Confidential Client ('Arcadia')

IN PROGRESS

UX/UI Design

Project Overview

Building a Unified, Future-Ready Ecosystem for High-Value Financial Operations

'Arcadia' is responsible for executing U.S. monetary policy through auctions and trading platforms that directly affect liquidity and global financial stability. The performance of these systems is critical — even a brief disruption could ripple through U.S. and international markets.

The platforms in place were built on legacy technology, fragmented across auction types, and unable to keep pace with the demands of today's financial landscape. Policymakers and market participants face a world of intensified complexity, faster-moving markets, and increased regulatory scrutiny. Users reported inconsistent interfaces, inefficient workflows, and limited resilience — all of which affect confidence in operations central to economic stability.

The client recognized that to meet the challenges of a modern financial era, it would need not just incremental upgrades, but a comprehensive re-platforming — one that delivered unified workflows, technical resilience, and future scalability.


Our Multi-Disciplinary Team

Our team combined deep financial domain expertise with advanced technical and design skills across five practice areas:


UX Design

Led in-depth user research through live demos, workflow mapping, and stakeholder interviews. Defined modern interaction patterns and established a cohesive visual language across 16+ modules of the auctions platform, as well as adjacent systems including trading & MOPS.


Front-End Engineering

Delivered responsive, accessible UIs optimized for speed and clarity in high-pressure auction and trading environments.


Back-End Engineering & SRE

Modernized data flows, improved system reliability, and enabled cross-auction features such as counterparty management, limit controls, and audit logs.


QA/QE

Established robust testing processes to validate functionality, confirm performance under stress, and ensure adherence to Figma designs and accessibility requirements.


Business Analysis

Documented requirements across stakeholders, analyzed regulatory constraints, and prioritized features for maximum impact and feasibility.


Industry Challenge

A 30-Year-Old System at a Breaking Point

Even a brief disruption in these platforms could ripple through U.S. and international markets, so the stakes couldn't be higher.

Key Initiatives

In response to the client's outlined challenges, Adaptive took a 30-year-old internal tool and revolutionized it by implementing the following solutions.

  • Consistent, Intuitive Interfaces: Unified interfaces across all auction types to reduce the steep learning curve caused by frequent trader turnover.

  • Streamlined Auction Setup: Smarter defaults, reusable templates, and real-time validation for faster, more reliable execution.

  • Enhanced Operational Resilience: Embedded automated checks, audit trails, and robust monitoring throughout the platform.

  • Scalable Architecture: A flexible foundation capable of supporting new functionality in the years ahead.

A 30-Year-Old System at a Breaking Point

Even a brief disruption in these platforms could ripple through U.S. and international markets, so the stakes couldn't be higher.

Key Initiatives

In response to the client's outlined challenges, Adaptive took a 30-year-old internal tool and revolutionized it by implementing the following solutions.

  • Consistent, Intuitive Interfaces: Unified interfaces across all auction types to reduce the steep learning curve caused by frequent trader turnover.

  • Streamlined Auction Setup: Smarter defaults, reusable templates, and real-time validation for faster, more reliable execution.

  • Enhanced Operational Resilience: Embedded automated checks, audit trails, and robust monitoring throughout the platform.

  • Scalable Architecture: A flexible foundation capable of supporting new functionality in the years ahead.

The Solution

User-Driven Design Meets Technical Resilience

Adaptive deployed a cross-functional team to work alongside stakeholders. We shadowed users, mapped workflows across live auctions, auction setup, and program management, and identified high-friction points where inefficiencies created operational risk.

  • Unified User Experience: A shared design system created consistency across auction types, reducing errors and halving training time.

  • Cross-Functional Features: Key tools — counterparty management, audit logs, limit controls, and price overrides — were integrated into a unified system built on Hydra, ensuring data flowed seamlessly across all auction types with real-time updates.

  • Streamlined Setup: Intelligent defaults, reusable templates, and validation checks cut configuration time by 25% and reduced the risk of mistakes.

  • Real-Time Monitoring: Dynamic updates, clear status indicators, and actionable alerts empowered operators to act decisively in volatile markets.

  • Powerful Analytics Dashboards: Interactive, centralized dashboards with custom filters compile and display real-time data, giving operators powerful visibility into performance trends.


Outcomes

What We Delivered

  • Modern, intuitive interfaces that simplified training and improved usability across auctions

  • Greater efficiency with setup and execution streamlined, reducing workload and time-to-execution

  • Increased resilience through automated checks, audit trails, and enhanced reliability

  • Policy impact by ensuring reliable execution of monetary policy and reinforcing stability in U.S. and global markets