From sign-up to first trade, in one continuous flow

The form isn't the problem. The experience around it is.

A user has created their login. The product now needs to get them to finish the trading application, fund the account and place a first trade. The brief asked for more than a form: how the product gets someone to take each step, what it says before and after, and how it earns enough trust for someone to connect a bank account.

An AI-assisted process, with a designer in charge

With only four hours, I used AI to get to a complete first draft quickly, then spent most of my time judging, cutting and refining. The Figma file keeps that history visible: the original AI-generated flow is preserved as it was first generated, followed by my iterations and final flow.

1. Audit

   Walked the current app end to end and sorted every field and prompt from 37 screenshots.

   Designer
2. First draft

   Generated a complete end-to-end flow with AI, then annotated what worked and what didn't.

   AI-generated
3. Iterate

   Explored variants for identity, agreements and funding, comparing them side by side.

   AI + designer
4. Refine

   Chose the final flow, wrote the trust copy, and built the components and reward visual.

   Designer

37 screens, sorted into four verdicts

I mapped the existing flow, from the welcome screen through account creation, identity, employment, agreements, market data and funding. Then I sorted every field, prompt and screen by whether it was really needed to open and fund an account.

Key takeaways

1. Move suitability questions (experience, income, net worth, objective) out of the deposit path, and ask at margin or options upgrade.
2. Fold market data into the account agreements, so the checklist drops from 4 steps to 3.
3. Cut friction screens: confirm password, the scroll gate, the forced agreement tap, and "all set" dead ends.
4. Hold the notification prompt and the AI assistant intro until after the account is open.
5. Prefill or derive what we can: tax residency, employer country, source of funds and address fields.

Regulatory needs vary by account type, so every verdict was marked to validate with Clear Street compliance.

Getting to a full flow fast

The first end-to-end flow came from AI, kept as generated, with my annotations. It set the structure the final design kept: Get started → Verify identity → Agree & open → Fund & first trade.

Exploring variants, then choosing

I explored identity verification with segmented progress, a form style, minimal pagination and a plain deposit step. For funding, I tried a new visual style, a separate payment-method step and a conversational pattern. The conversational pattern won: one question at a time, with tappable answers that stack as you go.

One continuous path to a funded account

The final happy path is a single, conversational flow with a 4-segment progress bar. Every money moment says what happens next and when.

Step 1

Create account

Email and password only, with a show/hide toggle instead of a confirm-password field. Native sign-up replaces the web-auth system prompt that read like a security warning.

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Step 2

Verify identity

Scanning an ID prefills name, date of birth and address, replacing about five typed screens with one review. The SSN screen carries the strongest trust copy. Employment asks one question at a time, and employer fields appear only when they apply.

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Step 3

Agree & open

A one-tap market data question replaces a 10-question professional status survey. One agreement screen covers the account and market data, each with a plain-language summary. While the account opens, the app asks to link a bank, so the wait isn't wasted.

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Step 4

Fund & first trade

Preset amounts, clear fees by payment method, and a review screen that says exactly when the money is available to trade and when it settles.

A home screen that always names the next step

The setup checklist is the re-entry point. It shows the same screen at each stage, ticks off finished steps, and changes the button to name the next action. A free-stock version ties the deposit to a reward and counts down the time left.