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Fintech · 2025

Tradu

Token architecture and onboarding redesign for Jefferies' trading platform. A one-week brief that earned three engagements.

Context

Tradu is a multi-asset trading platform, wholly owned by Jefferies Financial Group. Built with raw colour values, no design tokens. The brief was one week: design a light mode for onboarding.

What I did

The existing dark mode used hardcoded colour values. I worked backwards: defined primitive tokens from the values in use, then derived semantic tokens that both modes resolve to. One abstraction, two modes.

The one-week brief expanded across three statements of work:

  • Light mode token retrofit
  • Onboarding UX audit: 19-screen flow, reducing taps, rethinking progress indicators, redesigning field states
  • Corporate site UX audit

The strongest decision was on accessibility. Tradu's brand guidelines specified a darker shade of their accent orange for light mode. The standard shade was lighter, higher contrast, and passed WCAG AA more cleanly. I recommended the standard shade universally. Tradu amended their brand guidelines.

The primitive token scale, with dark-mode and light-mode tokens derived from the same base.
Progress bar variants explored, ending with the primary-action grouping at the bottom.
Field states in light mode. Tangerine produces clearer visual separation in the lighter environment.
Final recommendations from the corporate site UX audit.

Impact

~45s and 11 taps removed from the onboarding flow (measured). One-week brief earned three engagements.

>8× Agency account growth The initial project's success led to a full UX audit.
19 steps Refined end to end UX refinements shipped across app onboarding and corporate site.
~45 seconds Less to complete onboarding 11 taps removed, cognitive load reduced throughout.