MoneyTalks
This design project introduces MoneyTalks, an educational financial app designed to help individuals with limited financial knowledge build healthy habits and achieve their life goals.
Research Methodology
The goal of this research study is to examine how life goals and relationships impact finances, addressing questions on goal connection, planning and motivation, and the role of long-term partners in personal finances.
Competitive Analysis
In today's saturated market, identifying gaps is crucial. I leverage reliable online sources and trusted platforms to gain insights into financial frustrations, and conduct thorough evaluations of competitors to understand their approaches to addressing these challenges.
User Interviews
Recognizing the gap in financial education, I conducted user interviews to identify the key factors for developing sound financial habits and the essential educational components for achieving financial stability.
User Interviews
After conducting general secondary research, I found that the main difference between mid to high income individuals versus low income individuals was the level of financial education. For this reason, I interviewed adults in their 20s & 30s with mid to high income to understand the drivers and education involved in building wealth early in adulthood.
6 interviews
Demographics: Mid to High Income
Location: Online over Zoom
Duration: 30 - 45 minutes
Interview Questions
Prior to conducting my interviews, I drafted a set of questions aimed at exploring how participants' life goals were connected to their financial planning. These questions focused on understanding their processes and motivations for building financial plans and their level of education on personal finance.
What are some of your life goals you currently have?
How are you saving / planning on paying for these experiences?
With this plan how much time do you think it will take for you to achieve this goal?
What are some thing that you currently struggle with in your current plan?
Are there any big life goals that you have already reached / accomplished?
What was that goal?
How long did it take you to reach this goal?
What was your original plan for this life goal? How long did you originally plan for this goal to take?
How did the actual execution of that experience differ from you plan?
How do you go about setting a goal for yourself? What is your process?
When you set a goal for yourself, how do you keep yourself motivated towards that goal?
Do you use any financial apps?
If Yes: Which apps do you use? What do you like about these apps? What do you dislike about these apps?
If No: Why do you not use these financial apps? How do you manage your finances?
Do you use any lifestyle / fitness apps?
If Yes: Which apps do you use? What do you like about these apps? What do you dislike about these apps?
If No: Why do you not use these apps?
Are you in a relationship?
If Yes: Have you merged your finances with your partner?
If yes: Tell me about your experience and how that was for you?
If no: What is keeping you from merging your finances with your partner?
If No: When you meet your potential life-long partner, how do you see this future person playing into your life goals? How do you see this potential future person playing into your life financially?
Raw Interview Notes
Although these sessions were recorded online, I also took handwritten notes, paying special attention to interesting comments, body language, and tone of voice. These detailed notes proved invaluable when identifying commonalities among interviewees and constructing my user interview synthesis.
User Interview Synthesis
After conducting 6 user interviews that explored the habits, education, and motivation behind those interested in personal wealth, I pulled some of the most interesting pieces of my conversations and found patterns in tone, expression, and wording between different participants. From there I was able to group these findings into six overall topics that consistently made appearances as seen in the affinity map below.
Competitive Analysis
Understanding the saturation of the financial applications market, I decided to conduct a thorough competitive analysis. My goal was to identify overlooked user segments, grasp the prevailing design standards, and evaluate the promotion of financial education within the industry. I focused on both direct competitors—personal finance applications—and lifestyle applications centered on habit building. By examining these diverse applications, I aimed to uncover opportunities for innovation and improvement in financial app design and user experience.
Direct Competitors: NerdWallet, Copilot, & HoneyDue
Lifestyle Applications: MyFitnessPal & Way of Life
Findings
I evaluated each application based on the features that resonated most in my user interviews. During my assessment, I discovered that most financial apps were heavily data-driven but lacked depth in areas like impact, education, habit building, and goal orientation. In short, these applications were so focused on data that they overlooked the human element.
Research Themes
After conducting the above research methods, I analyzed my findings holistically, searching for patterns and themes. I evaluated the data through the lens of what makes a financial application successful in today's market, aiming to identify key insights that could drive innovation and improve user experience.
Trust in Financial Apps
Users' trust in financial apps is hindered by biased content and inconsistent information.
Education and Financial Fear
Financial education plays a crucial role; higher education correlates with users' willingness to diversify assets and take financial risks.
Tracking System Preferences
Users prefer tracking systems with detailed information, automation, adaptability, and community support for goal accomplishment.
Economic Distrust and Financial Goals
Economic struggles have led to a lack of trust in achieving financial goals, causing uncertainty about attainability.
Family and Partnership Motivations
Financial goals are often motivated by family and partnerships, with a desire for independent control over individual finances.
TL;DR
Current financial apps often neglect users' life goals and relationships, creating high entry barriers through complex educational requirements and additional costs.
Define User Needs Using Research
Using the themes found during my research phase I created four personas demonstrating the wide range of potential end users and their financial concerns and which helped to center my design thinking by considering the different goals that users may have. From this I was able to create a problem statement in the form of a Job to Be Done.
Job To Be Done
Empower users by fostering financial literacy and enabling them to achieve their aspirations.
