Prospectus
Financial empowerment through literacy and management.
Project Overview
Duration
20 Weeks
Role
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Figma
Lucid Chart
Adobe Photoshop
Responsibilites
User interviews
Conducting usability studies
Wireframing
Low and high-fidelity prototyping
Competitive analysis
Responsive Design
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Figma
Lucid Chart
Adobe Photoshop
Responsibilites
User interviews
Conducting usability studies
Wireframing
Low and high-fidelity prototyping
Competitive analysis
Responsive Design
Lucid Chart
Adobe Photoshop
User interviews
Conducting usability studies
Wireframing
Low and high-fidelity prototyping
Competitive analysis
Responsive Design
The Problem
Young adults move on from K-12 education with little to no knowledge of finances or financial management. This can lead to potentially serious pitfalls when they start to face budgeting, debt, and loan navigation.
The Goal
Design an application that will improve financial education and serve as a comprehensive financial management tool.
The Solution
Prospectus: an application/website whose primary target users include young adults entering the workforce and/or higher education that are concerned with understanding and managing their finances. Prospectus will offer financial education in a variety of areas while serving as a tool to easily manage and track finances.
Design an application that will improve financial education and serve as a comprehensive financial management tool.
The Solution
Prospectus: an application/website whose primary target users include young adults entering the workforce and/or higher education that are concerned with understanding and managing their finances. Prospectus will offer financial education in a variety of areas while serving as a tool to easily manage and track finances.
Understanding the user I surveyed young adults (18-25 years of age) about their financial knowledge. Most participants reported limited knowledge of financial management topics including; credit scores, interest rates, and loan structures. In addition, participants also reported not knowing where to
find information on those subjects.
The feedback received through the research revealed that users lacked the necessary knowledge for financial management and were not successful in their attempts to discover that knowledge.
User Persona & Problem Statement
Brandon is an incoming university freshman who needs help understanding and managing their finances as they start taking on student loans.
Competitive Analysis
Comparison of 4 popular applications offering financial management and education.
Starting the Design
Ideation
Before starting my initial designs, I did a quick ideation exercise to create features that would address gaps discovered in the competitive analysis. The opportunities I wanted to focus on were financial education and spending.
Digital Wireframes
After ideating and drafting some sketches, I created the initial designs for Prospectus. I wanted to focus on delivering the financial literacy features to help educate users.
Low-Fidelity Prototype: TIL Feature
Usability Study Findings
Upon completing my digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype that was used to conduct an unmoderated usability study with 5 participants.
Negative
Users did not understand the amortization calculator and how to use it.
Some participants mentioned they would prefer examples over pure definitions in the TIL feature.
Findings
Postitive
Users liked the TIL feature and understood how to use it.
Users preferred data visualization (charts, graphs).
Users preferred the ability to navigate transaction history.
Improving the design
Mockups
Based on insights from the usability study, I removed certain features and redesigned others, such as providing examples to accompany definitions in the TIL feature and applying data visualization in the Savings Plans feature.
Refined Designs
High fidelity Prototype
This high fidelity prototype demonstrates user flow and reflects changes made after the usability study.
You can view the Prospectus app prototype here.
Responsive Design
Sitemap
With the app designs in their final stages, I began designing the responsive website for Prospectus. To start, I created a sitemap that would serve to structure and organize each screen’s design. Doing so would help to deliver a consistent experience across devices.
Responsive Designs
I designed for desktop, tablet, and mobile screen size variations while making sure specific user needs were met throughout
Desktop
Tablet
Mobile
Takeaways & Going forward
Impact
User responses indicated that the app would be beneficial towards financial literacy and keeping track of their money. One user responded, “I like the idea of creating a saving plan goal for something I want to buy but don’t need”.
Next Steps
What I learned
While designing the app I learned that the problem I was trying to solve was large and complex. Going through the design process step-by-step to break the problem down let me identify specific user needs and points of pain. I was able to create simple and effective solutions as a result.
1. Usability Studies
Conduct additional usability studies to verify that user pain points have been addressed effectively
2. Research
Conduct additional user research to identify any existing gaps and discover any new areas of need.
3. Gamification
Explore gamification as a way to provide incentives and rewards for users successfully engaging with a feature. (Ex. learning new terms, completing a saving plan)