DESIGN NAME: Grafa
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Finance Information App
INSPIRATION: The inspiration for Grafa’s design was from the single premise that finance needed to entertain to achieve mass adoption.
We used dark navy as the main app background, with light blue highlights which helps boost alertness, heighten reaction times and elevate moods.
The app design needed to be clean, seamless and give the impression that no expense had been spared.
In a genre in which good design is an afterthought, we wanted Grafa to be known for making finance beautiful.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Grafa is a financial data, news and analysis platform that gives users access to large volumes of information quickly and in a way that is entertaining and engaging.
The platform integrates AI-curated video news from Bloomberg, Reuters, Cheddar TV, in addition to news generated by Grafa’s team of data analysts and business journalists.
Grafa allows users to track the trends and be ahead of the curve with multi-asset data sets including Australian stocks, global currencies and cryptocurrencies
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Grafa allows users to chart multi-asset data sets, and uses advanced search functionality and AI-curation to search/curate/organise enormous volumes of data, news, video and analysis within milliseconds.
The infinite scrolling functionality of social media platforms like Facebook have been incorporated into the Grafa app. This technology has proven to be habit forming.
This keeps users looking at their phones for far longer than necessary - it was originally based on the mechanics of slot machines.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: Grafa started in Australia in 2019, and the first release of the app was in November 2020. The app gained a small user base, the feedback was that the app needed to improve its load speed.
This feedback prompted a redesign and rebuild of the front-end of the app and this was launched in April 2021.
User feedback is that the current product exceeds expectations and has the potential for global scale.
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: The UX design of Grafa was developed using Adobe’s XD product and the front-end of the app was originally built in React Native, but later re-built in HTML.
The app has been built on the AWS cloud infrastructure, which allows for rapid and global scale.
The app is now available on the App Store and Google Play.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: The design is an HTML file that is wrapped into an app so that it scales for any Android or Apple device.
It’s adaptable to many different resolutions and kinds of screens. Its ability to adapt to the endless number of different terminals on the market is excellent.
It supports HTML, HTML5, amongst others.
It’s capable of genuinely multitasking between applications.
TAGS: fintech, finance, charting, finance content
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: Grafa researched its direct competitors, such as Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Reuters and TradingView as well as other software-as-a-service companies including Canva, Redditt and Netflix.
It also drew inspiration from Apple, which was able to distinguish itself for good design across its entire product suite.
The design considered psychology, published interviews by the CEOs of competitors and extensive user testing.
Given the main premise was to be entertaining, the darker background colours of the app were to give the appearance the user was watching television.
CHALLENGE: The biggest challenge has been the balance between design and speed. We found an almost direct trade off between the detail of the design and the load times of the app.
We needed to rebuild the front end in a simpler format to be able to achieve the level and sophistication of design that we wanted, without sacrificing speed.
While we had a beautiful product at our soft launch, the beauty gives way to frustration if the app takes too long to load.
It took time and patience, but we have now managed to achieve both and are ready for rapid, global scale.
ADDED DATE: 2021-04-06 08:45:12
TEAM MEMBERS (6) : Heidi Cuthbert - Co-founder, Jon Cuthbert - Co-founder, Dan Petrie - Co-founder, Mikey Couch - UX designer, Tim Huegdon - Chief Technology Officer and
IMAGE CREDITS: All content owned by Grafa.
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: Grafa has an Innovation Patent pending.
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