What is unique about FinBuddy
The Marie Kondos
The research made me realize that users like to customize their budgets according to their needs. Some are almost like Marie Kondo in the way that they wanted everything to be the way that they exactly like it. Other users do not want as much customization, but would like at least some of it. And then there are some people who just like the apps to do everything for them!
Sharing is caring
A lot of users said that they are working towards a common financial goal with their partners or significant others. They needed a way to track their expenses with that person. In FinBuddy, users can send a request to whoever they want to partner with and the app will have a chart which will show both their expenses and their collective progress towards a goal.
Data is beautiful
The data visualization for the spending chart was the most challenging part of the app. I experimented with creating 3D data visualization to represent a "bucket" of money and how filled it was. I quickly redesigned that visualization because I found that 3D visualizations were difficult to interpret and could not find a 3rd dimension apart from time and money. The spending chart here tells the user how much of their budget is remaining and how much they've spent in what categories.
Ask The Expert
Almost all the users said that they consult a person whom they think knows a lot about money (mostly their parents). Using this feature, users can talk to certified financial experts about their finance management. All they need is to sign up to chat with the experts!
Scroll to see how I used research to inform my decisions ⬇️
"My financial planning influences my big and small decisions in life, like whether to get my weekly dose of Starbucks, or go for a vacation in the Bahamas. I want to be able to track my money whenever I want!"
What did our client want?
FinBuddy started as a UX research where our team was tasked to conduct research for a mobile app for financial education. The only catch: It had to be gamified! They wanted something which could motivate users to save along with learning about personal finance management.
What did we start with
After an initial stakeholder meeting with the client, we defined these initial research questions
Next step? Taking the real and raw opinions.
What did our users say?
We conducted contextual interviews with people from ages 18 to 65, in all stages of their lives. Some were about to start a new life with their partner, some had just graduated from school and wanted to chill, while some were preparing to save up for retirement.
There are 4 buckets in which we could put our interview findings from the affinity diagram:
Choosing our How Might We's
We conducted contextual interviews with people from ages 18 to 65, in all stages of their lives. Some were about to start a new life with their partner, some had just graduated from school and wanted to chill, while some were preparing to save up for retirement.
There are 4 buckets in which we could put our interview findings from the affinity diagram:
Who are our users?
One significant challenge that we faced during our UX research was boiling down exactly who our users were. This is because we had such a diverse group of interviewees. We turned to a highly overused, but still helpful UX Research method, mapping user personas. These two personas represent the two vibrant and contrasting demographics of our users, one who has just entered entered adulthood and the other who has stepped into a new phase of their life
