Curia x Benzinga Research
Re-design of Benzinga Research, an educational platform for investors, to show potential partnership to integrate Curia, an independent financial newsletter company.
Role
UX/UI designer
Timeline
Mar 2025
Tools
Figma
PROJECT BRIEF
Benzinga is a leading financial media company that delivers news, market data, and investment tools to its audience. Its educational arm, Benzinga Research, houses products designed to help investors learn and grow.
As part of a collaboration pitch, I partnered with Curia, an emerging financial newsletter startup, to reimagine two key screens within Benzinga Research. The objective was to demonstrate how Curia’s unique content could be seamlessly integrated into the platform—highlighting opportunities to enhance the user experience, showcase added value for Benzinga’s stakeholders, and build excitement around the potential partnership.
MY ROLE
As the sole UX designer on the project, I led the end-to-end redesign of Benzinga Research, a B2C financial platform. I conducted design research into the industry, collaborated closely with Curia’s founder to define and prioritize features, and delivered multiple design iterations.
THE CHALLENGE
How might we showcase Curia’s unique value while enhancing the user experience for Benzinga’s investors?
With only three weeks to prepare, we sprinted to build an understanding of Benzinga, its customers, and competitors, and to highlight Curia’s unique differentiators.
PRODUCT SPRINT
Understanding Curia’s values, advantages, and differentiators
To establish design principles and strategize features to design for, I talked with the founder to understand the defining differentiators of Curia.
Authentic connection with investors
Niche, authoritative content - not Wall Street
Accessibility with a premium feel
Balance of surprise + relevance
Expert driven, story-rich educational analysis
RESEARCH
Where Curia fits in Benzinga Research
Benzinga’s mission is to:
Democratize financial knowledge
Offering diverse content
Creating approachable yet actionable experiences
Trading Education
retail investors
serious beginners
More expensive investment with live college style classes. ~5000/year
Stock/Option Trade Alerts And Picks
DIY traders
intermediate traders
Affordable and accessible - “low effort → high returns”.
Ranges from stock picks only to more comprehensive packages.
Great stepping stone for the more expensive and longer term trading education products.
Model Portfolio and Strategies
beginners
intermediate traders
Watch and learn
Provide the bulk of value upfront.
RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
Design Strategy
Action with Understanding
Stock pick products: Deliver the what to do — actionable trade ideas with entry/exit points and tactical plays.
Curia: Delivers the why — in-depth analysis of company fundamentals, sector trends, and investing philosophies that give context to alerts.
Tiered Opportunities
Integration options include enhancing current offerings with Curia’s educational layer to boost user value and loyalty, or launching it as a standalone premium product for a deeper investor learning experience.
IDEATION
Design Principles
After discussing with Curia’s founder, we aligned on the re-design of Benzinga Research’s dashboard experience for Curia as a standalone product, and one key content screen to highlight the value to users.
Transparency and Authenticity
Emphasizes why behind trades, not just “buy/sell”
Build credibility and long-term trust
Inspire Curiosity
Progressive disclosure alerts first, insights later
Natural complement rather than extra noise
Building Community
Encourage users to return even outside of trade alerts
Designing for long-term relationships, not one-off conversions
Design Scope
After discussing with Curia’s founder, we aligned on the re-design of Benzinga Research’s dashboard experience for Curia as a standalone product, and one key content screen to highlight the value to users.
Dashboard for “Options School”, a current product that offers college style classes for serious beginner investors.
IDEATION - WIREFRAMING
Components for Dashboard
Initial wireframing session with the founder to determine the hierarchy of information to present to users for dashboard and article page design.
Creating new concepts
Dashboard
Welcome section with video
Stock watchlist
Curia’s monthly top stock recommendations
Recommended articles
Forum to connect Curia’s content contributors with users
Article
Content body
Sticky company summary, key statistics, call to action
TL;DR - why buy, when to buy, when to sell
IDEATION
First Iterations
Dashboard design iteration 1
Article page design iteration 1
FINAL DESIGNS
Evaluation and Final Designs
Iterations
Less is More
First design dashboard had a lot going on. To de-clutter the screen, I consolidated stock recommendations into one section and introduced progressive disclosure to keep users curious.
As part of this effort, we moved forum notifications in the sidebar to maintain focused engagement. Although the “Community” tab wasn’t fully designed, we highlighted it as a key strategy for building stronger relationships with investors.
Visual Interest and Delightful Moments
After receiving feedback from the design review, we incorporated more of Benzinga’s brand colors into small elements and visual graphics to maintain design language and increase engagement.
Dashboard design final design
Article page final design
IMPACT AND RESULTS
Presentation That Shifted Perspectives
The C-suite presentation ran nearly twice the planned time, with the CEO describing himself as “humbled”. My designs became a key part of the conversation, helping them re-imagine how their product and communications could evolve. Stepping away from such a big ad focused strategy and into more refined and expert driven relationship with users of their platform was a major shift for their business, sparking internal discussions about structuring.
Though the collaboration didn’t move forward, the meeting proved the strength of our vision and showed how thoughtful design can influence strategy at the highest level.
REACH OUT
2025 Yuxin Ren