FinAmi
FinAmi allows users to find stocks and funds that fit their investing interests and financial capabilities. It helps users to make smart investment decisions without the need of professional knowledge or conducting tons of research.
Project Type
Academic Capstone
My Role
UX/UI Researcher, UX/UI Designer
Timeline
Nov 2020 - Feb 2021 | 12 Weeks
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Illustrator
Inspiration
Millennials need ways to improve their financial wellness.
In 2020, I had a chance to work on a research project to explore Canadian millennials’ financial situation. I found that millennials have a higher income at the same age point than the Gen-Xers based on the research. However, they are also carrying more outstanding debts. Comparing debt to income, while the Gen-Xers are steadily improving their financial situation, the millennials face the constantly growing challenge of paying off their debts.
Secondary Research
Could investment help millennials?
For millennials, putting extra cash into their savings account is the go-to method for financial management. However, the interest rate for a savings account is mostly around 0.25%. On average, the return rate for investment with mutual funds is around 5%. To determine the impact of investment, I calculated the difference in returns with a hypothetical investment plan.
Initial investment
$5,000
Monthly Contribution
$100
Savings VS Mutual Funds In 25 Years
Savings
$36,281
Mutual Funds
$53,948
The Challenge
Why are millennials not investing?
Based on the result above, investment should be the primary financial management option for millennials. However, only a small portion of millennials are investing. I conducted further research to explore the reason behind that and found that the lack of professional knowledge could be the reason that stops millennials from investing.
User Interview Insights
Lack of financial knowledge is the most significant pain point for millennials investors.
To verify the findings from secondary research and explore the true reason that prevents millennials from investing, I interviewed five millennials who have just started investing. The insights were summarized and divided into themes:
Persona & Experience Map
Taking users perspective to view the problem and ensuring a user-centered design process
Based on the interview insights, I crafted a user persona to substantiate the target users. I also prepared an experience map to help me identify opportunities where I could help users.
Through this process, I was able to identify that millennials are struggling to find stocks and funds that fit their interests. Therefore, I questioned:
How might we advise millennials who want to invest but do not know much about investing to select financial products that align with their interests to improve their financial wellness?
Task Selection
Recommending stocks and funds to millennial investors as the MVP
With Mia the persona in mind, I created user stories and epics to determine the features. Eventually, with the consideration of the HMW statement, I selected the following epic to help me choose the core task for my MVP (minimum viable product):
Epic
Get started in investing without the need of professional knowledge
Core Task
Get recommendations on stocks and funds based on the user’s investing interest and financial capability
After identifying the core task, I constructed a task flow diagram to visualize the user’s process of using the designed solution to get recommendations on stocks and funds.
Ideation & Wireframes
Gathering inspiration and experimenting with different layouts for the UI
After I cleared the primary task flow, I started researching existing UI layouts for different components and sketching ideas with pencil and paper. Eventually, the ideas were turned into paper wireframes and put into usability testing.
During the initial usability testing, I realized the testers were often confused by the bad drawings rather than usability issues. Therefore, I created a digital grayscale wireframe and put it into two rounds of testings.
Samples of digital wireframe
Usability Testing
Identifying usability issues and improving user experience through iterations
With the digital wireframes, I conducted two rounds of usability testing with five testers per round. Each tester was assigned five tasks to complete. In between each round of testings, I would revise the wireframes to eliminate the identified usability issues.
Major Issues
“I was confused because the cards were buttons before, and now they are checklists”
- 5/5 Testers
“The double buttons were confusing, I had to look closely to know which one to tab on”
- 4/5 Testers
Redesigns
Style Guide
Establishing brand identity through visual representations
After the redesigns passing usability testings, I started thinking about the brand identity. Considering the target users are inexperienced with investing, I created the following keywords to represent users' feelings when using this product.
Harvested, Professional, Calm, Friendly
With the keywords, I researched and created a color palette that will convey the feelings. Also, I made sure the contrast of colors would at least pass the WCAG AA standard to ensure accessibility.
For typography, because the design for the MVP product is ios based. I strictly followed the suggested typography in Apple’s Human Interface Design Guidelines.
Wordmark
Logo
Marketing Website
Crafting the first point of entry to the product for users
After completing the Hi-fidelity prototype, I imagined that if I launch the app, a marketing website is necessary to provide users an entry point to understand and try out the app before they download it. Therefore, I designed a responsive website with a professional tone to enhance the credibility of this product.
Desktop
Mobile
Multiplatform Design
Designing for alternative platforms that users could leverage
In order to provide multiple touchpoints for users to access their portfolios and stay updated with the market performance, I designed UIs for the Apple Watch platform.
Design Impact
Exploring the impact of designed solution to users through The Tarots Cards of Tech
For a fintech product, maintaining trust from users is vital. FinAmi could potentially make users feel unsafe as it gathers users' financial information. Therefore, implementing an established information security mechanism is necessary to ensure the safety of sensitive data. Further, an online forum will be live to allow users to share their comments or concerns about the app. Lastly, the user reviews will be gathered on a regular basis and will be used for data analysis via NLP (Natural Language Processing) to analyze user sentiments.
