Collaborative account opening

Designing a clearer onboarding experience for both domestic financial clients and financial advisors while onboarding investment accounts.

Company: Morgan Stanley '

Role: UX Designer

Timeline: 3 months

Team: Product manager, engineers, compliance stakeholders

Responsibilities: User research, journey mapping, interaction design, high-fidelity prototyping

The Context

Opening an investment account is a high-stakes process involving regulatory requirements, financial disclosures, and multi-step documentation.

At Morgan Stanley, this process was heavily dependent on financial advisors guiding clients through a manual onboarding—creating inefficiencies for both sides.

I was tasked with digitizing this experience to better support independent client completion while reducing advisor overhead.

The problem

The existing onboarding experience created friction at multiple points:

  • Clients encountered complex financial and legal terminology too early

  • The process was long, manual, and difficult to complete in one session, often times had paperwork sent back

  • Advisors were frequently required to step in and guide users manually on phone

  • Errors in submissions led to rework and delays in account creation

This resulted in a system that didn’t scale well and increased operational burden.

Constraints

Designing in a financial environment introduced important constraints:

  • Regulatory requirements limited how content could be simplified

  • Compliance approval was required for any changes to financial language

  • Existing backend workflows restricted how data could be structured

  • The experience had to support both clients and financial advisors

These constraints required balancing usability with accuracy and legal clarity.

Objective

Design a more intuitive and flexible onboarding experience that:

  • Helps users navigate complex financial inputs with confidence

  • Reduces drop-off in multi-step flows

  • Enables asynchronous completion

  • Minimizes advisor intervention without removing necessary oversight

Research

To better understand the existing onboarding process, I conducted Two qualitative research sessions with multiple financial advisors from Morgan Stanley and recent hirers from Merrill Lynch who regularly helped clients open accounts.

Research questions:

  • Roles and responsibilities?

  • Where do clients get stuck in the onboarding process?

  • Which steps require the most advisor assistance?

  • What causes clients to abandon the flow?

  • If you were a client would you understand this language?

Key insights:

  • Insight 1: Complexity introduced too early

    Users were asked to complete regulatory and financial disclosures before understanding the broader process.

    • This created early confusion and hesitation

  • Insight 2: Advisors filled UX gaps

    Advisors frequently acted as interpreters of the product, explaining terminology and guiding users through unclear steps.

    • The product was not self-sufficient

  • Insight 3: Uncertainty led to abandonment

    When users didn’t understand a question or lacked information, they often exited rather than continued.

    • The flow lacked recovery and flexibility

User journey

Design Principles

From my research insights, I defined three guiding principles:

1. Sequence for confidence

Structure the flow to build momentum before introducing complexity

2. Guide without interrupting

Provide contextual help without breaking the user’s flow

3. Support non-linear Completion

Allow users to pause, resume, and complete tasks asynchronously

Designs

Key design decisions

  • 1. Reordering the Onboarding Flow

    I restructured the experience to prioritize simple, high-confidence inputs first, delaying more complex financial questions.

    This helped users build momentum and better understand the process before encountering difficult steps.

    Why it mattered:
    Reducing early cognitive load increased the likelihood that users would continue deeper into the flow.

  • 2. Contextual Guidance for Financial Terminology

    I introduced tooltips and inline helper text for complex terms such as net worth and regulatory disclosures.

    Instead of overwhelming users upfront, guidance appeared only when needed.

    Why it mattered:
    This reduced confusion while preserving the integrity of required financial language.

  • 3. Save and Resume Functionality

    I designed a system that allowed users to save progress and return later, acknowledging that onboarding often requires gathering information.

    Why it mattered:
    This removed the pressure to complete everything in one session and supported real-world user behavior.

  • 4. Improving Flow Transparency

    I introduced clearer progress indicators and step organization to help users understand where they were in the process.

    Why it mattered:
    Reducing ambiguity helped users feel more in control and less likely to abandon the flow.

Design artifacts

Throughout the project I created several artifacts to guide the design and development process:

  • User journey maps of the onboarding experience

  • Flow diagrams mapping the account creation process

  • Interaction designs for key onboarding steps

  • High-fidelity prototypes used for engineering handoff

These prototypes were shared with product and engineering teams to support implementation.

Prototype

Outcome

The redesigned onboarding experience improved both usability and operational efficiency:

  • Reduced friction across complex, multi-step onboarding flows

  • Improved clarity of financial and regulatory inputs

  • Enabled more clients to complete onboarding independently

  • Decreased reliance on financial advisors for guidance

  • Streamlined the account creation workflow

Final designs were delivered through high-fidelity prototypes and interaction specifications, enabling efficient implementation by engineering.

Edge Cases & System Thinking

Because this was a collaborative onboarding experience, I accounted for scenarios such as:

  • Collaborators not accepting invitations

  • Users with non-standard financial situations (e.g., students, retirees)

  • Incorrect or incomplete submissions

  • Temporary or non-permanent address inputs

Designing for these cases ensured the system remained resilient and prevented stalled applications.

Reflection

This project highlighted that complexity in financial products isn’t just unavoidable, and that complexity must be intentionally managed. Rather than removing complexity, I focused on sequencing and contextualizing it, allowing users to build understanding progressively. This shift transformed the onboarding experience from something users needed help to complete into something they could navigate with confidence.

Confidentially note

Due to confidentially agreements with Morgan Stanley Product visuals have been removed or simplified.

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