PROJECT DURATION: 6 months; February 2024 - July 2024
PLATFORM: iOS
TOOLS: Figma, Google Forms, Google Docs, Google Meet, Notion
PLATFORM: iOS
TOOLS: Figma, Google Forms, Google Docs, Google Meet, Notion
The challenge
Managing personal finances is difficult for many people. According to recent research, a third of Americans have more credit card debt than savings, and another third don't have enough savings for three months' worth of expenses. So the challenge is to create a digital solution that simplifies financial management, helps pay off loans faster, and builds emergency savings effortlessly.
Managing personal finances is difficult for many people. According to recent research, a third of Americans have more credit card debt than savings, and another third don't have enough savings for three months' worth of expenses. So the challenge is to create a digital solution that simplifies financial management, helps pay off loans faster, and builds emergency savings effortlessly.
Solution
A mobile app that helps with budgeting and effortless expense tracking by syncing with online banking, making it easier to save money and work towards financial goals.
A mobile app that helps with budgeting and effortless expense tracking by syncing with online banking, making it easier to save money and work towards financial goals.
My roles
UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
UX Researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
Empathize:
• User research
• Personas
• User story
• User journey map
• Personas
• User story
• User journey map
User research
Interview goals
1. I want to understand common challenges people face when managing money and making a budget.
2. I want to identify frustrations people experience during money management and budget making.
1. I want to understand common challenges people face when managing money and making a budget.
2. I want to identify frustrations people experience during money management and budget making.
Target participant characteristics
• Ages 18–65
• Live in metropolitan or suburban areas
• People who work and have income
• People who use online banking and bank cards
• Include participants of different genders
• Include participants with disabilities
• Ages 18–65
• Live in metropolitan or suburban areas
• People who work and have income
• People who use online banking and bank cards
• Include participants of different genders
• Include participants with disabilities
Interview questions
1. How do you manage your finances? Do you use any financial management tools?
2. Have you ever made a budget? If so, what was your motivation?
3. What challenges do you face in the budget process? How do these challenges make you feel?
4. How do you think these challenges could be resolved?
1. How do you manage your finances? Do you use any financial management tools?
2. Have you ever made a budget? If so, what was your motivation?
3. What challenges do you face in the budget process? How do these challenges make you feel?
4. How do you think these challenges could be resolved?
Conducting user interview
Key takeaways
1. People seek order in their finances because it gives them a sense of control over the situation and 🧘♀️ peace of mind.
2. It is crucial to achieve financial stability. To maintain control over money, people must establish a well-organized system to stay on top of their finances.
1. People seek order in their finances because it gives them a sense of control over the situation and 🧘♀️ peace of mind.
2. It is crucial to achieve financial stability. To maintain control over money, people must establish a well-organized system to stay on top of their finances.
Personas
After analyzing user interviews and identifying user groups, I created personas to get a sense of who the users are and what drives them.
Meet Rebecca, remote English teacher and single mother, who needs careful money management to ensure the safety and well-being of herself and her daughter.
Meet Kevin, freelance senior software engineer, who wants to save up quickly and effortlessly for a year off to travel the world.
User story
Rebecca R.
As a single mother, I want to keep a careful record of my expenses to successfully accumulate a financial safety cushion for me and the child.
As a single mother, I want to keep a careful record of my expenses to successfully accumulate a financial safety cushion for me and the child.
Kevin I.
As a young, adventurous man planning a year-long trip around the world, I aim to organize my finances efficiently to save up a sufficient amount of money quickly and easily.
As a young, adventurous man planning a year-long trip around the world, I aim to organize my finances efficiently to save up a sufficient amount of money quickly and easily.
User journey map
I crafted a user journey map based on personas and user stories. The user journey map illustrates the steps a user takes to achieve their goals and helps identify where they might encounter challenges with the product. It's a valuable tool for identifying user pain points and finding opportunities to improve designs.
User journey map
Define:
• Problem statement
• Hypothesis statement
• Value propositions
• Hypothesis statement
• Value propositions
As I moved into the define phase, I used my empathy work to answer these key questions:
1. What are the most critical needs or issues of my users that my design should address?
2. How can my design effectively and uniquely address these needs or problems, delivering value to users?
1. What are the most critical needs or issues of my users that my design should address?
2. How can my design effectively and uniquely address these needs or problems, delivering value to users?
Problem statement
Kevin is a young, busy, and adventurous man, gearing up for a year-long trip around the world. However, he lacks the time and discipline to manage his finances and save effectively. He requires a simple tool to streamline his finances, making it easy for him to save up quickly for the trip.
Hypothesis statement
If the finance manager app will be track Kevin’s spendings automatically by synchronizing with online banking, then he will have order in his finances and will be able to make solid savings effortlessly.
Value propositions
Based on the problem statement and hypothesis statement, I crafted the value propositions.
1. The personal financial manager app enables automatic expense tracking by synchronizing with online banking, eliminating the need for users to manually track their expenses daily. This feature facilitates quick and easy organization of financial affairs, helping users achieve their financial goals efficiently.
2. The personal finance manager is a mobile application that enables expense tracking by category, budget planning, goal setting, and progress tracking towards those goals.
1. The personal financial manager app enables automatic expense tracking by synchronizing with online banking, eliminating the need for users to manually track their expenses daily. This feature facilitates quick and easy organization of financial affairs, helping users achieve their financial goals efficiently.
