DXtrade is a multi-asset trading platform for brokers that serves both professional and retail clients. To support business growth, trading tools must be reliable, accessible, and resilient. This case study explains how app store approval issues pushed several brokers to look for an alternative mobile channel, how we responded with a browser-based trading terminal, and how that work led to a unified design system across mobile platforms. 6 monthsfrom concept to launch9 membersin the core team, including design14 interviewsconducted during the research phase4 featurestested to validate the final direction Risk of losing mobile trading access Mobile apps had already been developed, but some brokers struggled to bring them to market. Apple’s App Store applies strict policies that can lead to rejections even when apps meet technical requirements. This affected white-labeled applications distributed by multiple brokers. According to the Investment Apps Market report, more than 400 million people used investment apps in 2024. Mobile-first products already represent over 60% of the total app usage. Against this backdrop, if a broker’s app failed a store review, they risked losing a key trading channel. Client conversations confirmed the same: traders expected mobile access as a basic requirement. When mobile apps were unavailable or unstable, traders moved to competitors. The issue went beyond UI or missing features—it was about channel reliability and maintaining traders’ loyalty. Our goal was to restore mobile trading access without depending on app store approvals. Using mobile web as a stable channel We chose to build a mobile web app: a browser-based DXtrade terminal, independent of app stores. Initially, the objective was straightforward: provide brokers and traders with a reliable way to access their accounts from any mobile device. As the project evolved, the mobile web trading terminal also became a controlled environment where we could: Redesign critical flows, Validate ideas quickly, Experiment without native platform constraints. What started as a workaround has become a core part of our mobile offering and a foundation for a unified experience across platforms. Core screens of the web mobile trading platform Managing positions with clarity and control. Key workflows redesigned for faster, more confident actions Seamless navigation and account management TradingView provides a familiar interface, while DXcharts delivers advanced, professional tools Traders can set up and adjust orders, including advanced protections, directly from Mobile Web App One palette and one design system The mobile web app solved immediate access issues, but native apps remained important for brokers with existing install bases. We continue to support and extend iOS and Android clients alongside mobile web. Managing three platforms meant maintaining three separate color palettes and many local UI decisions. Even minor UI updates required manual alignment and introduced a risk of inconsistent states. To address this, we created a single scalable color palette for light and dark themes, based on accessibility and contrast guidelines. This palette: Became the visual foundation for all platforms, Unified the design system across the product ecosystem, Reduced the number of exceptions and ad hoc overrides. As a result, design and implementation became faster, consistency improved, and maintenance effort decreased. Shifting from assumptions to research In parallel with the visual changes, we continued to extend the platform’s functionality. Over several months, we conducted 14 in-depth interviews and usability sessions to observe what traders check first and which friction points slow them down. As part of this work, we tested four major feature areas and refined flows based on how traders actually use the apps, rather than on our assumptions. This research clarified user journeys, highlighted a small number of high-impact issues, and helped the product team prioritize UI and workflow changes. Before we had direct access to brokers, most of our decisions came from experience, design theory, and what we saw in the market. Once we started running regular interviews and usability sessions, we finally saw how traders actually use the platform and could prioritize changes based on real behavior rather than assumptions.Anna EvseevaInterface Designer Redefining the first screen One of the first areas we revisited using these insights was the Home screen, the first thing traders see when they open the app. We discussed their typical trading flows, which metrics they check before placing a trade, and how they switch between accounts during the day. These conversations highlighted a core issue: relying solely on a watchlist did not provide traders with enough context. Brokers described a more helpful starting point: a compact snapshot of account health, with equity, balance, margin, and profit and loss (P&L) in one place, quick access to open positions and deposits, and a clearly visible account name with an easy way to switch between accounts. What users need on the Home screen (UX Test + Deep Interviews) Based on this feedback, we redesigned the Home screen as a compact entry dashboard. It gives traders an immediate view of their financial status and provides direct paths to their primary actions. The watchlist, which had previously served as the start screen, became a separate section focused purely on market monitoring. A cleaner watchlist for market monitoring The original watchlist attempted to show everything at once: multiple metrics, quick-trade buttons, bid/ask data, and small charts. It looked advanced but slowed traders down. To clarify its role, we interviewed traders and brokers about how they use the watchlist: what data they look at first, how they read color cues, and which actions they expect from this screen. We learned that traders rarely place orders directly from the watchlist. Instead, they use it as a market radar to scan movements and identify instruments that need attention. They asked for: A clean layout focused on current price and 24h changes, Clear color cues (e.g., red/green), An option to pin favorites and group instruments by type, Sorting by performance (e.g., top gainers/losers), A small indicator showing which instruments are already in their portfolio. We refined the watchlist around these principles, making it easier to read and scan. Traders can now quickly navigate markets, focus on a small set of relevant signals, and stay in control, free from visual noise. The updated watchlist complements the Home screen by focusing on quick monitoring rather than actions. Making chart switching unobtrusive Another useful outcome of this research-driven approach was a redesign of how traders switch between chart engines. DXcharts, Devexperts’ in-house financial charting library, has long been integrated with DXtrade as the default charting engine. We added TradingView charts to offer a second option for traders who already use it in other tools. Both chart engines display positions and orders directly on the chart, improving clarity and reducing the risk of mistakes. Switching between them happens from the trading screen, but not very often, so the control had to be easy to find when needed, unobtrusive in daily use, and consistent with the rest of the interface. We treated the placement of this control as a series of hypotheses to test. Together with brokers and internal trading teams, we explored several interaction patterns and observed how people actually switched charts while viewing live data. One early proposal was to place the switch button directly on the chart area, but feedback showed that this drew too much attention away from price action. The tests eventually pointed to a compact control in the bottom panel as the most balanced option. Traders can now switch between DXcharts and TradingView in two taps without losing focus on the chart itself. Along with the redesigned Home screen and watchlist, this is one of several changes we used the same process for: define a hypothesis, validate it with real users, and keep only the solutions that reduce friction in core trading flows. Conclusion Several focused design decisions produced tangible benefits for brokers and for our own teams: A mobile web app restored reliable mobile access without dependence on app store approvals. A shared color palette and design system reduced inconsistencies and simplified maintenance across mobile web, iOS, and Android. Broker interviews and usability tests replaced assumptions, accelerated decisions, and aligned the team around real usage patterns. In six months, a core team of nine took the mobile web app from concept to launch and aligned it with existing native clients. The unified design system now provides a single visual language across all mobile platforms, making future changes easier to scale. What began as a response to store constraints has become a stable part of the product and a platform for further improvements in mobile trading experience. What’s next Complete migration to the new palette and design system across all platforms. Expand the mobile web feature set to cover more trading and account management scenarios. Deepen the broker feedback loop with ongoing interviews and targeted usability tests.
