Advisr
Bridging the Advice Divide: Introducing Accessible, Trustworthy Financial Planning for Young Adults
Role
Product Designer
Year
2022
Duration
6 months
Tools
Figma
Deliverables
Research
Prototypes
Usability testing
Design System
Brand Identity
While working as a financial planner, I found that young adults (aged 18-35) rarely seek out professional financial advice when offered, compared to other demographics. Adults in later stages of their lives struggle to achieve long-term goals and regret not starting to plan their financial lives earlier.
Given that young adults are the company’s target demographic – if they aren’t inclined to schedule calls with a financial planner, how can we help them develop good financial habits from an early stage in order to provide a solid foundation for future success?
Could a digital product offer a more convenient and accessible way for young adults to engage in the financial planning process?
A study completed by Financial Planning Canada found that those with a comprehensive plan save more, are better at dealing with financial challanges and are able to spend more on what they actually want. At the same time, most individuals in this age bracket don’t have the money to qualify for professional help or they find most financial professionals to be predatory or untrustworthy.
I reviewed secondary research completed by Financial Planning (FP) Canada, which validated my assumption that young adults perceive financial professionals to be self-serving, and incapable of acting in their clients’ best interests. Creating a preference for a private or DIY approach to handling their finances.
“Financial planning is stressful, but it also makes you organized, brings a sense of control. It’s one of those things you know you have to do, but I just can’t get myself to sit down and do it.”
I performed user interviews to understand how people budget, set goals and plan for those goals. I interviewed 5 participants located across Canada - their ages ranging from 23 to 33.
I wanted to hear about the pain points and frustrations they experience with their current process and their thoughts on what could improve their experience.
Introducing Andrew,
Through my research, I created a Persona to guide my process and ensure that the solution I develop would meet the needs of my target users.
Andrew began saving and investing early in his career due to societal pressure, feeling the need to keep up with everyone else. “Everyone saves so I felt like, to keep up, I need to save as well”.
He prefers not to spend much time managing his finances.
Andrew wishes he had a more detailed understanding of his expenses so that he could adjust his spending in specific areas and take control of his future goals. However, he finds budgeting intimidating, tiresome, and tedious.
With a better understanding of our typical user, the Experience map takes us through a life-like scenario a potential user would experience - giving me the opportunity to identify what they might be thinking, feeling or doing in any particular moment and where I could step in and address pain points.
“How might we help users feel more in-control of their finances while reducing feelings of stress and intimidation, in order to help them stay on track to achieving their financial goals? ”
Drawing from my persona's journey, interview insights, and identified opportunities, I sought to create a design intervention that directly addressed user pain points.
Key frustrations for Andrew and other interview participants included overwhelming processes, lack of support, and uncertainty surrounding budgeting and goal planning.
I reframed my "how might we" question to prioritize user control and security. This question guided my thinking as I developed a solution for this widespread and crucial problem.
I developed user stories as a way to define the features that would meet my users’ needs. The persona I developed, Andrew, provided perspective on the tasks a typical user would want to complete.
Creating a comprehensive and personalized financial plan
“As a user I want to know how my spending breaks down so that I can take control over my spending”
“I want to know how much of my pay cheque to save so that I am on track to hit my goals”
“I want to know how long it would take to save for my goal so that I can manage my finances accordingly”
“I want to get personalized recommendations based on my goals so that I can build a reliable financial plan”
After categorizing the user stories based on similarities in theme or functionality, the most impactful theme would empower users to take control of their finances and make progress towards their goals - the ability to create a comprehensive and personalized financial plan.
Challenge: designing a user flow that allows users to quickly and easily accomplish the many subtasks required to build a financial plan.
Based on insights from interviews, users clearly desired a non-intimidating, jargon-free process that offered them freedom, in contrast to the perceived pressure of relying on ongoing assistance from financial professionals.
Sketching a solution focused on reducing cognitive overload and overwhelm
There are many steps required to build a financial plan - even a simple one. Iterative sketching allowed me to conceptualize a solution that could reduce cognitive overload and overwhelm for the user as they progressed through the following steps:
Onboarding
Home screen
User’s first look into the app, and their first interaction.
Set the right expectations for the onboarding process up-front with an “account setup” card.
Profile builder
Presented with one question at a time to maintain focus, and reduce the amount on information on screen.
Progress indicator tells the user how many steps to expect in the process.
Adding Goals
Goal setting presents the users with more technical questions. The design needs to be mindful of the cognitive load on the user and must prioritize the minimization of stress and intimidation when dealing with financial matters.
Personalized Calculations
Design features that can calculate certain information the user might not readily know - like how much they need to save in their emergency fund.
Would require the user to input their budget, so Advisr could use their income and expenses to calculate their savings.
Build a Budget
Using Crowdsourced Data
To simplify the intimidating process of budgeting and alleviate the tedious task of sorting through transactions, a feature leveraging crowdsourced data was considered.
By utilizing expenses from diverse individuals in terms of age, income, and location, users can estimate reasonable budgeting goals and conveniently pre-fill their entries.
Initially, external data would be used, but as the Advisr user base grows, data could be collected from within the app itself.
