Plottool Pro
Designing a powerful tool for time series data visualization
TIMELINE
PLATFORM
20 months
Web
TYPE
Enterprise
TAGS
Interaction Design, Design Systems
Context
Designing the most popular tool on the Goldman Sachs trading floor
Plottool Pro is a data visualization tool that enables portfolio managers and traders to run deep analysis (ex. backtesting) using Goldman Sachs’ extensive proprietary datasets.
It was an unique challenge as our user base was highly technical but very small, and yet expected a powerful toolset. Quantitative metrics were less useful since our customers expected bespoke solutions, so it was harder to reliably use generalized user data to make decisions. Instead I leaned on shadowing and interfacing directly with users to deeply understand their needs.
During my time I worked on building out various features that improve productivity and collaboration. A selection of my projects are featured below:
If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch!
Multiplot — Multiplot enables users to create more complex strategies by supporting up to 4 visualizations at once, supercharging productivity. This was a complex project to design as I had to balance legibility, performance and workflow considerations. Building this feature required design updates to nearly every part of the app to ensure scalability and interoperability.
Expression Editor Autocomplete — An essential piece in any IDE is code completion via autocomplete. In this work we enabled users to facet their autocomplete search and lock to specific asset categories, fully accessible via keyboard controls to accelerate workflows.
Annotations — This feature came from observing users painstakingly switch back and forth to Powerpoint to draw arrows and annotations on their plots before sharing with colleagues. We built in this functionality directly into Plottool and were able to streamline workflows as well as capturing valuable commentary directly on our platform.
Advanced Data Visualization Guidelines — Expanding beyond just time series analysis, I created a design system to accommodate 9 other types of data visualizations and included guidance for visual, interaction and technical standards.
Plottool Gallery — A way for users to access templates shared by other contributors (usually within an org) as well as a large surface area for the GS team to merchandise featured content, app updates and broader market views.
