As Australia's first wealth advisory platform, Maqro wanted to be ready to meet the everyday investor in the middle.
Previously known as TraderNote, Maqro was in need of a complete refresh in brand, along with a new product.
This product would give anyone access to insights and reports from professional advisers working at Maqro. It would open doors to new ambitious investors with a dramatically minimised risk - in both time and effort.
My role was to create the brand, a new marketing website, and a mobile app for the users as well as a desktop app for the Maqro team.
BRAND & WEBSITE
Introducing an innovative solution to an already competitive market
The Australian fintech industry was no stranger to investment trading applications at the time. I initially thought of going against competitors on purpose and targeting what exactly can make us stand out from the crowd.
But then I realised what was more important was not an 'out of this world' brand, it was a consistency in visuals and messaging across all platforms. I had the convenience of designing all 3 at the same time, so I'd figured that it may have just been the best time to do it.
The website needed to communicate the refreshed brand, and show off the benefits and values of the product that is available. Product shots brought out the legitimacy of the solution and gave a detailed insight to the application to make a strong impression on the visitors.
The isometric illustrations were a fun way of representing the relationship between the user and adviser. But that was intentionally balanced with product shots. The illustration drove the storytelling and voice, while the product took care of establishing a genuine solution and how it would work.
PRODUCT
Creating seamless, organic pathways to lead users to in the in-app adviser chat
To avoid the trappings of being another generic fintech app for millennials to download, try for 2 minutes, and delete, I found the integrity of Maqro sat with directing users to it's USP as quickly, yet seamlessly as possible.
That feature was to chat with a professional investment adviser. This theory was validated with interviews of potential users in the demographic we defined in our branding workshop - tech savvy, financially astute individuals.
To be able to speak to someone of the caliber in the area they are starting in does wonders for the accessibility and interest. Users don't have to worry about doing all the research and reporting. Which is why the advisor feature was widely available in multiple areas of the experience to raise its visibility.
= entry points to adviser function from other locations
Let's go back to the overall product now - I first created the wireframes in Whimsical to establish the navigation, flows and structure. Minor interactions would be left to design, with a design system also brought in that had initially started when creating the website.
I used the primary brand blue as a signal to view critical information - it exists either as a background to the important content, or the fill of a button that leads to an important action. Visually speaking the UI drew back to the branding piece we had delivered previously, bringing through the bold gradients and sleek white, minimal layout.
The copywriting is a balance between professional terms and conversational jargon - Maqro isn't as serious as a bank given you can regularly chat to another person. But, there is of course the traditional financial lingo that needed to be there to ensure a user understand what kind of decisions or situations they were apart of.
