working on the branding in parallel to the product design.
The brand design process started with us being in one room together to discuss brands that we valued, admired and respected. This worked as a great icebreaker for the brand direction workshop exercises that were to follow.
We worked with RetailBook stakeholders to better understand the naming of the platform, diving into the Golden Circle to define the what, how and why behind the brand. We explored the brand values, and conducted a gut test exercise to define the brand personality. These all provided great insights into how the brand should start to take shape as well as provide the space to have great conversations on the look and feel of the brand.
Over the space of two short weeks, we’d agreed the choice of typefaces, logo development, colour palette, supporting graphic elements, and explorations into how the new branding translates to UI elements.
Once branding decisions were signed off, they were incorporated into the wireframes and prototype, ratcheting up the fidelity one notch at a time.
We handed over the branded prototype to the RetailBook development team, along with a pattern library of the components used to build out the prototype. We used Storybook for this. We also produced branded assets including logo variations and guidelines on how the brand can be applied in the future.
I just wanted to acknowledge what a great job Clearleft did setting up the mocked site, from a coding perspective. This is hands down the best code I've ever received from designers (or even from many seasoned developers). Been a real pleasure to work with!
The user-centred design process was a new experience for the RetailBook team, but they learned fast. We showed them how to quickly prototype, test, and refine interactions with complex data. Armed with these skills they're now ready to disrupt the market. In keeping with the iterative nature of this project, the product first went into private beta, where it received very positive feedback from industry partners.
In September 2024 RetailBook officially launched with FCA authorisation and fully independent operations.