Mind Over Money

Discover

From start to finish this project was all about our user. In order to better understand what features we needed to include in this app, we had to determine: 

• How do individuals manage their money? 
• What role do finances play in their lives? 
• What emotions come up with finances? 

User Research

We started off by interviewing 6 people to gain a clear understanding of what users need to help with their money management.

Additionally, we conducted a survey that received 62 responses to gather more actionable data.

Lastly, we performed a competitor analysis to better determine what solutions are currently on the market and what they may lack.

Takeaways

Our key interview takeaways were that: 

• Users were overwhelmed by their finances, leading them to avoid thinking about future savings.
• Many people are afraid of unforeseen circumstances due to the inability to allocate money out of savings.
• Existing apps on the market are too complex and do not give tangible ways to save money or help mental attitude towards finance management.

Our survey responses allowed us to gain qualitative and quantitative data from a broader audience than our interviews.

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Our key takeaways from our survey were: 

• 75% of people said that saving for the future was one of their biggest concerns for financial well-being.
• 48% of people say that they have a high level of stress when actively thinking about their finances.
• 25% of people avoid their finances in order to manage stress during stressful financial times.

Define

In order to understand the problem and focus on the development phase we had to understand who our user are and what it is that they need out of our mobile app.

In order to do this we completed the following: 

• User Persona
• Affinity Diagram
• Feature Prioritization Matrix

User Persona

With the various insights and takeaways from our survey and interviews, it was time to create our user persona in order to better understand our target audience.

"I avoid really looking at my finances because I feel like I can't control them"

Affinity Diagram

With this user persona in mind, we looked back at our information gained from our research and grouped it all into an affinity diagram.

Feature Prioritization Matrix

We identified common themes throughout our research and created a feature prioritization matrix in order to identify which features we should focus on in order to address main frustrations and pain points.

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Key Features: 

• Friendly look and feel
• Financial and emotional goal setting
• Wellness activities to help user relax
• Set an intention feature with tangible next steps
• Resources for users to get help when they  need it

With a better idea of which features we would want to include in order to keep users engaged with the app by providing features they would use, it was time to start lo-fidelity wireframes.  

Develop

The development phase is crucial to building an project that actually solves a problem. Without user flows, and lo-fidelity testing, our team would not have any metrics to improve upon.

User Flows

To start this process our team needed to focus directly on what kind steps a user would need to take in order to utilize some of our key features.

We chose three main users flows to focus on: 

• Onboarding flow
• Setting goals
• Checking in on progress

While creating our user flows we were surprised how many times our flows changed as we walked through them, noticing small errors along the way that would have made wire framing much more difficult.

Wire framing

Wireframes were created in order to best visualize how our user flows would function within the app.

User Centric Design

It was often easy to lose track of user-centered design principles while working on this project.

We decided to complete additional user tests, combining our user flows with the our lo-fidelity wireframes to ensure the following: 

• Only features that would matter to users were included.
• Structured information in a way that utilized icons and hierarchies.

Through user testing, completed with an additional 6 participants, our team was able to determine that: 

• Users generally liked the look and feel of our wireframes.
• Some confusion as to what the difference was between a goal and intention.
• Needed to make onboarding more direct.

With lo-fidelity wireframes ready to run, as well as valuable user feedback, our team was ready to move forward with our designs and start hour hi-fidelity prototypes and style guide.

Style Guide

Our team new that our users wanted a brand that is gentle and encouraging. We created our style guide that focused on relaxing colors that helped make the app approachable. We included avatars that we hope encourage the user throughout their journey. With our typography we wanted to set the user at ease while also eluding a sense of professionalism.

Hi-Fidelity User Testing

We created a hi-fidelity prototype of our mobile app within 3 weeks. In order to maintain a lens specifically focused on the user, we conducted additional user testing with our hi-fidelity prototype.  

We conducted five additional user tests focused primarily on setting an intention and then checking on progress.

Our metrics of success would be for users to navigate through these user tests, with little to no lag time when completing tasks.

Additionally we wanted to track the overall experience of the app and asked users to select their satisfaction level after testing.

Findings 

The usability tests offered valuable insights on how users would navigate through the prototype.

In relation to our team's metric of success, we found: 

• Users responded positively to the look, layout, and feel of the app.
• All users were able to navigate through the user test without lag.
• All users rated the design's purpose and ease of use at least 4 out of 5.

Conclusion and Reflection

We created a hi-fidelity prototype of our mobile app within 3 weeks that we believe solves the issue that many people have when facing their finances.

I learned an incredible amount about being a UX/UI designer from this project. Working with a diverse team was extremely beneficial and allowed me to gain experience as both a researcher and designer, finding myself in lead roles for many parts of this project.

This project allowed me to be more creative with how to link finances with emotions. A difficult line that needed to be drawn was with traditional financial apps. While Mind over Money tracks goals, we did not want to wade into the waters of analyzing all of a users personal finances.

Throughout this project I was able to practice managing a project's schedule, how to make elements and brand items, and how be open minded when it comes to iterating after testing. Overall, this project has inspired me to be a more versatile, passionate, and creative UX/UI designer.

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