UI/UX Design & Mobile App Development for FinTech Startup
Pebble’s trading platform allows you to customize your investments to align with your values and beliefs - designed for iOS and Android by NineTwoThree.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CEO of a fintech startup in its seed stage. I have a technical background.
What challenge were you trying to address with NineTwoThree?
We needed to develop a mobile application to showcase our services. I have a technical background and wanted a company that could work with my internal team.
We’re a consumer-oriented fintech, and our long-term goal is to be a B2B company. We needed to develop our capabilities and services directly to brokers since brokers have a long sales cycle.
What was the scope of their involvement?
NineTwoThree designed and developed native iOS and Android applications. They started the project by conducting market and users research with interviews, and their findings were the basis for the app’s design and development proposal.
NineTwoThree designed the app’s UI/UX using Figma and generated the app’s flows, user personas, and user journeys. After NineTwoThree completed the design phase, we decided to move forward with them for the app’s development. NineTwoThree worked with our engineering team and developed the iOS app using Swift and the Android app using Kotling.
Our company’s goal is to change how users interact with markets because most people don’t think in terms of financial language. Our app takes a regular idea; for instance, if a user wants to invest in cancer research, they can enter that into the app, and an AI will do research and construct an investment portfolio. Users can select an investment option and monitor their investments through the app.
Our app allows any user to create their own exchange-traded funds in a natural and easy way. Our in-house team developed the app’s AI. We built an AI that understands financial language and constructs an optimized portfolio.
What is the team composition?
We worked with Oleksandr (Android Developer), Katerina (iOS Developer), Zoriana (Junior Project Manager), Andrew (Founder & CEO), and Pavel (CTO).
How did you come to work with NineTwoThree?
I found NineTwoThree on Clutch. I have experience working as a CTO and have worked with several contractor teams in the past. An important thing for me was working with a company whose team leaders were local in Boston so I could have close contact with them.
I talked to two other companies that work on app development in my area. I chose NineTwoThree because I could speak to Pavel in a technical depth that I didn’t find in the other companies I interviewed. We both had experience as CTOs, which helped us have technical clarity and debate different approaches.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $250,000 with NineTwoThreee.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working in the design phase in July 2022, and NineTwoThree started the development phase in October 2022. They’ve finished the app’s development and will provide maintenance as needed. NineTwoThree will also assist us with the app’s launch process to publish it to the app stores.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
NineTwoThree met my requirements, and our teams worked excellently together. We had access to NineTwoThree’s GitHub repositories early on and could see what they were working on. Our engineering teams had an excellent rapport and worked as one team.
How did NineTwoThree perform from a project management standpoint?
NineTwoThree finished the project by the expected date and stayed on budget. They used monday.com for project management, and our team had access to it, although we didn’t use it. I could check what they were working on on monday.com, but we predominantly used Slack.
We worked smoothly together, and our teams had active communication through Slack. Zoriana was amazing at keeping the project on track. She was phenomenal throughout the process and was always available to help raise questions.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I was most impressed with NineTwoThree’s team. I was looking for a team that had been working together for a long time. I’ve encountered other contractor companies whose team hasn’t worked together as much. NineTwoThree team had been working together for six years, which shows in their work and process. The designer knew what was possible to develop and what wasn’t, and this was a key ingredient for our project’s success.
On the development side, Oleksandr was super proactive and thoughtful. He was very open and vocal about working with my team effectively, which was something I hadn’t found in other design firms. Andrew and Pavel had engineering backgrounds that helped us work smoothly — we spoke the same language.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I can’t think of anything for NineTwoThree to improve. I was worried we would have a problem, but everything was perfect, and we all benefited from our relationship.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I recommend ensuring NineTwoThree’s team works together on an individual basis. This didn’t feel like a contract development team because we all worked great together. I also recommend establishing this culture of collaboration from the beginning of your project and keeping it throughout the engagement.
Pebble is an innovative trading platform that tailors your investments according to your values and belief system. Not just an ordinary trading firm, it empowers individuals to construct a values-driven portfolio. This platform offers the flexibility to personalize your index funds, granting you the freedom to include or exclude any company, ensuring your investments truly align with your convictions.
Pebble came to NineTwoThree to explore their initial idea further and bring it to life through our product design sprint. We researched competitors to fine-tune the product and created a high-fidelity clickable prototype that was later tested with real users to identify improvement areas. We then conducted a technical analysis to identify any challenges or limitations. The design sprint was complete with a concise project estimate to define scope, timeline, budget, and implementation strategy for development. Pebble then moved into the development phase with us, leading to the creation of both iOS and Android applications.
Pebble wanted top-notch development that could hit the market swiftly. Building native applications with a seamless user experience requires skilled engineers. However, bringing individual engineers onboard in-house to construct an app natively can be tough. This challenge mainly stems from the lengthy hiring process: finding the right engineer, integrating them into the team, and establishing procedures. This also demands extra time from other team members to oversee the engineer responsible for development. Moreover, locating an engineer adept in mobile design can be challenging in itself. When designing, it's crucial to understand the distinct behaviors of iOS and Android users.
Another issue is that not every engineer has the expertise required for the nuanced process of submitting an app to the app store, a mishandling of which could lead to significant delays due to potential rejections. Overall, finding a quality engineer is a lengthy and expensive process that can slow down the time it takes to get the product to market.
Harnessing our intellectual property and existing agency technology, Pebble worked with our Android and iOS team - a unit that has collaborated on multiple occasions, fostering a dynamic synergy - to expedite their aim to obtain high quality mobile applications. Our work was laser-focused on their unique problem, eliminating the need for them to hire management or other roles. Additionally, by partnering with us, they avoided the need to hire a knowledgeable UX/UI designer and conduct app quality assurance. This collaboration fast-tracked their timeline, freed them from the worry of maintaining a staff, and allowed them to invest in a growth-focused agency post-development.
Furthermore, submitting an app to the app store is a complex process requiring expertise, and any missteps could lead to weeks of delay due to rejections. Our comprehensive understanding of each app store's workings enabled us to successfully submit the app on the first attempt, saving Pebble precious time.
Pebble was able to bring their idea of a personalized trading platform that better reflects the user’s ideas, values and individuality - custom tailored - all wrapped in a simple to use application. NineTwoThree helped the Pebble team not only understand the intricacies of the product, but also helped create a development roadmap informed by the design sprint. Our agency expertise and team dynamic, combined with a solid design sprint, led to high-quality mobile applications that not only saved time to market but also successfully met Pebble's goals. You can click here to learn more about Pebble.
Collaborating with NineTwoThree ensures a partnership with a team dedicated to working alongside you, strategically allocating your investment for maximum impact while avoiding overdevelopment.
