FUNDS is an app designed for millennials who have poor financial habits. FUNDS allows the user to save money for a goal that they have set within the application. Once the user has set a short term financial goal the app presents them with discounts at places where they already eat and shop. Once the user uses a discount the money that they saved is then applied towards their savings goal. FUNDS also keeps the user aware of their spending habits by presenting them with an infographic of where they are spending their money in a neutral manner. FUNDS is designed to help the user keep a more positive attitude when thinking about their finances.
TIMEFRAME
2 WEEK SPRINT
TEAm
3 UX DESIGNERS
ROLE
UX GENERALIST
TOOLS
SKETCH, INVISION, DOCS
SUMMARY
RESEARCH
PROCESS
SYNTHESIS
ITERATION
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge was to identify an area of opportunity in the offering of a current industry and to design a product to address that painpoint. My team chose to look at the wide array of financial apps. We wanted to create an app that encourages millennials and Gen Z to save money. We hypothesized that by creating an app that tracks users’ budgets and suggest alternative options and deals to save money based on their spending habits, will create a valuable tool for our users as it will allow them to save money without compromising things that they enjoy.
RESEARCH
We interviewed 7 users between the age of 18-28 who described themselves as actively trying to save money.
Our findings:
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Users tried to use an app to track their expenses - Many of these apps show how much the user is making right next to how much the user is spending. This can be discouraging for young users who aren't making a substantial paycheck.
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Lives Paycheck to Paycheck - When the user gets their paycheck they spend in excess until they can no longer do so. They then resort to extreme measures to make their money last until their next paycheck.
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Does not budget - Contrary to our initial hypothesis our user does not and has no future plans to budget.
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Easily Discouraged - Our user is easily discouraged by the topic of money.
SYNTHESIS
With the information from our interviews fresh in our mind, we created our persona, Gary, a hard working grad student trying to enjoy his life while only making a small stipend.
We mapped out Gary’s journey of trying to save up enough money to take a trip with his friends. As Gary has more fun he spends more and more money, until he checks his savings account and then realizes he doesn't have enough money saved up for his trip. From there he resorts to extreme measures to save money and is able to save some money. Our area of opportunity is to help Gary spend in a more consistent pattern so he is able to save and avoid the emotional rollercoaster he’s currently on.
Gary's journey map (click to enlarge)
THE PROBLEM
Gary needs a way to be reminded of his future financial goals because he often compromises them for purchases that bring him momentary satisfaction.
How might we present Gary with alternative experience options that help him meet his financial goals in a positive way?
ITERATION
We conducted competitive research on some apps that might not work for Gary. We found that the other apps fell into 3 categories : budgeting, savings, and expense tracking. A method that most of the savings focused apps use to help their users save money is rounding up a purchase to the nearest dollar and putting their change into a savings account. These apps such as Qapital are effective in helping their users save up for a goal, however they are unappealing to users like Gary who might not have the room in their paychecks to round up their every purchase to the nearest dollar.
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With this in mind we brainstormed concepts that might appeal to Gary. We wanted to tweak this method by creating savings by subtraction. Funds would offer the user various discounts at places to eat and shop. The money that they save is then added to a goal they set.
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We carefully took our users needs and behaviors into mind when prioritizing our features. We used a MoSCoW map to plot which features would have the largest impact on our users in comparison to which ones would take the most effort to develop. The design of this map then sorts your features into four categories must, should, could, and would.
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MoSCoW Map
Our main features
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Goal setting- The user can select a short term goal and its corresponding price, date and image. As they save for the goal a progress bar shows them how close they are to reaching it. We found our user was discouraged by saving for long term goals, so saving for something they can achieve in a few months is a great way to teach them how to start.
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Deals - The user is then presented with deals from places they already shop where they can add the savings towards their goal.
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Spending Awareness- We carefully considered the best way to make our user aware of their savings. We created a spendings page that shows the user a breakdown of their spending by having each circle represent a category. So there would be a circle for food that would grow as Gary spends more and more money on food. This makes Gary aware of his spendings without causing him to feel guilty for spending more than he is earning. Compare this to an app that shows a bar graph of your earnings right next to your spendings, imagine what this might look like for a user like Gary.
TESTING
With these features in mind we conducted a design studio and arrived at a basic concept. We then tested this concept with a paper prototype.
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4 / 4 users tested were able to set a new savings goal
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2 / 4 users were able to use a deal to purchase lunch and apply the money they saved to one of their savings goals
Changes made: We made minor adjustments to the copy, such as changing a button that said ‘submit’ to ‘add to goal’ and adding the words ‘get coupon’ over the QR code
HIGH FIDELITY
For our final screens we wanted to make sure to keep our users focus on their goals as much as possible so the featured image is the user’s goal whenever possible. Our user has very delicate feelings when it comes to their finances. They are likely to give up on their goal if they are discouraged so we wanted to make FUNDS feel as positive as possible.
FINAL THOUGHTS
FUNDS is created for a very specific user with very specific needs. It acts as training wheels, teaching the user how to make healthier financial choices and achieve their short term goals. Showing a user who is easily discouraged by their financial situation that they CAN achieve a short term goal will give them the confidence to move on to larger financial goals that once seemed unattainable to them. In the future this app would be filled with animations and other motivating and positive delight. We would like to add in the option for users to split their savings between multiple goals.
