Open Social
A social network for retail investors inside the Otkritie Broker mobile app. Investors share ideas about specific securities and follow authors, tickers, and hashtags. An author's profile shows their portfolio, returns, and number of trades, so an opinion does not have to be taken on faith. Newcomers get a short onboarding and learning stories right after they open an account.
Product and context
Open is a social network for retail investors built into the Otkritie Broker mobile app. An investor posts an idea about a security, discusses market news in the comments, and follows authors, tickers, and hashtags. All of it happens inside the broker, next to their account and portfolio, not in a third-party channel.
The main difference from a regular social network is that every author has a verified trading history. The profile shows the portfolio they manage, their returns, and how many trades they have made. That gives readers a reason to trust an opinion, and gives authors a reason to keep their profile going.
- Role
- Senior Product Designer
- Company
- Otkritie Broker
- Contribution
- Research · UX design · UI design · Content & education
- Platform
- Mobile app (iOS)
- Period
- 2020 — 2021
Profile, feed, and post
The product rests on three screens: the author profile, a feed for a hashtag or ticker, and a single post with its discussion.
- Analytics on the profile, not just followersPortfolio, returns, and trade count come from the brokerage account. Portfolio size is shown as a range ("from 3,000,000 ₽"), not an exact amount: readers see the author's scale, and authors do not expose their money.
- Follow securities, not only peopleThe Following block collects the tickers an investor cares about (SBER, GAZ, MEGA). A hashtag like #USD can be followed too, so every post on the topic lands in one feed.
- Tickers inside the textA security is mentioned with a dollar sign:
$AAPL,$GAZ. The mention becomes a link, and cards for the mentioned securities with their price change appear under the post header. One post can be tagged with several tickers. - Familiar social mechanicsLikes and dislikes, reposts marked "reposted", and replies in comments. The comment field has quick
$and@buttons to mention a security or a person without hunting on the keyboard.
Onboarding and the first post
An empty feed is the biggest risk for a new social network. So onboarding immediately collects what the feed is built from, and leads the person to their first post.
- Picking securities as bubblesIssuers appear as circles with logos: Gazprom, Sberbank, VTB, PIK Group, and others. It takes a couple of taps, and the feed is full of posts about those securities from the first visit. The step can be skipped.
- An avatar without effortPick one of the ready-made avatars or upload a photo. A profile without a picture looks empty and gets read less.
- Post composerA post can hold text, hashtags, a link with a preview, and a photo. Above the keyboard there are buttons for a ticker, a mention, an image, and a hashtag.
Learning stories for newcomers
Right after opening a brokerage account, a person gets a series of short stories. They explain where to start and lead to the first action in the app.
Each story has one idea and one button: "Learn more" or "Top up". The suggested start is simple: an exchange-traded fund, blue chips, government bonds, a top-up from 5,000 rubles. Like, dislike, and bookmark at the bottom show which topics newcomers understand and which ones need rewriting.
Returns as part of the profile
For promo materials and covers, I built a visual language around one idea: investors in the network are recognized by their avatar and their returns. Top authors stand out in color and size, the rest blend into the background.