Redesigning Autobahn, a global trading platform
DEUTSCHE BANK
Creating a scalable experience for one of the world’s most demanding user groups
Autobahn is Deutsche Bank’s suite of digital trading products and services used by institutional clients and internal trading teams worldwide.
I was tasked with redesigning the Autobahn experience — improving usability, consistency and scalability across a complex ecosystem of trading applications used by professionals in high-pressure environments.
The challenge was not to simplify trading. It was to create clarity within complexity.
The challenge
Professional traders rely on large amounts of information being available instantly. A typical trader workstation consisted of multiple screens displaying numerous applications simultaneously, with each trader customising their workspace according to their own workflow.
The existing experience had evolved organically over time, creating inconsistency across applications and making it harder for users to navigate, prioritise information and discover new functionality.
The challenge was:
How might we improve the experience of a highly complex trading platform without removing the depth and flexibility expert users depend on?
Understanding the users
To understand the real-world context, I spent time observing traders working on the trading floor in Deutsche Bank’s London office.
This helped uncover:
how traders arranged and used multiple applications
which information was critical during decision-making
where existing workflows created friction
which elements could be standardised without disrupting expert behaviour
One of the key insights was that complexity itself was not the problem.
Experienced traders valued sophisticated tools and the ability to personalise their environment. The opportunity was to make complexity easier to navigate.
Designing for expert users
Rather than creating a simplified consumer-style interface, the goal was to design an experience that respected professional workflows.
I focused on:
Creating consistency across applications
I identified the most frequently used Autobahn products — including Charting, Calendar, Trader Commentary and the Launch Bar — and created new design principles that could be applied across the wider platform.
This established a foundation for a more coherent and scalable product ecosystem.
Improving information visibility
Trading environments require users to process important information quickly.
I designed an alert system that surfaced critical messages clearly while avoiding disruption to the trader’s workflow.
The solution provided visibility without interrupting productivity.
Building a scalable design language
The redesigned components and interaction patterns created a framework that could be adopted by other Autobahn applications.
This helped move the platform from individually designed tools towards a more consistent product experience.
Outcome
The redesigned patterns were adopted across additional Autobahn applications, creating a more unified experience across Deutsche Bank’s trading ecosystem.
The project demonstrated how thoughtful product design can improve even the most complex enterprise systems — not by reducing capability, but by making powerful tools easier for experts to use.
Impact
Improved consistency across a global suite of trading applications
Created reusable design principles for future Autobahn products
Reduced friction within complex trader workflows
Helped modernise a mission-critical financial platform
