Role: UX, UI, Branding, Interaction, Prototyping

## **Overview**

We worked with Tam Ging Wien, a seasoned REITs expert and educator, on helping people invest in REITs.

He was already running a successful series of seminars that helped people start investing, but there were a couple of issues:

1. After the seminar, **users were on their own**. They would need to browse numerous blogs to gather data, use complicated Excel sheets to make calculations… It was intimidating.

2. **The model couldn’t scale**. Wien’s seminars were constantly sold out, and unless he cloned himself it was physically impossible to scale it.

3. There was **a missed opportunity in the funnel**. This obviously wasn’t the end of the funnel for his students, yet he was letting them go after that.

He came to us with an idea for a powerful tool that would solve all these problems: users could take courses, stay up to date with market changes and analyze wins and losses, all in one place.

## My role

We teamed up with Wien and worked closely with him to bring his vision to life. My job was everything design-related, from marketing to product.

1. I’ve taken Wien’s rough ideas and sketches and turned them into **user flows, wireframes and actual UI**

2. I’ve created a **simple but strong brand** that would make all these moving parts feel like a cohesive and consistent experience

3. I’ve designed a **UI kit** in Sketch, so we could quickly experiment and reiterate.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FCDACxNKXhsB4l4RNF9px%2F167bedc1-c8c9-4a62-8fad-4e20f90ad667.png?alt=media&token=f4466588-384e-4bae-a22f-32b3d0a70cd9","id":"167bedc1-c8c9-4a62-8fad-4e20f90ad667","width":2048,"height":1241,"filename":"reitscreener-marketing.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

# The screener table

One big challenge was the REITs index table, the screener itself. Each entry had 30+ fields, which you can enable or disable, sort by or use to further filter data, depending on your strategy. And if you have a strategy that works for you, you want to save it for future use. That meant the table needs to be **super-flexible** and **really fast**.

I was lucky to work with amazing front-end devs. This is one of the things where spending time on mockups **won’t get you anywhere**. So we’ve spent hours together in Chrome Devtools together, experimenting and making sure everything works fast and looks good in 54784578 different states.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FCDACxNKXhsB4l4RNF9px%2F6df46a62-8fed-4aa8-b173-2d413907d07b.png?alt=media&token=fbe5e475-3b6c-4c4e-b1a8-14f5254ab34f","id":"6df46a62-8fed-4aa8-b173-2d413907d07b","width":2048,"height":1802,"filename":"reitscreener-screener-old.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

# **Personas**

This worked for proficient users, but as time went by it was obvious that we’re limiting ourselves if we only focus on those who already know about REITs. So after more research and collecting data about people who sign up for REITScreener, it was clear that we have two different personas to cater to: **newbies** and **pros**. And if our funnel is trying to please both of those groups, newbies won’t get the support they need and pros will get annoyed.

The solution we went with was an **onboarding questionnaire**. A user would get through a couple of questions at the start which would help us figure out the best approach for them. Depending on their answers, they would get different tags that start a different email sequence in ActiveCampaign.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FCDACxNKXhsB4l4RNF9px%2Fafa65558-3d1e-4de3-947d-46d9903d828f.png?alt=media&token=5b730dd5-8b01-47a4-bb50-8403987fbb31","id":"afa65558-3d1e-4de3-947d-46d9903d828f","width":2048,"height":771,"filename":"reitscreener-onboarding-1.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

# **Simplifying the screener**

That was a move in the right direction, but it wasn’t enough. We wanted to do another experiment: what if we built a **separate tool just for newbies**? If newbies don’t have enough knowledge or time to mess with complex strategies, let’s simplify it.

Following examples from companies such as Wealthfront, the user would go through our Investment Profile quiz which would help us figure out the user’s priorities, age, expectations, risk tolerance… Based on that, we would calculate user’s investment profile and offer them an investment strategy that works for them.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FCDACxNKXhsB4l4RNF9px%2F85a27ce7-c724-4800-95a4-efc088f10970.png?alt=media&token=74a4ff32-788f-4a81-b71f-057b677dd80f","id":"85a27ce7-c724-4800-95a4-efc088f10970","width":2048,"height":813,"filename":"reitscreener-onboarding-2.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

The screener was also simplified. There is now a clear separation between two different mental models:

* Picking and tweaking a strategy

* Scanning and exploring the results

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FCDACxNKXhsB4l4RNF9px%2Fa8a8a03e-f803-4ae9-aa43-ac73cb92369d.png?alt=media&token=81967329-801c-4ccf-a5bd-1eb86d34fa05","id":"a8a8a03e-f803-4ae9-aa43-ac73cb92369d","width":2048,"height":861,"filename":"reitscreener-screener-new.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

We worked at a fast pace, launching this within a month. I designed the onboarding and the screener, while my teammate Marko handled other screens like comparisons and settings, which are not shown here.

