Robinhood 101 is a passion project reimagining how paper trading could become a powerful learning tool for new investors. I designed a demo mode that links directly to real accounts, introduces a reward redemption system, and layers in educational annotations and reports. My goal was to explore how Robinhood could create a safe yet meaningful bridge between learning and real-world investing.
2023.12-2024.01
Individual
Robinhood combines a clear business vision with disciplined design execution, using simplicity as both a brand differentiator and a growth strategy. By aligning product experience with its mission, it has positioned itself as the go-to platform for first-time investors while sustaining rapid user growth.
Robinhood’s user base has grown at a dramatically faster rate than other popular brokers, driven by its low barriers to entry and minimalist design. This steep adoption curve highlights the platform’s success in attracting a new generation of first-time investors.
However, Robinhood’s strategy has historically emphasized rapid growth over structured investor education. Without stronger safeguards and guided learning, the platform risks eroding user trust and losing ground to competitors that offer both powerful tools and educational support.
A 20-year-old Robinhood user tragically took his own life after seeing what he thought was a $730,000 negative balance.
During Our Competitor Analysis, Fidelity consistently ranks highest overall in broker ratings, highlighting trust and reliability.Interactive Brokers (IBKR) is praised for advanced tools and offers a full-featured paper trading simulator, allowing users to test strategies risk-free before committing real money.
These quotes reveal both interest in practice trading and skepticism toward existing models, signaling an unmet need for a solution that bridges safety and realism.
''I wish I could learn how to invest when I got my first internship salary. But it was very hard to begin investing even though Robinhood is pretty easy to use, I'm just afraid I will get an unaffordable loss.''
From my research, I saw a clear gap: new investors want a safe way to learn, but existing paper trading often feels disconnected from reality. Robinhood 101 is my concept for an integrated practice mode — a dedicated portal where users can simulate trades, receive guided tips, and redeem points into real stock rewards, bridging the gap between learning and real investing.
Our strategy is pretty simple - learn more to earn more to invest more.
For traditional brokers, users have to open a separate demo account to try the simulator, new users will never get a sense of the real market, but for Robinhood, simulator session will link with the real account (a hypothetical points earning possibility), points here can be redeemed.
The Portals
Robinhood 101 is introduced through four entry points: the sign-up page, a toast notification on the user profile, a prompt within the investing page, and an invitation after options trading approval. Each touchpoint brings users naturally into 101 without disrupting their regular investing journey.
Annotation Mode
Robinhood Paper Trading mode overlays the original screen with a blue shield, creating a safe demo environment. With annotations turned on, users see key terminology highlighted and receive step-by-step learning notifications, making complex concepts easier to understand.
In my early sketches, I even explored adding a community layer where users could contribute knowledge or activities to earn more points. The core idea was to discover engagement loops that keep users learning and practicing consistently within the app.
Redeem Rewards
The dashboard helps users a central track their learning progress and 101 gains. From here, they can access the redeem session — turning practice earnings into random shares of real stocks, similar to a game-style reward draw, making the transition from learning to real investing both engaging and rewarding.
My first version was overly complex — I overlooked monetization. Visually, I mimicked Robinhood Gold’s palette, which felt more “old money” than youthful. The real goal should be increasing engagement and growth among younger investors, so I refined the system to be simpler, more focused, and better aligned with that audience.
This was a short-term passion project exploring how an experimental learning mode could be integrated into Robinhood’s existing system. I spent most of the time studying Robinhood’s visual language and creating a harmonized style that felt consistent yet distinct. The project ended unfinished due to limited time and resources, but it remains an interesting direction I would refine further if given more opportunities.