Phase I: Ideation
After identifying the Job to Be Done, which served as my guiding principle throughout the design process, I began ideating key features that would help users achieve their goals. I then organized the information architecture of the system to ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience.
Features
When assessing the Job to Be Done, I established that the end goal for users was to achieve their desired financial objectives. With this insight, I ideated mechanisms that would seamlessly integrate into users' daily lives, providing motivation and education. This led to the construction of three main features designed to simplify and enhance the user experience.
Easy Goal Setting
Allow user to consciously think about future goals in relation to their personal finances.
Step-by-Step Plans
Based on goal setting MoneyTalk breaks down goals into easy step-by-step instructions preventing users from feeling overwhelmed and ensure healthy money habits.
Gamification
Unique Feature
MoneyTalks not only empowers users to reach their financial goals but also transforms the experience into an exciting adventure.
User Journey Map
Recognizing that these mechanisms would only be effective if users could easily navigate them, I designed a comprehensive user flow to map how each element would interact. By viewing the entire user experience holistically, I ensured that users could effortlessly set goals, contribute to their various funds, and find continuous motivation to build lasting financial habits.
Phase II: Designing the Product
After the ideation phase, I transitioned to creating visual designs through an iterative process, developing low, mid, and high-fidelity wireframes. After each wireframe iteration, I conducted evaluations with other designers and potential users. Feedback from these evaluations informed the subsequent wireframe versions. This phase focused on translating feature ideas and information architecture into a refined, trusted final product.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
In my low-fidelity wireframes, I focused on breaking down and outlining the essential elements for each feature established during the ideation phase. I also mapped out the user journey for setting goals and determining the information needed to decide if a financial plan was right for them. This initial stage laid the groundwork for a user-centered design that effectively addresses their needs and goals.
Mental Note Models
Creating low-fidelity wireframes helped me identify the essential components, leading me to incorporate mental note models into my design. I utilized limited choice, variable rewards, and appropriate challenges to establish effective mechanisms for product success.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
With the mental note models established, I proceeded to build mid-fidelity wireframes that visualized these concepts through layout and input forms, bringing the design principles to life.
Heuristic Evaluation Key Takeaways
After completing the wireframes, I conducted a full heuristic evaluation using Shneiderman's Eight Golden Rules, uncovering concerns about user memory load. To address this, I proposed several solutions:
Add interaction tooltips to prompt user action
Reduce the number of screens and the information displayed to prevent overload
Enhance content organization to alleviate short-term memory strain
Prototype
Ultimately, I incorporated the second and third solutions from my heuristic evaluation into my high-fidelity prototype. My goal was to balance gaming and financial experiences, resulting in an improved user interface with enhanced layout, visuals, and structured information. I then conducted usability testing with this prototype before finalizing the design.
User Testing Key Takeaways
Understanding the importance of user feedback, I employed think-aloud user testing, where users provided real-time thoughts and feedback while navigating the application. I followed each session with targeted questions to delve deeper into their concerns. This process revealed several key issues that I addressed before finalizing the design.
In-App Upgrades
To address user distrust of third-party connections, the final version allows only in-app upgrades. This ensures a secure and seamless experience, fostering user trust.
Location-Based Goals
I adjusted the sign-up process to include user location. This makes financial plans more personalized and relevant.
Streamlined Architecture
I improved the information architecture by combining relevant content. This reduces the number of screens without creating information overload.
Improved Accessibility
To address accessibility concerns on the Explore Plan page, I adjusted the color scheme and ensured compliance with an accessibility checker. This enhances usability for all users.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Each feature is meticulously designed to address user feedback and incorporate best practices in usability and accessibility. The following breakdown provides a comprehensive look at the finalized design elements, showcasing how they work together to create a cohesive and intuitive financial planning application.
Easy Goal Setting
Easy goal setting helps users understand the market they currently live in and uses the users account data to help users understand what they can afford, and how their purchases may effect their current lifestyle.
Step-by-Step Plans
Users can decide the level of difficulty their potential plans are and MoneyTalks provides them with step by step instructions on what to do every step of the way in order to make complex financial journeys simple.
Gamification
Celebrations, completion bars, and in-app upgrades gamify the experience in order to encourage and motivate users by giving them small steps that they can celebrate.
Presentation Deck
This presentation deck was continuously edited and built upon during the design process. I utilized this deck when going through design critiques and showing unfinished design work. This final version of the presentation deck is a culmination of the full design process as my final design presentation.
Reflection
Exploratory Industry Insight
This project exemplifies my proficiency in delving into unfamiliar industries and areas through extensive research. The majority of my time dedicated to this endeavor was invested in the research phase, aiming to thoroughly comprehend user interests. In a subsequent iteration with enhanced resources, I aspire to delve into this from the perspective of a financial advisor. Exploring their advisory processes and gaining insights into their perspectives on applications like this would be a compelling avenue to pursue.
Financial Edventure
Establishing a unique identity for this product among personal finance applications proved challenging. User interviews revealed diverse user needs and a saturated market. Focusing on designing for demographics with limited financial expertise, while maintaining a broad financial education approach, became pivotal. The application's essence lies not just in its target demographic but in fostering a continual journey of financial education.