The technology would function similarly to calorie tracking apps, relying on user-entered data to support others in creating their food diaries.
This feature would be beneficial for users who want to align their spending with more responsible individuals and determine a reasonable goal amount. For instance, when saving for a home, users can explore details on the home expenses of similar-aged individuals in their city with the same income, making it less intimidating than asking friends for advice.
Bank Account Tracking
This feature, commonly employed by other budgeting products, allows direct tracking of actual expenses. A three-month average across specific expenses can provide a suitable target for budget inputs.
Ultimately, these features aim to reduce user effort and time spent by facilitating ongoing inputs. However, transparency and security measures need to be implemented, including informing the user about data collection, acknowledging that peer data may not always be applicable, and ensuring awareness of bank account tracking.
Finalize Goals
Once the budget is complete, the user needs to be brought back to the goals they were originally setting up before being redirected. The budget inputs would help them calculate what they can save and what they should aim for when saving for particular goals.
I explored the use of a modal to remind users where they are in the process, and to bring them back to complete the initial task of setting up goals.
Prototype V1
Using the exploratory sketches as a guide, I designed the first version of my grayscale wireframes and stitched them together to create a testable prototype. With feedback from users, I could validate the impact of my solution.
But, does it work…?
To see if I was on track to solving the problem I identified, I conducted two rounds of user testing. For each round, I recruited 5 participants to obtain practical, real-time feedback that would be incorporated to improve the usability of my design solution.
Participant Criteria
Low financial literacy
Age 20-35
Employed
Manage their own finances
Scenario
“You’ve recently started working and would like to start saving. The most important goal on your mind right now is paying off your student debt.
You have relatively little knowledge on personal finance, and have found an app that can guide you on how to plan for your financial goals, like paying off your student debt! How might you go about setting your goals?”
Usability testing confirmed that designs were on track to solving the problem for the identified target demographic.
“The app is exciting, it gives a user control and hope that they can also manage their finances on their own.”
I chose to re-organize the whole flow - giving users a more guided process
Improvements were prioritized after each round of testing based on ‘Impact’ and ‘Effort’. When building the final prototype — accounting for constraints, such as time and the complexity of the design improvement — I started working on low hanging fruit, before tackling those that were ‘High Impact/ Low Effort’.
Addressing security concerns
A guided process
Tools and recommendations
Final Grayscale Prototype
Using colour, typography and imagery to portray trustworthiness and approachability
Target Demographic
The brand was developed to appeal to a relatively young demographic — Millenial and Gen Z users looking to solidify their financial futures. They may not have much prior knowledge of personal finance and find it intimidating to approach a financial professional. They are familiar with digital products and would prefer to get started by building a foundation on their own.
The challenge in creating a visual identity for this solution was to depict both the trustworthiness of a long-standing financial institution, and a sense of approachability to engage young users.
So, the choice of typography also had to be very intentional. The primary serif font, Cormorant Garamond, aligned with a sophisticated and classic look. I paired Cormorant Garamond with a sans serif font, Proza Libre, to add a modern touch that was clear, but slightly more playful than the sans serif fonts we typically see.
To maintain approachability, I chose to contrast the rich colours with playful illustrations. The intention was to reduce the intimidation users might feel with financial management and prevent them from feeling overwhelmed. Coupled with the serif font, Cormorant Garamond, the illustrations provide an almost “storybook” vibe, which was intended to feel familiar, inviting and delightful.
Visual re-design
Further testing and feedback indicated that Advisr could use a more modern look and feel.
There are many fintechs globally starting to target the same demographic - young adults. This demographic responds to brighter, bolder colours and visuals.
I realized there’s no benefit in keeping a traditional colour scheme, as this no longer represents trust to young adults. The older institutions are what they’re trying to get away from, and the fresher perspective of modern fintechs is what appeals to this generation.
I took inspiration from well-designed fintech apps such as Wise, Revolut and Coinbase to introduce a brighter, bolder, modern Advisr.
What I learnt along the way
How secure is this?
Security can have a significant impact on a client’s perception of the product. In initial user interviews, positive feedback validated my assumptions, but when it came to linking bank accounts, participants expressed hesitancy due to trust concerns. This hesitation poses a significant risk to the success of the solution, as user trust is crucial, and a security breach could easily shatter that trust.
Can this process be simpler?
During the process of building this case study, I reflected on the solution and its potential for simplicity and straightforwardness. In the overall user flow, the budgeting subtask felt out of place. Originally, I intended to introduce budgeting if necessary to help users plan for their goals. However, upon reviewing the problem, I realized that a more logical order would be to start with budgeting before setting goals. This would provide a smoother transition and a logical progression of steps. Encouraging all users to build a budget within the Advisr app can be seen as "positive friction," simplifying the user experience by consolidating everything they need in one place.
Who are we excluding?
While this product can address many of the challenges young adults face with budgeting and planning, it may exclude certain individuals. For example, those who prefer a human touchpoint for reassurance or further inquiries would not have that option with this product. Additionally, individuals with complex financial and tax situations may find it challenging to use the product or receive accurate recommendations.