Risk-Free Rate
Benchmarking, redesigned.

• 01 · The brief

The brief.

The brief: redesign a benchmarking platform for risk-free rates — SOFR, SONIA, ESTR, the post-LIBOR landscape — without dumbing it down. The existing surface had grown by accretion over years; the operations it supported were faster than the screens.

• 02 · Context

Context.

Risk-free-rate benchmarking is a domain where the user is more expert than the designer. The product's job is to remove friction from work the analyst already knows how to do, not to “guide” them. Patronising chrome destroys trust here faster than anywhere else.

The user base spans quants, traders, and risk analysts — each with different speeds and tolerances. A senior analyst will not read a tooltip; a junior will not improvise a query. The same screen has to serve both.

• 03 · The approach

The approach.

We reframed the redesign around three operations the user does daily: pull a rate by tenor, compare a quote against a benchmark, and export a packaged view to a colleague or system. Everything else became secondary chrome.

The visual language uses high-density tables, monospace numerals, and a strict colour grammar for status (above benchmark, on, below). Charts are stripped of decoration; every pixel earns its place.

• 04 · What we shipped

What we shipped.

• Reference rate browser — filterable by curve, tenor, source, date range.
• Comparison view — quote vs. benchmark, with delta and confidence.
• Term structure visualisation — minimum chrome, maximum signal.
• Export pipeline — CSV, PDF, and a permalinked snapshot.

• 05 · Outcome

What changed.

Time-to-quote dropped meaningfully on the redesigned flow. The visual language gave junior analysts an on-ramp without taking shortcuts away from senior users. The same screens scale from a back-of-envelope check to a detailed comparison.