This is why it’s all about the UX and not the UI. Those in the business of developing front-end trading applications – take note.
You have got to look beyond the graphics and explore the interaction while thinking about avoiding those “fat finger” moments… http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/01/how-a-stray-mouse-click-choked-the-nyse-cost-a-bank-150k.ars
Here at Caplin we are passionate about RIAs and are now seeing a rapid acceleration of client interest in this area, that’s why we are expanding our team in this area.
From the report, this costly mistake seems to have derived from a single maverick developer undertaking an ‘improvement’.
I find it astounding that this sort of change got through.
Given the integrated teams at Caplin combine UX Designers, Developers and Testers we have multiple opportunities for capturing any kind of computer weirdness and verifying our decisions.
In terms of UX this would have been captured way before development even began – through our iterative UX design process. Alarm bells would have been ringing when we sketched out this interaction design. Indeed in most of the single-dealer portals that are based on our Caplin Trader framework, one of the major UI decisions is around ‘UI speedbumps’.
Whilst as a rule we design to remove any awkward interactions in the user’s natural workflow. Sometimes going modal within the UI or using a confirmation message is necessary to make expensive/destructive decisions ‘explicit’ (and so give the trader a way to back out of any fat finger moments).
Following our iterative UX design methodology lets me sleep easier at night especially with the billions of dollars being routed through the UI design – it pays to get it right!
Just had my own (mini) fat fingered moment, I put £25,000 down instead of £2,500 as a dividend payment in my accounts!!! suddenly found I had to pay a whole load of Tax (until I discovered the extra ‘0’) 🙂
i always read newspapers about business news as they provide me info on how to manage my business :*.
the business news these days are great, i guess we are already getting out from recession”,`