Money Morning Live

client: Money Map Press, a B2C Financial Publisher in Baltimore
role: UX Designer

Background

In 2021, Money Map Press, a financial publishing company for 10+ years was getting into a new venture – live trading with a new website called Money Morning Live. They were looking for methods that could be used in conjunction with email marketing to improve their daily viewership, optimize their live trading room pages for each individual publication, and increase signups to their free newsletters.

Discovery

I joined the project shortly after launch and performed a thorough usability audit based on Nielsen Norman Group’s usability heuristics. This included analyzing trader personas and evaluating leading competitor platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, and TastyTrade.

Through detailed site analysis and Google Analytics review, I identified key opportunities to enhance user experience and engagement. I prioritized potential solutions by impact and effort, developed a phased project roadmap, and collaborated with stakeholders to convert the plan into sprint-ready tickets.

The audit highlighted two critical heuristic issues:

Consistency and Standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.
Visibility of System Status: The design should always keep users informed about what is happening through appropriate, timely feedback.

Focus areas were the main Livestream page (nearly 1,000 daily views) and the Rooms page (14% of total site traffic). Additional opportunities existed to strengthen conversion pathways within the company’s established marketing funnel, progressing users from free e-letters to premium subscriptions.

The main menu on the livestream pages changed, depending on which livestream a user was viewing. Each menu featured a different primary logo image (all of which linked to the home stream) and had links to different content.

The rooms page, for example, did not indicate which room pages were streaming.

Definition

The project goals were to:

Improve site navigation and content accessibility
Increase lead generation and conversion through strategic feature gating and targeted calls-to-action

Design

Redesign of Live Trading Rooms:

Unified Navigation: Implemented a consistent top navigation menu across all live rooms, aligned with the rest of the site. This allowed seamless access to global content, the main trading room, subscribed publications, and discoverable unsubscribed publications.

Enhancements to Individual Live Room Pages

Collapsible Sidebar Menu: Added a prominent, collapsible sidebar with the publication logo and hierarchically organized content, enabling users to access exclusive materials, schedules, and portfolio updates without leaving the stream.
Dynamic Video Placeholder: Introduced a clickable element that replaced the video player when not live, directing users to add shows to their calendar.
Prominent Portfolio Display: Positioned the user’s portfolio above the fold for immediate visibility.
Enhanced Show Information Bar: Added a dedicated section below the video with a “Follow” button (triggering an email signup modal for non-subscribers) and an “Add to Calendar” option.

Gated Chat: Restricted access to the free room chat to encourage email signups.

Rooms Page Redesign

I converted the page into a dynamic hub that clearly displayed live status, schedules, subscribed versus unsubscribed rooms, and direct links from unsubscribed rooms to targeted pitch pages with newsletter opt-ins.

Development

I worked closely with developers to define detailed workflows for gated features such as the chat functionality. Recognizing the difference in velocity between design and development, I adopted an incremental design approach.

When external development resources were reduced, I built targeted pitch pages in WordPress to maintain progress. I also conducted evening calls with publishers after market close to efficiently configure individual trading rooms.

Outcomes

The redesign produced measurable improvements in user experience, engagement, and lead generation in areas that previously had little to no conversion activity.

Lead Generation: New email capture mechanisms (gated chat, “Follow” buttons, and pitch-page modals) generated an estimated 80–150 new subscribers per month.
Rooms Page Performance: The redesigned Rooms page saw a ~35% increase in average session duration and a 22% lift in click-through rate to rooms and pitch pages.
Live Room Engagement: Average time on the main Livestream page increased by an estimated 28–40%, supported by better portfolio visibility and scheduling tools.
Navigation & Discovery: Pages-per-session across the live trading section rose by approximately 18%, indicating improved fluidity between shows and content.

These enhancements introduced multiple new conversion touchpoints that previously did not exist, better aligning the platform with Money Map Press’s marketing funnel.

Takeaways

This project reinforced several important lessons:

Nielsen Norman Group heuristics offer an efficient framework for identifying high-impact improvements and gaining stakeholder support.
Aligning UX changes with business objectives—especially lead generation and cross-promotion—delivers measurable results even through incremental updates.
Adaptability is essential; pivoting to lightweight solutions like WordPress pitch pages kept the project on track amid changing resources.
Focused improvements to consistency, system visibility, and conversion paths can meaningfully enhance both user satisfaction and business performance on high-traffic pages.

This experience further developed my ability to balance user-centered design with commercial priorities—a principle I bring to every project.