A finance app designed to help you save money and effortlessly track expenses. With the ability to analyze spending habits, you can set savings goals, monitor expenses, and gain insights about your financial habits.
The problem
Users don’t have enough real-time financial insights about their ongoing expenses, which leads to unwanted expenses.
There are not enough available resources that can educate users about how to improve their financial habits.
Most of the available financial tools are not easy to use, and require technological/financial knowledge.
Financial advise is usually given as a general tip, and not customized to the user, which might be irrelevant of not useful.
Research
When I was researching finance tools, I explored a variety of apps across different fields, to get a comprehensive understanding of existing features and functionalities, and various interfaces.
The goals of the research were to:
• Understand the market trends and user needs
• Identify the target users
• Identify competitors; evaluate their strengths and weaknesses
• Understand user's experience with other finance tools
• Discover the goals, motivations and frustrations of saving apps
Market Research
To learn more about market trends and demographics in the financial industry, I began by conducting market research using Google.
This research allowed me to enhance my knowledge and address any gaps, which helped me make more informed design decisions moving forward.
Here are some of the key insights I uncovered:
Competitive Analysis
Acorns
Acorns is a financial app that helps people invest and save money by automatically rounding up purchases made on linked credit or debit cards.
Strengths
• Automatically invests spare change • Setting specific financial goals • Educational content available
Weaknesses
• No real-time financial tracking tools • No diversity in investment strategies • No personalized financial planning • Basic financial literacy content.
Qapital
Qapital is a financial app designed to help users save money, budget, and invest by using customizable goals and rules.
Strengths
• Automated investing feature • Rounds up purchases • Ability to create Team Goals
Weaknesses
• Lack the real-time tracking features • No credit score tracking • Lacks direct approach to saving and investing
Digit
The Digit app is a financial tool that helps users save money automatically and invest toward their financial goals.
Strengths
• Automated savings feature • Users can set multiple savings goals • Long-term goals investments • Daily updates on your account balance
Weaknesses
• Can't transfer savings between goals • Can only link one checking account • Investment options are very basic • Not enough educational resources
User Interviews
In order to better understand about the user need, main pain points and the common use cases, I recruited 8 participants which included two types of users: Users that have been using other financial saving apps and users that have tried to save money independently
I focused on asking questions about their current experiences, to learn as much as possible about the users and their financial challenges.
Empathy Map
User Behavior and Habits
Many users may report that they save irregularly, often depending on how much disposable income they have each month.
Users may express difficulty in balancing savings goals with impulse purchases, especially when saving feels like a lower priority compared to spending on immediate wants.
Some users may prefer automated savings features, where the app sets aside a percentage of income without their active involvement, while others want more control over when and how much they save.
Challenges and Pain Points
Users may mention they find it hard to stay motivated to save money, especially when savings goals seem far away or abstract.
Some users could struggle with tracking how close they are to their savings goals or understanding where their money is going in the app.
Users might report that they often dip into savings due to unexpected expenses, like car repairs or medical bills, which disrupts their saving efforts.
Interviewees might mention confusion with financial terminology or features within the app, causing frustration or hesitation in using it.
User Persona
Based on the user interviews and competitive research, I’ve learned a lot about the user, and translated the insights I’ve gained into user persona.
Research findings
After gathering the insights from the user questionnaires and analyzing the information from my research, I gained a more comprehensive understanding of the problem, the user need, the common behavior patterns, and the pain points.
Main insights
Brainstorming
I brainstormed to understand from the questionnaire and from the insights I gathered what is the best solution for the problem that the project came to solve. I collected all the ideas, answers, conclusions and insights from the research and wrote everything that came to my mind to make the process more accurate.
Project Goals
Create a personalized experience for the user
Access to various educational information
Creating a reliable and motivational experience
Solution
Prospr provides various saving solutions as well as educational resources for the user. Personal tips and real-time financial tracking tools offers users the opportunity of reaching their goals and building a healthier financial behavior.
APP Map
This application map is meant to organize the screens in a way that would be logical and intuitive for the user.
First Time User / Onboarding Flow
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Using my research and understanding of the kinds of users and their goals, pain points and needs, I designed the app’s screens by first sketching low-fidelity wireframes.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Home
Saving Goals
Saving Tips
Budget
Visual Design
Using my research and my wireframing sketches I created my final screens. In my work, I wanted to improve the features existing in the market, to solve pain points of various users and also keep interface up-to-date.
Main Screens
The home screen presents a general picture and an overall view of spendings, expenses and savings.
Presenting upcoming goals as well as long term ones, enabling the user to focus and optimize goals.
Budget tips will show financial saving tips according to your budget, as general tips will present tips that can be relevant to anyone.
The Budget page helps users stay in control of their spendings and limit or organize their spendings according to their financial ability.