# **Lessons & outcomes**

REITScreener is now a **profitable product**. It helped Wien scale his business beyond what he could have done with just seminars. And hundreds of users are still using it every day.

It was a great learning experience for me: I’ve learned a lot about designing super-complex responsive tables and charts.

Looking back, one thing I would do differently this time around is **spending more time shaping the MVP**. We were overbuilding, and while we learned a lot of lessons along the way, those lessons were really expensive. We could have spent less time and money with user story mapping sessions and smaller experiments.

I’m no longer working on REITScreener (my fellow teammate Estella took over the design duties) but you can still see some of my work on [REITScreener website](https://reitscreener.com/screener/table)

Helping beginners invest in REITs

In 2020, there were protests against dictatorship in Serbia, with lots of police brutality and no respect for human rights or privacy. Cops were accessing people's phones in order to track where the protests will be held, delete photographic evidence of police brutality or just gather evidence. They did this both by hacking and just grabbing people's phones and forcing them to give them access.

Talking to people at the protests, I realized a lot of them don't really know how to protect their phones. You can't make it bulletproof, but you can and should make it harder for them to gain access to your files.

So I've done some quick research and created a short, 6-step guide on how to protect your data, from enabling two-factor authentication, to using airplane mode and automatically backing up your photos. It became really successful, with over a thousand of shares on social media. I really hope it helped someone during those crazy nights.

ACAB

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FMNvjrelprV6QNMVApKzQ%2F9a11bcf4-9ce6-46f2-afe4-496a570f0cba.png?alt=media&token=73291e16-0a52-4dde-9c24-6fefbccd79c2","id":"9a11bcf4-9ce6-46f2-afe4-496a570f0cba","width":1080,"height":1080,"filename":"1.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2F7zi5TUUKg4V7VLvKJNyvXiWemdR2%2FMNvjrelprV6QNMVApKzQ%2F9e9e4756-b241-4893-9eb6-c25fb36cffbb.png?alt=media&token=b5de72e9-9580-4391-abec-678506db4632","id":"9e9e4756-b241-4893-9eb6-c25fb36cffbb","width":1080,"height":1080,"filename":"6.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

Protect yourself and your phone during protests

Product designer

Design ethics: Part two

Design ethics: Context matters

Side projects, itches and bubbles

I worked with a seasoned REITs expert and educator on designing a tool that helps people make better decisions when investing in REITs. My job covered everything from user research and wireframes to branding and building a design system.

REITscreener

A short guide on how to protect your data and privacy during 2020 protests in Serbia.

Wrote episode recaps of a cult Serbian TV show which somehow went viral, after which I promptly stopped doing it because I have a fucked up relationship with attention.

Policajac sa Petlovog Brda episode recaps

Worked as a sole designer, web-developer, illustrator and copywriter on a cash register app for kids. Defined the art direction and tone, designed the app UI, website and numerous print products to go with it. Continually improved the product and its ecosystem over the years through user research, wireframes and prototypes. Over 200.000 downloads and used by families and schools all over the world.

Little Zebra Shopper

Had a month off in June 2022 so I spent that time volunteering at a local animal shelter. Met ~100 new dog friends and perfected my shoveling technique.

Volunteer

Designed and built a website for an association of the recipients of psychiatric services and their families, that helped a lot of people take the first step in getting the treatment, while also helping “Zrak nade” acquire funds to renovate their premises.

Designer and developer

Helping build an (even) better experience for members of Ghost publications

Designer

Worked on products like REITScreener, HOV Accelerator, Jamclout and Identifi, where my job covered everything from helping stakeholders shape MVPs to doing user research and designing UIs.

Helped build, organize and grow HOV's design department as lead designer. Trained, managed and mentored junior designers.

Djordje Vlaisavljevic

2021