A feature-add to help users with their personal finances
CLIENT
Ellevest (hypothetical)
MY ROLE
UX/UI designer
TIME
8 weeks
TOOLS
Figma, Google Forms, Photoshop, Illustrator, Maze
Background
Women control $11 trillion worth of investable assets in the US. Ellevest was created to harness that market opportunity by empowering women to meet their money goals. Currently, Ellevest is growing at a rate of about 10% a month, due to it’s commitment to customized products geared toward women based on their specific investment goals. Currently Ellevest has a focus on investment, but has begun breaking into the banking realm. Ellevest sees an opportunity to expand customized features into their banking products by adding a feature that helps women meet their financial goals.
The Challenge
To identify and create the optimal new personal finance feature for Ellevest app; that is useful, usable and desirable
Project Goals
Identify: Find what type of feature would be the most usable and needed for users in the market.
Create: Design the feature keeping within current brand standards.
Test: Make sure users are able to navigate and use the feature and make changes if necessary.
01. Research
Secondary Research
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
User Survey
Competitive Analysis
I looked at direct competitors in the online banking landscape and compared available products and features. Indirect competitors include apps that focus more on one or two feature sets, and a big bank that includes brick and mortar. I was interested in how they acheived some of the features that weren’t usually seen in some of the more direct competitors. Also, I wanted to see what the big bank offered shows what features most people expect out of an established bank.
Takeaway: Saving for the future or trouble-shooting for today
By looking at the types of features the competitors offered, there emerged two different audience segments:
- People that are interested in future savings (features like savings with interest or automated, investing, CDs)
- Customers geared more toward problem-solving for today (features like overdraft protection and notification, cash advances, and budgeting).
This lead to three feature directions to research:
Budget tracking
Chase has a rudimentary manual budgeting feature, more like a basic spreadsheet, that isn’t very intuitive or easy. Apps like Empower and Dave were the only ones studied that had an auto-budgeting feature, in which you could set budget limits for different categories and they would distribute each transaction automatically and chart your progress.
Goal creation
In this analysis, there is only one bank (Ally) and one stand-alone app (Digit) that offers multiple goal categories within a savings account. This type of goal setting is already familiar for the Ellevest customer, since they offer goal-directed investing.
Trouble-shooting features
Things like overdraft protection, more notifications, cash advances, etc.
From there, I employed user interviews and a user survey to find the one area of greatest need.
I utilized user interivews to find out thoughts and feelings behind money management (and to dig into the ‘why’), as well as an online survey to obtain a data-driven consensus on the greatest needs, problems, and insights into app usage among potential users.
User Online Survey
36 responses
35 women, 1 gender non-conforming
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78% were age 18-35
19% were age 36-45
3% were age 56-70
User Interviews
3 participants, all women age 33-41
Economic uncertainty creating specific financial worries
With the current global economic uncertainty, people have a lot to worry about financially. Most people mentioned specific scenarios as their biggest financial worry; unexpected medical bills, emergencies, student loans, and job loss. People think of their money needs in terms of specific situations, not in a general way, and should be able to save for each of those accordingly
Savings for peace of mind
The biggest financial motivation for all user participants was to save more money. Savings was mentioned by all three interviewees, and was the most important money management goal for survey respondants—with 66% prioritizing “finding ways to save more money” over “finding ways to cut spending” (17%), and over “having financial safe-guards” (12%).
Opportunity in the market for solutions to save more money
There are many solutions in the marketplace for budgeting, but interviewees expressed unfamiliarity with apps directed at increasing liquid savings: 9 out of 11 money management app owners have the app for budgeting; 2 had investing apps; zero respondants had a savings-directed app.
Not 100% automated
Survey respondants were evenly split on wanting money management totally manual or totally hands off, with the majority wanting something right in the middle. One interviewee mentioned that fully automated budgeting apps categorized transactions incorrectly most of the time, and it was more trouble than it was worth. There is still a desire for control, customization, and personalization within the automated service space.
02. Define
Persona
Audit of Competitive User Flows
User Flows
Research defined that the user needed savings to anticipate specific needs - this will be accomplished with a Savings Goals feature
I distilled and compiled my research findings to create a persona for empathy-building and a touchstone for staying user-centered throughout the process.
Audit of existing flows in the marketplace
I did an audit of the flows of two competitors with similar savings goals features, to see what works well and what doesn't, keeping in mind my persona and her needs.
Intro necessary
Savings goals need an explainer or introduction.
The flow audit brought up questions to answer
Will the savings goals be listed in the Accounts (home screen), or only within the Savings screen?
Need to think about how the savings goals can link to the other Ellevest accounts.
Too many options and choices make flows difficult
The Ally system is difficult, with too many options and choices. Confusing to require users to go back and forth to the Savings screens to fully set up.
The lack of defined goal amounts make achieving goals never-ending
The lack of defined goal amounts in the Ally system makes small goals seem never-ending. Nosense of satisfaction when a goal is hit.
After determining the importance of saving money for our user, and studying competitors' features and flows, I created two user flows:
1. current customer who is interested in savings goals but who isn't familiar with them
2. current customer who has already created goals and wants to adjust or edit a goal.
03. Ideate
Sketching
Wireframes
I started by reviewing my user flows and studying Ellevest's patterns and hierarchies, so my design will fit seamlessly within the system. I ideated different ways the flow could lay out, then I created the wireframes to create a Savings Goal, along with the look of the Savings Screen after a goal has been created.
Check out the Figma file for more notes and ideation within the lo-fi wireframes:
04. Visual Design
Visual patterns research
Icon creation
High-fidelty wireframes
Visual patterns research
To fit my design seamlessly into Ellevest's current app, I wanted to study their current visual design elements and patterns, to see how I can create a cohesive design.
Icon creation
To make a delightful experience, I wanted fun and illustrative icons for the user to assign to their goals. These icons would also create instant visual distinguishing between each of the goals.
High fidelity screens
I finished my UI and created all the necessary screens for the prototype. The task flow I completed is: Create a Savings Goal and a savings plan for the goal.
05. Testing & Iteration
Prototype
Testing
Changes & Final
Prototype & testing
I recruited twelve testers who all fit the persona: women 18-40 who use mobile banking apps. I tested them on two tasks: create a savings goal, and create a savings plan for that goal.
All 12 participants were able to complete the tasks.
9 participants felt the tasks were generally easy----2 participants said neutral----one participant gave the level of ease for the Create a Savings Goal task less than a neutral score.
75% of respondents did not understand the difference between Recurring Deposits and Intuitive Savings.
- Intuitive savings may need more education within the app, since it is generally an unfamiliar concept. If that isn't enough, users just may not need that particular aspect.
75% of respondents said they would use this Savings Goal feature