Project Overview
Alle is designed to simplify financial management, alleviating the weight of financial burdens and stress, and it aims to foster a light-hearted environment that allows financial management to be less overwhelming and more approachable, and help people increase their financial literacy.
Project type
iOS App Design
Date
May - October 2023
Role
UI/UX Designer, UX Researcher
Link
The Problem
Financial management is a fundamental life skill, yet it becomes one of the biggest sources of stress and challenges for many. Factors such as financial illiteracy, increase in cost of living, and the burden of loans and debts contribute to the financial difficulties that affect people’s stress levels. While there are numerous resources available to help people manage their finances, the accessibility and effective utilization of these resources remain unclear.
"How might we reduce stress associated with financial management and provide credible resources to promote financial literacy?"
The Solution
I am dedicated to transforming financial management from a burdensome and stressful experience into a user-friendly and approachable journey. Guided by insights from user research, my objective is to develop a user-centered platform and foster a light-hearted approach to financial management, ensuring that users find the process less overwhelming.
Design Process
For this project, I followed the design process of discover, define, design, and deliver. Over the span of 5 months, I explored various research and design methods to support our efforts in solving this problem and determining the most effective solutions.
Discover | Understanding the Problem
Secondary research :
First step in the Discover phase was to conduct a secondary research. In-depth secondary research revealed that financial stability has become a concern as the cost of living continues to rise, and money plays a central role in many aspects of our lives.
Factors such as financial illiteracy and mounting loans and debts also pose significant challenges for individuals in effectively managing their finances. It is important to provide financial education and easy access to information and tools.
Competitive research :
Primary research :
To gain insights into the audience’s financial challenges and needs, I conducted user interviews.
The objective was to understand their financial habits, management methods, and experiences with resources. Using a screener survey, I selected five participants from diverse age groups (20s, 30s, 40s), all managing loans and experienced with financial tools.
After completing all the interviews, I moved onto the next phase, which is the DEFINE phase. I gathered all the findings from the DISCOVER phase and analyzed and synthesized findings to define the objectives of this project.
Define | Analyzing Findings and Defining Goals
Affinity Map :
After conducting interviews, I created an affinity map to categorize insights, revealing common themes.
Participants’ most common and the biggest motivation for financial management was financial stability in the future. The rising cost of living was a notable stressor.
Feedback on budgeting apps highlighted issues such as categorization accuracy, limited customization, and design-related navigation challenges. Some participants identified laziness or forgetfulness as obstacles to regular app usage.
Exploration of media and resources consumption revealed struggles with financial jargon, information overload, and concerns about content credibility.
User Personas :
With the information gathered, I developed two user personas to gain a deeper understanding and perspective of the target users. This process aimed to identify their wants, needs, and the specific problems I need to address for them.
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User Stories :
To ensure a user-centric experience, I developed user stories. These stories provided valuable insights into the features and functionalities my users needed. For instance, users expressed the need to check their overall balance, categorize expenses, set budgets, and access educational resources on finance.
“As a user, I want to set my budget so that I can keep track of how much I can spend”
“As a user, I want to watch videos on finance so that I can educate myself of how I can be wise with my money”
These guided me developing the site map and the user flows. I wanted to focus on having a comprehensive account overview of their finances, monitoring their spending and expenses with budgeting tools, and accessing a variety of resources such as news, articles, videos and podcasts.
Site Map :
From these findings, I created a site map to visually represent the app's structure and organization. It outlines the hierarchy of pages and content that a user will use and interact with. Creating this site map helped me to visualize and think of potential sketches in my head.
User Flows :
With the help of the site map, I sketched out user flows to outline the paths that users will follow to accomplish essential tasks within the app. These user flows helped me identify key paths users will take, enabling me to make informed design decisions aimed at optimizing the user experience.
Design | Developing Ideas into Reality
Initial Sketches :
Guerilla Testing :
To validate the direction of my design, I conducted guerilla usability testing using my early sketches. This test was vital in assessing the app’s ease of use and whether participants could complete essential tasks.
Findings
✦ participants successfully accessed the Overview tab when prompted to check their overall balance. However, it became evident that they were not intuitively expanding folders to view detailed account and balance information.
▹ This observation pointed to the need for a more user-friendly and visually clear design for these folders.
✦ Some participants initially found the purpose of the Monthly tab unclear.
▹ I addressed this by renaming it to “Budget” for a more descriptive and straightforward label.
✦ Concerns were raised about the flexibility of setting budgets based on different timelines.
▹ Recognizing the need for customization based on users’ pay schedules, which may not align with a monthly cycle, I added a timeline feature to better suit their financial needs.
Wireframes :
Branding :
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The brand name “Alle” is derived from the word “Alleviate”. I chose this name because I believe that financial management should not be burdensome or cause unnecessary stress. “Alle” symbolizes my commitment to alleviating the stress associated with finances, and creating a light-hearted environment that allows financial management to be less overwhelming and more approachable. I designed my brand to be a trusted companion in financial journeys, offering support and inspiration, making financial management stress-free.
Deliver | Validating and Iterating with Testing
Usability Tests :
I conducted two rounds to gather insights into the user experience, identifying areas for improvement and validating positive aspects of the design. All the tests were conducted through Zoom which all lasted about 30 minutes.
First Round
The objective of the first round of usability test was to evaluate the user-friendliness, effectiveness, and overall user experience of Alle. Specifically, I hoped to determine if Alle provides users with a welcoming, friendly, and trustworthy experience. Another goal was to uncover and address any usability issues within the red routes to ensure a smooth and intuitive user interaction. Lastly, I wanted to examine the functionality of Alle, including the flow of tasks and the effectiveness of UI elements.
The initial round surfaced significant issues, including legibility concerns and feedback on design elements. Adjustments were made to text, fonts, and the overall design to enhance consistency and ensure clearer and more intuitive usability.
Iterations :
A focal point of concern was the budgeting page, where users expressed confusion and called for more clarification and guidance to navigate through the page. Overall design was updated. Key challenges centered around the timeline feature. Users raised questions about how having different timelines for budgets would affect the overall budget. They also mentioned that it seemed forced and prioritized and did not cater to users’ varying preferences.
Considering the complexity and limited space, I explored the idea of incorporating a separate feature apart from budgeting that users can set their own timelines. However, to maintain the app’s simplicity and optimize space, the decision was made to remove the timeline feature from the budgeting component.
Second Round
After implementing solutions to address the issues identified in the first round, I aimed to reevaluate the usability and functionality of the app’s updated design, while also identifying any remaining or newly discovered issues. The tests were again conducted through Zoom with 5 different participants, for about 30 minutes each.
While this round provided more positive feedback and confirmed the app’s design and branding, users again expressed a desire for a timeline for budgets. I learned that a timeline for budgeting, while it’s not essential for all users, it would still be a valuable feature for many. So I took this idea and added a timeline feature that feels more flexible and user-friendly.
These insights from both rounds of usability testing played a vital role in shaping the current version of the app. They have contributed to the app’s transformation into a user-friendly, effective, and trustworthy solution for financial management.
Conclusion | Final Prototype & Key Learnings and Takeaways
✦ Key Learnings and Takeaways :
In conclusion, the development of Alle was an exciting and fulfilling journey. Learning about the users’ needs, creating an app to address the problem I identified, and providing a space where users can manage finance in a stress-free and light-hearted manner was a very rewarding and remarkable experience.
The key learnings and takeaways from this project
❖ Importance of listening and empathizing with users
❖ Finding the right balance and solution to address various opinions and needs of the users to optimize their overall user experience
I hope this case study has provided you with valuable insights into the development of Alle and the thought process that guided me through it.