AllianceBernstein

A Human-Centered Approach to Wealth Management

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AllianceBernstein is a global investment firm serving high-net-worth and institutional clients. Their private wealth team needed a mobile experience that gave clients fast, clear visibility into their portfolio—without replicating the complexity of the AB desktop portal.

I led the product design of a new mobile-first dashboard that emphasized clarity, trust, and daily utility. This case study shows how we simplified a complex problem space through user insights, systems thinking, and tight cross-functional collaboration.

My Role

I was the sole product designer on this project. My job was to take a stakeholder-driven MVP and reshape it into a mobile-first, research-backed product experience.

I led the end-to-end effort—across strategy, design, systems, and delivery:

  • Synthesized user research into personas + journey maps

  • Defined UX flows and mobile-first IA

  • Designed all UI and motion interactions

  • Created reusable Figma components and dev specs

  • QA’d builds and collaborated with engineers, legal, and compliance

The Challenge

AB’s private wealth clients often check their portfolios on the go—between meetings, during commutes, or late at night. But their mobile experience was just a stripped-down version of the desktop site.

We needed to design a mobile experience that:

  • Delivered fast, clear, and trustworthy insights

  • Highlighted what clients cared about: balance, allocations, and activity

  • Felt polished and premium

  • Could scale across account types and use cases

  • Reduced client reliance on support calls

Research

I interviewed 12 high-net-worth clients and ran a survey with 40+ participants.

The most consistent feedback:

This shifted our approach toward glanceable content, smart defaults, and progressive disclosure

“I don’t want to dig—I just want to be told.” - User #3

Users didn’t want dashboards. They wanted fast answers to

  • “How’s my account doing today?”

  • “Is anything off?”

  • “Do I need to call my advisor?”

Mapping the User Journey

Before designing the interface, I mapped out key client journeys to understand real user behavior—not just assumptions.

Personas

Our survey and interview data revealed three distinct client personas. Each represented a different relationship to financial decision-making and directly influenced how we shaped the product’s hierarchy, interaction model, and level of complexity.

  • Delegators (77%) — Trust their advisor, check in for reassurance

  • Validators — Track performance and ask follow-up questions

  • Soloists — Prefer total control and hands-on toolsTrusts their advisor to manage strategy. Opens the app to stay informed and feel reassured.

I prioritized Delegators in the default experience (simple dashboard, clean nav) and built modular layers of detail to support Validators and Soloists as needed.

Sketching the Mobile Experience

Once I had clarity on user needs, I explored how to structure the app in a way that reduced friction and surface-level complexity. I started by sketching out several home screen concepts that tested different hierarchies, entry points, and flows.

These sketches helped guide early testing and shaped the navigation structure that came later.

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Iterations

I continued to refine and iterate from initial wireframes based on usability test with clients. From each iteration we learned valuable information that led the redesigns. I iterated on UI elements, copy, and global navigation to get the right experience for our clients.

Usability test

I built prototypes with figma and after effects, to test all micro-interactions and transitions in action. The testing focussed on the global navigation, the home-screen, performance screen, allocation screen and team screen.

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Micro-Interactions and animations

I was in charge of all motion design. Micro-interactions can provide positive feelings about the brand and influence users’ actions, often without people even realizing it. It’s a great opportunity to communicate status and provide feedback while enhancing the sense of direct manipulation and it helps clients see the result of their actions.

Loaders

Brand presence throughout the experience is important. To reinforce this I played around with a few different custom loaders….

…before landing on our current loading signifier.

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Prototype, test, develop

We continued to refine and iterate as we added features. I’d create research plans, set goals & KPI’s with my PM, run usability test, and iterate. Align with stakeholders on the new truths, sit down with our devs who would push a new version, and the cycle would repeat.

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Style Guide

As the app came together through testing and iterating, I began to flesh out an app style guide. It acts as a central location where we house a live inventory of UI components, brand guidelines, brand assets, code snippets, developer guidelines and more.

Final thoughts

This project was all about simplification. I took a complex wealth management product and made it approachable, focused, and trustworthy for users on the move.

What I’m most proud of:

  • I didn’t just design screens—I designed for user psychology

  • I tested assumptions early and often

  • I delivered a system that works now and scales later

What are next steps?

  • Cash flows out - The ability for our clients to transfer money out. Currently being developed.

  • iPad App - UI tweaks(readable width) to adjust iPad experience.

  • eSign research - Ability to sign documents via the app. Was validated through clients surveys, in the process of interviews clients.

  • Improve on boarding flow - On boarding flow needs to be updated to reflect new features added.

  • Animated empty states - Ui facelift to enhance experience.

Here is an app breakdown from the Bernstein marketing team or view the app on the itunes store.