Project Overview
Robinhood makes financial services accessible to everyone by allowing people to trade stocks without paying any commissions and set up an account with no account minimum. The company’s iPhone, Android and Apple Watch apps have taken an archaic, data-intensive system and simplified it into a user-friendly, elegant, mobile trading platform that takes it to the big brokers in a way not done before.
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Robinhood
Project Brief
The traditional method of trading stocks is expensive and cumbersome. Enter Robinhood, which is flipping the old-school brokerage on its head by allowing people to trade stocks for free and with no account minimum. Robinhood is doing all of this while keeping user experience and exquisite design at the forefront.
Robinhood has been recognized by Apple and a number of design and tech editors for the ease by which it allows customers to trade stocks from their office, home, or anywhere they desire.
In the end it’s really a simple concept: Erase the antiquated charge most brokerages dole out and democratize access to one of our nation’s most successful asset classes. Through simple and attractive design, the app has engaged hundreds of thousands of people who would have otherwise been too intimidated by even the thought of trading. Robinhood’s iPhone and Apple Watch apps also recently won an Apple Design Award in June.
Project Need
The co-founders of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, became friends at Stanford after meeting at a physics summer program. After graduation, they moved to New York where they built two trading companies for hedge funds, and while doing so realized that institutional investors could access markets for far cheaper than the public.
They immediately thought that was wrong. It seemed as ridiculous as paying $7-10 to send an email, as trading stocks is a purely electronic transaction nowadays. The duo headed back to California driven to right this wrong.
Following the financial crisis, distrust in Wall Street had never been higher and Vlad and Baiju wanted to build a financial services company that people could not only trust, but one that was built by people who understand the mobile generation/climate.
Traditional brokerages have not kept up with current tech, and the majority haven’t even been updated since the ’80s. They continue to use legacy technology, paper-based accounting and their mobile products are thoughtlessly transplanted from their desktop products. Thus Vlad and Baiju founded Robinhood, an app that allows anyone, anywhere to trade as they wish, without being tethered to archaic trading fees.
User Experience
When building its apps, Robinhood sought to not only do away with the arbitrary commissions charged by traditional brokerage firms, but they wanted to drastically update the way people interfaced with and viewed stock trading. Knowing the elimination of account minimums would draw many first-time investors to its app, Robinhood ensured the on-board experience catered to these users while familiarizing all users with the app’s unique mobile trading experience. Before they sign up, users are invited to try out a simulated stock trade, allowing them to learn Robinhood’s signature swipe-to-trade animation.
Once inside the app, Robinhood’s interface is dead simple. The app’s home screen displays the performance of the user’s portfolio, and buying and selling stocks is similar to managing your inbox thanks to the app’s use of taps and swipes. Robinhood also embraces color to display market hours and market moves in a clear, distinct way (e.g., white background while markets are open, black background when closed).
This attractive and straightforward design allows everyone from the experienced day trader to the first-time novice to trade as when and where they would like. This is truly the future of trading, as people move to unburden themselves from trading fees.
Project Marketing
Robinhood utilizes its top-quality product, as well as active waitlists to help drum up interest. It told people when the app would be launching, and allowed people to sign up ahead of time to get access to the app. This way consumers are allowed the opportunity to get the product the moment it's available and also get receive continual updates along the way.
This helped to establish a loyal following of users who are proud to be a part of the Robinhood family.
Project Privacy
Robinhood employs an incredible team of engineers and designers from some of the top companies in the world such as Palantir, Facebook and Oracle. Robinhood’s compliance team is led by a former E*Trade executive, and the team combined has more than 50 years of industry experience.
As evinced by this stellar team, security is critical to Robinhood. The company realizes there is zero room for error. It is working to exceed industry best practices and ensure everything is securely encrypted using SSL encryption. Customers’ bank username and password, or any tokens, are never cached or stored on the company’s servers.
Robinhood is a registered member of FINRA, the SEC and a member of the SIPC, which protect its customers up to $500,000. For added security, the app requires customers to insert a PIN code or their fingerprint Touch ID to log into the app.
FinTech
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