Transforming the Equity -IPO Experience
2020-21
Redesigned the NSE EIPO portal to streamline user journeys, resolve confusion from rough screens, and establish a common component library. Also implemented UI governance to ensure consistency, transparency, and efficiency across design and development.
Agency
National Stock Exchange
Wipro, Chennai
Tools
Adobe XD
My Role
Research, UI Design, Governance, Design system
The Ask
The challenge was to: build a scalable, user-friendly, and adaptive digital platform that enhances the entire E-IPO process for the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Our core goal was to minimize manual steps, paperwork, and errors while involving all different users.
Let’s start with a few basics.
Before jumping into the journey, it’s helpful to understand equity IPOs, who is involved, and how regulation shapes their experience.
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About NSE
The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), headquartered in Mumbai and established in 1992, is India’s largest stock exchange. With a reputation for transparency, innovation, and massive daily trading volumes, NSE serves as the principal hub for equity, derivatives, and debt markets, driving the transformation of India’s financial sector.
Equity- IPO ?
An equity IPO (Initial Public Offering) is a company’s debut on the stock market, it’s how a private enterprise offers shares to the public to raise capital for future growth.
Who are we designing for?
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Issuer : The company planning to go public. Eg. Paytm applying for IPO listing.
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Merchant Banker : Financial expert assisting the issuer with IPO filings. Eg. HDFC Bank or ICICI Securities managing the IPO process.
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RTA (Registrar & Transfer Agent) : Agent managing investor records and allotment. Eg. KFin Tech handling share allocation after IPO.
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Admin/Regulator View (NSE) : NSE officials overseeing approvals and flow integrity.
Where SEBI comes in
SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) is the main regulatory authority that approves draft IPO documents and ensures the entire E-IPO process is fair, transparent, and investor-friendly.
Now let’s move into the process
Note: Due to usage and sharing limitations, some original designs are not shown. In such cases, I’ve illustrated or recreated elements (such as the tracker) to visually communicate the idea and design intent.
Understanding Existing Data
I reviewed all available materials: third-party research, user journey videos, and meeting recordings. This enabled me to map user journeys (Issuer, Banker, RTA), clearly spot manual errors, and summarize recurring pain points like paperwork overload and confusing flows.
Challenge #1
Handling hundreds of screens with multiple micro-flows, managing versions and handoffs was starting to get messy.
Solution - a centralized tracker was introduced.
Tracker
It was difficult to keep track of all the progress, whether design or development, in such a large scale project with screen counts ranging above 1600 in one garage, so I worked on a tracker to ensure that the project is well-organized, accountable, and transparent.
Evolved : Teams working, Current progress with design, development and testing.
Several major impacts of it during the project phase one are listed below.
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Track of all design decisions and iterations.
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Gathered all pertinent information in a single, central location.
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Enabled everyone to track the progress.
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Facilitated collaboration
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Eliminated the need for constant meetings and emails.
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Transparency throughout the design process, UI Governance.
Key Screen Designs
For each journey in the E-IPO portal, I created a set of important screens featuring unique components or layouts. These key screens built the foundation for the platform and kickstarted the development process ensuring that every core flow had clear, well-defined visuals and interactions right from the start.
Extension Screen Designs
After finalizing the key screens, I designed all additional screens needed to bridge gaps and handle edge cases in every journey. These extension screens covered in-between steps, error states, confirmations, and uncommon user flows. Designing them ensured the entire E-IPO process was seamless even for outlier scenarios and supported consistency across modules.
Challenge #2
Component duplication across journeys was slowing delivery and introducing visual inconsistencies in the experience.
To address this, design system was established.
Design System
Design System or "our source of truth" for NSE project is a set of pre-designed, reusable components, guidelines, and standards that ensured consistency and efficiency in design and development.
The effects of design system were significant in the project, some of which are listed below :
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It ensured consistent user experiences and streamlined development.
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Reduced design time, ensuring faster implementation with unified designs.
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Improved user experience through accessibility and usability guidelines.
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Positioned for the future, the design system enables scalable growth.
Screen Flow Improvements
While designing, I refined user flows to cut cognitive load, simplify steps, and declutter layouts. I summarized insights and proposed necessary user story updates making the portal truly intuitive.
Screen Designs
Approval Alignment & Developer Handoff
Every screen underwent multi-level approvals (analyst → consultant → NSE). I led feedback collection, tracked sign-offs, and kept the tracker current ensuring all feedback looped into ready-for-dev assets. Working closely with developers, I delivered annotated files, exported design assets, and ran walkthrough sessions ensuring seamless translation from design to build.
UI Governance
Post-handoff, I ran detailed audits comparing developed screens versus design and flagging mismatches (colors, components, alignment). This process maintained consistency and quality, especially with multiple dev teams involved.
Journey Testing
We ran end-to-end testing with clients and scrum teams checking field logic, backend connections, and user flows (like multistep doc uploads) validating that designs worked in the real world.
Impact
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Reduced Errors & Development Time
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Improved User Experience
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Improved Time Efficiency
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Bagged Phase 2 Contract
2025 Data - With the new system in place, NSE supported a growing volume of IPOs, contributing to India’s strong position in the global IPO landscape.
