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Case Study ✷ 02 of 03

Designing first impressions for Addepar dashboards

Audience
B2B
Role
Content Designer
Team
1 Product Manager, 1 Product Designer, 7 Developers
Timeline
March 2023 to October 2023
Tools
Figma, FigJam

Context

Addepar builds tools that help financial businesses make smarter investment decisions. I joined right before the closed beta of our new Dashboards product.

Challenge

How can we make sure the Dashboards product feels easy and approachable from the very first use?

Solution

Craft clear, simple, and supportive product copy to guide users and reduce friction.

✷ Content auditing

The original modal was hard to scan. I simplified the title, replaced jargon ("run period") with clearer language ("time period"), and added a tooltip to reduce confusion and help advisors move forward with confidence.

Before and after comparison of the dashboard creation modal. Before: titled 'Dashboard Details' with a 'Run Period' field. After: titled 'Create dashboard' with a 'Time period' field and an added tooltip explaining the default period.

This same audit was applied across every modal, empty state, and settings panel in the product, not just this one example.

FigJam board showing the full scope of the content audit across dashboard restates, edit mode, create dashboard modal, and empty states, marked ready for dev.
✷ Empty states

Created empty states as valuable onboarding touchpoints. Aligned content with advisor needs and directed them toward the actions required to generate content.

Before and after of the empty Dashboards list page. Before: plain 'No results to show' message. After: friendly 'No dashboards to show' with supporting copy and a Learn more link. Before and after of a new, unpopulated dashboard. Before: no guidance. After: 'No data to show' with a prompt to start adding and formatting widgets.
✷ Product naming

Dashboards use widgets, visualizations such as charts, tables, and key metrics. Because the team hadn't aligned on a name for this object, I facilitated a stakeholder naming workshop to finalize the terminology.

Widget naming update document showing the recommended term 'Widget,' rationale for the choice, and a comparison table scoring Widget, Element, Card, and Tile against six criteria.
✷ Information architecture

We wanted to figure out how to organize settings in the edit panel. I ran card sorting workshops with different firms to see how financial advisors would group these settings. Advisors consistently sorted the settings into two groups: data and format. But they couldn't understand or sort calculation related settings. We brought this insight to the Calculations team. While updating those settings wasn't part of this project, it's now on our roadmap.

Card sorting exercise board with bar chart setting cards being organized into six labeled folders by workshop participants.
✷ Settings

Number widgets surface a single data point, such as a firm's total AUM, and let advisors compare it to a past value to show how it has changed. My challenge was to name this comparison setting in the fewest words while keeping the meaning clear.

Before

Before: dashboard number widget settings panel with a 'Compare with' checkbox buried under a Configuration section.

After

After: dashboard number widget settings panel with a clearer 'Show change over time' setting and simplified Change over time options.

Outcome

The Dashboards product is in closed beta with 50 participating firms. Every firm has created at least one dashboard, with an average of three per firm. Feedback has been positive, especially around ease of use and the value it brings to key stakeholders.

"Just got off the phone with Firm 406, our largest SFO in LatAm. They love Dashboards, mentioning it's easy to use and will help the Principal and Investment Committee use Addepar more effectively. They especially liked the 'show change over time' setting in the text widget. FYI: this feature was a key factor in securing a 3-year renewal with a price increase."