I agree with Ander and others who say we should take the better elements of some of the trading platforms out there. As far as exchanges go, I really don't think we need to look much further than Poloniex and Bitstamp. As for non-exchange trading sites, BitcoinWisdom and Cryptowatch would be good to look at.
Below are pros and cons for each of these UIs as well as for the Bitshares trading UI. Overall, aside from more liquidity, I believe we need to have a good, solid, trading UI that at least matches every other crypto exchange out there, and is easy to use and navigate. We shouldn't expect to have all the bells and whistles of an mt4, certainly not at this stage of the game. Besides, once Bitshares is more widely used, I'm sure mt4 will add support for the Bitshares API, or another 3rd party will offer something similar to mt4.
Poloniex (
link)
pros:
o comprehensive dashboard (all necessary trade UI elements on one page)
o watchlist
- view last price, 24hr change, 24hr volume
- manage favorite markets
- easily switch between markets right on exchange page
o order book includes columns for running totals of both sides of a pair (e.g. BTC and BTS)
o decent charts
- nice, clean design and smooth operation
- chart period choices are all visible, making it easier to switch between them
- does have indicators, but only a few
o clicking on order book populates price and cumulative number of shares/coins on order book up to clicked price
o night/day mode
o nice overall look and feel
cons:
o poorly laid out - requires scrolling
o horizontal order book should have bid/ask directly next to each other (see Bitstamp)
Bitstamp (
link)
pros:o fits all elements on screen (including depth chart) with no scrolling
o horizontal order book has bid/ask directly next to each other
o chart has drawing and fairly extensive set of indicators
o has trade size indicator bars in order book and trade history
cons:
o order book - only about 10 or 11 rows visible
o chart studies and drawing tools NOT very user friendly
BitcoinWisdom (
link)
pros:
o great looking but simple charts with:
- many indicators
- 4 drawing tools
- chart period choices are all visible, making it easier to switch between them
o order book prominently displays last price between the bids and asks
o has alarms you can set at certain price levels
cons:
o order book:
- doesn't display enough information
- only displays 13 rows deep on each side
o only shows 13 most recent trades (can scroll, but it would be better to see a few more trades at once)
Cryptowat.ch (
link)
similar to BitcoinWisdom but:
o charts have substantially more indicators and drawing tools than BitcoinWisdom
o has depth chart (always visible)
o only shows the last 5 trades in the history
o has more comprehensive alarm/alert management
If one combined the best features from above, they'd have a really decent crypto trading platform. Actually, we're really not far off, and we even have some superior features over the existing crypto exchanges. We just need to fix a few things and add a few others (e.g. add "day mode"). I think it would also be very helpful to create a very simple (non-trader) UI to purchase an asset. It should have 3 inputs: 1) asset to purchase. 2) quantity desired, 3) funds to use for purchase (Coinbase offers this).
Bitshares DEXpros:
o has vertical and horizontal order book options
o displays everything on screen without need for scrolling (except with optional horizontal order book)
o displays more rows in order book than Bitstamp, BitcoinWisdom, and Cryptowatch
o displays more rows in recent trades than BitcoinWisdom and Cryptowatch
o grays out leading zeros, highlights the important remaining digits (this is superior to the others)
o lists favorite markets so user can switch between their views
o clicking on order book populates order form with price and cumulative number of shares/coins on order book up to clicked price (not all exchanges get this right e.g. Bittrex)
cons:
o horizontal order book should have bid/ask directly next to each other (
see Bitstamp)
o must scroll when using horizonatal order book
o display of last price displayed between bid/ask of vertical order book too verbose.
label and units are unnecessary here (
see BitcoinWisdom and Cryptowatch)
o chart has all kinds of issues:
- crosshair is very buggy (
see all 4 others)
- chart period choices not visible making it more difficult to switch between them (
see BitcoinWisdom)
- when expanding chart period choices, they interfere with the VOHLC values (
see BitcoinWisdom)
- width of bars doesn't change as you zoom in/out with zoom slider (
see all 4 others)
- no drawing tools or indicators
o favorite markets: (
see Poloniex)
- on trading page, markets need to display (last price, 24hr change, 24hr volume)
- rows spaced too far apart on both trade page and favorite markets management page
- favorites management is barely usable
o needs "day mode" to complement existing "night mode" (
see Poloniex)