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Smart Save
A mobile app that helps users track expenses, optimize spending, gain insights, and achieve financial goals.
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View Mockups
My Role
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UI/UX Design
Timeline
1 month in Fall 2022
Team
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Visual Designer, ​
UI/UX Designer
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Seamless Login Experience
Single login via mobile or social accounts.
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Safe and Secure Bank Account Linkage
Transact and monitor expenses with confidence and security
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Expense Analysis and Budgeting
Boosts expense awareness with clear breakdowns and budget categorization.
Smart Subscription Insights
Manages subscriptions by displaying total costs and offering suggestions.
Context
Millennials, having grown up in a technology-driven world, are accustomed to instant gratification, which often influences their financial decisions. This generational trait is contributing to a tendency to spend more than they earn, affecting their long-term financial health. Although some improvements in spending behavior are observed after the age of 25, this issue persists across the younger population.
Problem
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The financial habits of millennials, particularly their tendency to prioritize immediate desires over long-term planning, are creating challenges for their financial stability. Despite some improvement in spending habits as they get older, many still struggle with sustainable budgeting and managing their finances effectively.
Solutions
Developing a financial management app tailored specifically to the needs of individuals aged 25 to 40 can help address these challenges. By offering tools for budgeting, expense tracking, and financial goal setting, the app can provide millennials with the guidance they need to make informed financial decisions and build sustainable spending habits.
Result
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The app can empower millennials to develop healthier financial behaviors, leading to improved long-term financial health. By providing insights into spending patterns and offering personalized recommendations, the app can help users achieve greater financial control and stability.
Research & Findings
Methodology
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We adopted a User-Centered Design (UCD) methodology to guide the project. Drawing from personal observations and initial hypotheses, we began with in-depth secondary research to understand broader financial behaviors among millennials. Through iterative ideation, prototyping, and usability testing, we ensured the solution evolved in alignment with real user needs, behaviors, and expectations.
User Research
To validate our assumptions and gain deeper insight into our target demographic, we conducted seven in-depth user interviews complemented by quantitative surveys. Our research aimed to uncover how millennials manage their finances, their awareness of spending habits, and their approaches to saving and investing.
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The research focused on the following core questions:
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What are millennials' typical spending behaviors?
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What external or internal factors influence their financial decisions?
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Are they aware of their daily and monthly expenses?
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Do they take proactive steps to grow their savings?
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How familiar and comfortable are they with financial growth strategies, such as investments?
Key Findings & Insights
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Low financial awareness: Users often don’t track real-time balances, leading to overspending.
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Impulse spending: Promotions and discounts trigger unplanned purchases.
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Hidden costs: Subscriptions and unnoticed expenses accumulate over time.
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Investment hesitation: Fear and lack of knowledge prevent financial growth.
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Need for guidance: Users seek tools to identify safe, timely saving and investing options.
Affinity Mapping
Design Process
We follow a user-centered design process that starts with secondary research to define the problem space, followed by user research to uncover behaviors, needs, and pain points. These insights shape clear requirements, guiding ideation and design. Solutions are iteratively tested and refined to ensure they meet user expectations and functional goals.
Prior Art
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Based on the survey and secondary research, we found that the top finance tracking and management applications are Intuit Mint, NerdWallet, and Qapital.
Intuit Mint
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NerdWallet
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Qapital
It is a popular budgeting application that many users rely on. It allows users to connect their financial accounts, track expenses, set budgeting goals, and gain insights into their financial health. However, the app's complexity has made it difficult for some users to comprehend, leading to decreased reliability over time according to our survey.
The NerdWallet app combines credit score tracking, net worth management, and cash flow monitoring. It is highly user-friendly and comprehensible for many. However, manual effort is required for categorizing and gaining insights from group transactions.
Qapital is a savings app that automates savings, allows unlimited savings goals, and uses triggers and rules to allocate savings. However, it has a monthly fee (starting at $3) and limits users to linking only one checking account.
Persona
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User Flow
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Sketches
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The app’s core feature is expense tracking, with personalized insights to help users save money. Through user research, analysis, and collaborative brainstorming, we gained a deeper understanding of user context and behavior. Based on these insights, we developed a low-fidelity prototype that carefully considers user interaction patterns and behavioral principles.
User Testing
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We conducted frequent tests during each phase of product development, specifically focusing on the onboarding journey. Our goal was to assess user navigation, comprehension, and identify areas for improvement based on their lifestyle.​
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Most users successfully navigated the app, comprehended on-screen information, and demonstrated minimal discrepancy between the conceptual and mental models. The product was highly relevant to the majority of users' lifestyles, providing valuable insights into their preferences.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
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Final Design
User testing revealed that some users expressed skepticism about linking their bank accounts due to security concerns. To establish trust, we provided indications of the high level of security implemented in the process.
To simplify user experience, we offer a single login option, either through mobile number or linked social accounts, eliminating confusion and hassle for users.
SmartSave securely links bank accounts, allowing users to transact and monitor expenses with trust.
SmartSave boosts expense awareness for user-saving. It offers a clear expense breakdown for easy budgeting. The app automatically allocates budgets by category, customizable by users.
SmartSave enhances decision-making by presenting users with their total subscription expenses, aiding them in determining which subscriptions to keep or remove.
We chose a dark model for SmartSave. Black color gives a sense of power. As a financial app that needs to bring users security, stability and worth to believe. The main colors are light green, yellow and white. The typography we choose Poppins.
Next Steps
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The app has constraints regarding user concerns about linking bank accounts and the complexity of analysis sections. We will collect feedback, make improvements, and consider applying the Heuristics Evaluation Methodology for professional testing.