A personal finance app designed to educate financially illiterate young adults.
What is my idea?
My Role
Managing finances can be overwhelming, especially without a strong understanding. Being financially illiterate can result in making poor financial decisions that can be costly for years to come. Having easily accessible resources can help a person make smart decisions and improve their quality of life.
UX Research, UX Design, UI Design
Timeline
Oct 2021- April 2022
Problem Statement
The majority of young Americans are financially illiterate. Studies show only 16% of millennials understand basic financial topics. Americans aged 18-29 owe over $1T in debt as of 2019, and with Covid that number is expected to go even higher.
Hypothesis
A mobile app that analyzes users' finances, provide customized tips and advice, and uses personal finance as educational materials will help young adults gain interest and knowledge in financial subjects, enabling them to make smart financial decisions.
Secondary Research
Secondary Data
Young adults in America today have poor financial literacy. The research shows:
83.6%
83.6% of U.S. students
are NOT required to take a personal finance class in school.
76% of Millennials lack basic financial knowledge.
70% of Millennials are stressed and anxious about saving for retirement.
Four out of five adults say they were never given the opportunity to learn about personal finance."
Competitive Analysis
Intuit Mint
YNAB
Simplifi by quiken
Strength
- No monthly fee
- Connects bank accounts and credit card accounts
- Manual account entries
- Customizable subcategories
- Easy to set up
- Regular credit score updates
- Designed to help get out of debt
- Offers educational tools and free workshops
- Provides personal customer support
- Allows budgeting for future months
- Includes in-depth features
- Fairly easy to use
- Respected company in the finance industry
- Low monthly fee ($3.99)
- Customizable main and subcategories
- Includes a shopping refund tracker
- Monthly fee is high
- Budget system is complicated to learn
- Manual accounts are supported
- Only available to U.S. residents
Weakness
- Can only set a budget for the current month
- Focuses more on tracking money than on helping save money
- Main category not customizable
Indirect Competitors
The three biggest companies in this field provide services to help individuals manage and track their finances.
Most of these services automatically track and analyze users' finances for their convenience.
Through this research, I have found that there are no direct competitors in this field. Existing services handle tasks for users without focusing on simultaneous education. This presents an opportunity to address a significant gap where young adults need the most help.
Personas
I created personas based on my demographic research, identifying two distinct user types.
Informational Architecture
To ensure flawless and easy navigation for financially literate users, I have revised the Information Architecture several times, and this is the final structure.
User Stories, User Flows, Sketches, Wireframes
Interesting Finding
People overestimate their financial literacy regardless of their social status.
One survey question asked participants to rate their perceived level of financial literacy.
Comparing their responses to the preset data points in the quiz revealed that many participants are not as financially literate as they believe.
Interesting Finding
- Participants understand the importance of financial literacy.
- Finance is perceived as a challenging subject.
- They believe they manage their personal finances well but remain open to advice.
- They lose interest if financial information is not relatable.
Key Findings
86% believed they are
financially literate
80% chose incorrect answers
80%
20%
86%
14%
Primary Research
Surveys and Interviews
Financially Literate
Incorrect
The main objective of usability testing was to find out how users interact with the features and discover how easy they can navigate the product. A total of 5 people have tested via zoom with shared screens.
Key Issue
- Dashboard was not reading clearly.
- Excessive information about sub-features on the dashboard, leading to confusion.
- Some UI elements were causing confusion, for example, some had gradients, some were white etc.
- Revised colors and made the appearance of cards cohesive.
- Rearranged and minimized elements related to sub features.
Key Issue
- The page shows too many previews, occupying excessive space and requiring scrolling to view more featured items.
- The "level" selection feature was not prominent.
Solution
- Revised the layout by placing featured articles/videos/podcasts at the top of the page and highlighting them in bold to establish a clear hierarchy.
- Enhanced the prominence and cohesion of the level selection by converting it into a dropdown menu, consistent with other pages.
Key Issue
- The page shows too many previews, occupying excessive space and requiring scrolling to view more featured items.
- The "level" selection feature was not prominent.
Solution
- Designed a dashboard for the "Reports" page to display all in one page.
- Renamed the title from "Analysis" to "Reports" for clarity.
- Enlarged the icons in the bottom menu by removing the enclosed shape around them.
1.
2.
Usability Testing
Solution
Final Pages
Takeaways
Design Process
- Know the user, and be in their shoes.
- Allow more time to know the user and their thoughts, without any assumptions.
- Repeat the step of usability testing and iterations as much as needed.
This Industry
- There are great products available and young adults are already using them
- No product offers education material, especially using user’s finance
- There is a white space for educating young adults to become financially savvy.
Next Steps for “My Budget”
1.
Offer more advanced features as well as more basic features for broader users
2.
Continue to guide them using their personal finances as an educational resource to keep them interested.
3.
Offer more features
to attract young adults with gamification or collaborations with products that users are big fans of.
Wireframes
