RICH
Designed to help post-secondary student with track and budget their money.
OVERVIEW
Saving is important but it is not always easy, especially for post-secondary students. Personally, I have always struggled with saving and not knowing how to manage my finances. I constantly spend without looking at the price tags nor do I ever keep track of my spending. I have tried downloading dozens of apps to help with my budgeting, but none have stuck with me. This project was a great opportunity for me to incorporate my own experiences and design a budgeting app to help students or young adults with their finances.
TYPE
UX/UI Product Design
TOOLS
XD, Illustrator, Photoshop
TIMELINE
November - December 2019
THE PROBLEM
Many post-secondary students and young adults are unable to save as many don’t manage or keep track of their finances which causes them to overspend. This then leads to the burden of student debt and financial stress, especially with the rise of post-secondary tuition and commodities.
According to the 2018 Graduating Student Survey, about 50% of students are now graduating with debt, with their average amount owed approaching $28,000.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How can we design a product that can help post-secondary students’ budget and save their money that will lessen their financial stress?
THE SOLUTION
RICH is a smart and easy budgeting app designed to help students budget and allocate their money in the most efficient manner possible. The app manages and tracks all financial spending in real-time as it connects all your bank accounts, investments and allows you to record all your cash transaction with a simple picture.
RICH also smart budgets and helps you create different budget plans based on your spending trends. RICH allows you to see where you stand financially each month with all your expenses in one place.
RESEARCH
To create this app, I needed to develop a better understanding of budgeting, financing and different spending habits. So, I began conversing with different university students, business majors and parents to gain different perspectives on finances and how they budget their money. Some of the following questions were asked:
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How do you set your monthly budgets?
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Do you use any budgeting apps if so, how does that app benefit you?
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Do you find it hard to save? why?
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Are you aware of methods that can help you save?
Through these interactions, I learned that many students found it difficult to save or to keep track of their spending. Many of the participants revealed that the majority of their money is spent on food or transportation. Many also answered that they do not stick to their budgets nor use any budgeting apps as they found them to be complicated and impractical.
With my findings from user interviews and competitive analysis, I then created a PACT analysis and user personas to help me illustrate the users I was designing for. This also helped me develop an in-depth insight on different financial and budgeting apps, what the market is missing and improvements that can apply to my app.
USER PERSONA
KEY PAIN POINTS
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Many people do not keep track of their daily spending or stay within planned budget
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Many want a convenient way to view all transactions and spending trends
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People find existing budgeting apps hard to navigate or not effective
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
After conducting additional research, I formed some additional questions to help with the process of creating a good user experience.
How can we design a product that helps users stay on track of their budgets?
How can we simplify or create better user experiences for users already using budgeting apps?
How can we help create better budget plans for the users?
What makes my app different from existing apps?
IDEATION DEVELOPMENT
After more in-depth research, I began the visual and ideation process, while keeping my targeted audience in mind. I started with listing and prioritizing the main features of the app. Low and mid-fidelity prototypes were created and tested among collogues and professors for feedback.
FLOW CHART
WIREFRAMES
VISUAL DESIGN
With the app designed to target towards post-secondary students and young adults, I wanted the app to have a simple and clean interface. To fit those requirements I decided on using teal and green as the primary colours as they bring the association of reliability, wealth and security.
ILLUSTRATIONS
RICH
OVERVIEW
START SAVING TODAY.
3 SIMPLE USER FLOWS
USER ONBOARDING
ONBOARDING
A simple and secured user experience for first-time users allowing then to connect all their financial accounts with a simple touch.
Smart budgeting to help kick off your budgeting journey
Convenient and secured. Log into your account with your face ID
DASHBOARD AND FEATURES
A clean interface is designed and customized to show only what is important to the users
A camera scanner to easily record all the cash transaction on hand.
Fine control over transaction history.
NOTIFICATION
A constant reminder of your spending allowing you to become conscious of each transaction.
A constant reminder of your spending allowing you to become conscious of each transaction.
REFLECTION & KEY TAKEWAYS
This project was a great experience and I have learned an extraordinary amount through the process. Through the collaborative input from intended users, colleagues and professors, I was able to elevate my product and produce something meaningful. This project is not perfect, but to be able to design a product that can help many others who are struggling with finances, including me, is rewarding and fulfilling. Through this project, I learned:
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To design not only for aesthetics but to design products to be practical and impactful.
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To create and build meaningful relationships with the users every step of the way.
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To design every step of interaction with a purpose.
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The importance of research taking every research component into consideration.