Project
Overview
Market research has found that there are many financial planning applications available, but users are still unable to achieve their financial planning goals. From interviews with all 5 users and survey results, it was found that users have not yet found an application that is easy to use and meets their needs.
Most people are unable to save or plan their finances due to insufficient income for expenses, making financial planning difficult. In addition, there is no motivation to save money as well.
The challenge of this project is how to make the app easy to use and not put pressure on users to save money that would affect their quality of life.
Background
43% of people considering a financial resolution said that saving more money was one of their main goals. (Fidelity survey,2022)
Even though there are plenty of money-saving applications, why people are still not aware of how important of savings are.
I am interested to find out the reason why people do not like to use the apps to plan their savings, and why they are not able to reach their savings goals.
Summary of primary research
and synthesis
70 responses Survey Summary
Only 5.8% scale 5 from 5 satisfied with savings situation right now
77% think money-saving apps/websites or financial planning apps/websites would work for them
Interview findings
People like to set up short goals or upcoming goals.
They try not to overspend each month.
People like tools that are easy and not complicated to use.
Mainly used for spending tracking and checking the account balance.
Insights
“Expenses are more than income”
"Living month by month"
"I don't even have money left to save"
"I look up the spending records but do not really change my spending differently"
"I'm too busy to track my spending"
"I don't like to be forced to save"
"Unexpected expenses always happen"
POV statements and HMW questions
I would like to explore ways to help salaried employees/salary persons, who receive a fixed amount of pay every month, to feel like they could save money their way and have money enough to effort their lifestyles because they don’t like to be forced or convinced to save money if they cannot spend what they want.
POV statements
How might we help salaried employees/salary persons, who receive a fixed amount of pay every month, to feel like they could save money their way and have money enough to effort their lifestyles without feeling forced or convinced to save money?
HMW questions
Personas
Story Board
Site Map
User Flows
Wireframes
Low Fidelity
UI Component
High Fidelity
Prototype
Usability Testing
5 participants
Goal
I would like to make sure that people can use the task flows with ease, They could create
savings goals and put the spending record easily. The highlight is hoped they would be satisfied
with the auto spending planning function.
The task flows
How to create savings goals (to answer How might we encourage people of all ages who want to save money, to achieve their realistic goals without feeling unmotivated and giving up on the savings?
How to create the spending records (to answer How might we help salaried employees/salary persons, who receive a fixed amount of pay every month, to feel like they could save money their way and have money enough to effort their lifestyles without feeling forced or convinced to save money?
How to plan your spending with the options of spending plan (to answer How might we help people with a busy schedule, to feel like they could spend money in the right way and only on necessary things and don’t have to worry about shorting money before the end of the month without spending so much time on putting the spending records manually?
Success measurement
Tasks completion
No errors or fewer errors.
Easy to use.
Test Results
Analyzing Test Results
What worked
UI design is nice and comfortable, not feeling too stressed and solid.
UI design is not too overwhelming.
Task 2, creating saving goals, is a very easy and a good idea to plan the savings by giving savings options such as daily, weekly, or monthly.
The auto spending planning is very impressive and interesting.
User suggestions
Should make it clear about adding your spending, some users don’t realize that ‘+’ button is the adding button.
Should put ‘add your spending’ on the HOMEPAGE and make it more outstanding.
Should change the word from ‘details’ to ‘note’
Plan your spending is the hardest function to find, should make it more visible.
Iteration
Make Plan your spending more visible by changing the ‘Categories icon’ to be ‘Plan icon’
The user can go to ‘Plan’ on the main menu bar and be able to ‘Plan your spending’ from there.
Make ‘Adding your spending’ to be more visible by putting it on the homepage.
Should change the word from ‘details’ to ‘note’
Success metrics
Task 2 is the most successful and all users love it.
Task 3 failed but users love the idea, just need to make it clearer.
Task 1 is in the middle, but still needs some changes for reducing confusion.
Next steps
I will keep the UI design style and stay consistent.
I will change the way to add your spending to be easier and clearer to find by moving to the homepage.
I will change the icon of ‘Categories’ to ‘Plan’