2. The personal finance manager is a mobile application that enables expense tracking by category, budget planning, goal setting, and progress tracking towards those goals.
Ideation:
• Goal statement
• Competitive audit
• Competitive audit
Goal statement
The Finance Manager app will let users to manage money, which will affect busy people by automatically tracking expenses by syncing with online banking. I will measure effectiveness by comparing planned financial goals and actually achieved ones.
Competitive audit
The goal of the competitive audit is to compare the expense tracking and budgeting experience offered by each competitor's app and identify any limitations in meeting users' needs.
Competitive audit
Key takeaways
After analyzing the three largest competitors in the market, I reached the following conclusions. INAB stands out as a powerful financial management tool capable of delivering significant results. However, its main drawbacks include excessive complexity and the need for a lot of time and effort to master it. Goodbudget offers a significant benefit with its report generation feature, but it lacks synchronization with online banking and requires manual transaction entry. PocketGuard provides automatic expense tracking, but the weakness lies in its limited compatibility with financial institutions. Therefore, I believe that my Finance Manager app should find a balance, offering both powerful functionality and ease of use. Additionally, integrating visual reports into the app can provide users with valuable insights and motivation to progress towards their financial goals.
After analyzing the three largest competitors in the market, I reached the following conclusions. INAB stands out as a powerful financial management tool capable of delivering significant results. However, its main drawbacks include excessive complexity and the need for a lot of time and effort to master it. Goodbudget offers a significant benefit with its report generation feature, but it lacks synchronization with online banking and requires manual transaction entry. PocketGuard provides automatic expense tracking, but the weakness lies in its limited compatibility with financial institutions. Therefore, I believe that my Finance Manager app should find a balance, offering both powerful functionality and ease of use. Additionally, integrating visual reports into the app can provide users with valuable insights and motivation to progress towards their financial goals.
Prototype:
• User flow
• Wireframe sketches
• Lo-Fi wireframes
• Lo-Fi prototype
• Wireframe sketches
• Lo-Fi wireframes
• Lo-Fi prototype
User flow
I crafted the user flow to understand how users will move through the Finance Manager app and complete tasks from start to finish.
Wireframe sketches
Drawing quick low fidelity user-interface wireframes.
Wireframe sketches
Lo-Fi wireframes
Low-fidelity user-interface wireframes crafted in Figma.
Low-fidelity wireframes
Lo-Fi prototype
I created an interactive low fidelity prototype from wireframes for further usability testing.
Test:
• UX research
• Affinity diagram
• Making insights from observations
• Improving Lo-Fi wireframes with insights
• Affinity diagram
• Making insights from observations
• Improving Lo-Fi wireframes with insights
UX research
The primary goal of this UX research is to evaluate the usability of the Finance Manager app prototype by assessing if users can successfully complete core tasks and determining overall ease of use. Key areas of focus include the accessibility of the "Add bank account" feature, the user flow for adding new expenses, identifying potential user difficulties, and gathering feedback on desired additional features.
To achieve these objectives, I conducted a moderated usability study involving participants aged 18-65 who actively manage their finances. This study was conducted remotely in Poland and included a series of prompts designed to evaluate specific tasks within the app. Results were measured against key performance indicators such as time on task, conversion rates, and the System Usability Scale (SUS), providing valuable insights for enhancing the app's user experience.
Affinity diagram
To synthesize and organize data gathered from the usability study, I created an affinity diagram by sorting sticky notes into groups based on themes.
An affinity diagram
💡 Insights
Next, I reviewed the affinity groups of sticky notes and identified actionable insights.
Insight 1
Based on the observation that the bank synchronization button is difficult to find for almost all users, an insight is: Users need a more intuitive way to access the bank synch functionality.
Insight 2
Based on the observation that most users track expenses on the go, an insight is: Users need a faster way to add a new expense without having to go through multiple steps.
Insight 3
Based on the observation that most users have similar budgets from month to month, an insight is: Users need a functionality to automatically repeat the budget without the need to create a new budget from scratch each month.
Improving Lo-Fi wireframes
Applying insights gathered from usability testing, I refined the low-fidelity wireframes to enhance the design.
Improving lo-fi wireframes
High-fidelity design:
• Visual design
• Reflections
• Reflections
Visual design
I created high-fidelity mockups that prioritize user experience through carefully selected colors, typography, and icons, ensuring both functionality and visual appeal.
Final high-fidelity mockups
Reflections
In my initial UI/UX case study, I focused on designing a mobile version of Finance Manager. Building on this experience, my next objective is to develop a website version. This upcoming case study will feature high-fidelity prototypes and user testing, illustrating the evolution of Finance Manager's design across diverse platforms.
Throughout this journey, I discovered that people highly value financial organization for its ability to provide control and peace of mind. Consistently tracking expenses proves challenging due to forgetfulness, highlighting the critical need for intuitive money management tools. During user testing, issues with locating bank synchronization and managing expenses surfaced. Addressing these findings, I refined screens and user flows to improve overall usability.
Another significant insight was the demand for automated budget repetition, streamlining monthly budgeting processes.
These discoveries have profoundly influenced my approach, reinforcing the importance of user-centric design and iterative enhancements to deliver a cohesive financial management experience.