Upon setting out on the project, we new the general goal – create a global overlay that helped clients learn about finance and the UI of the trading platform. Past this, there were two key questions that we narrowed our focus on answering: How "guided" of an experience should it be, and how linked should it be to the underlying content. With this in mind, we created a document to present to the client that presented several different options:
We ultimately decided on the "point and shoot" paradigm – It provided the most flexibility in maintaining a connection between the educational content and the actual UI, and versatility in presenting other types of educational content as needed.
From this point, we turned our focus to exploring different entry points. This was a key point to figure out, because we needed to strike a balance between discoverability, and not frustrating users who already knew what they were doing.
We ultimately decided to have the Gloverlay be advertised the first time the user logs in, but then be relegated to non-intrusive, dismissible tooltips and a upper-right link in subsequent visits.
Ultimately, this project was an excellent exercise in how to present complex educational content in a way that isn't overwhelming and to where the user absorbs and retains the information. Most importantly through this experience, we established a direct connection between educational content and the actual content on the page – a new and exciting paradigm for financial applications, which are highly prone to confusion and frustration even with standard educational material.
