Financial Wellbeing App

Exploring financial wellbeing

Workshops, design sprints, interviews, desk research, competitor research

We identified that people have problems in managing money due to lack of awareness and education of their own finances, behavioural and personality traits, as well as circumstances and consequences of past behaviour.

We interweaved the aspects of increasing awareness, education and behaviour change through the journey of helping a first time buyer prepare their finances to buy a house.

Target users

Conducted user interviews to understand money problems, attitudes, mental models and behaviour of ClearScore users. Analysed and grouped behavioural data into persona groups; the development of personas was an ongoing process throughout the project.

I identified a set of 5 user personas (grouped by financial situation, and financial activity and attitude). These two personas (presented) were the strongest fit for our product, and we focused on the Stable Less Active persona primarily when designing the happy path.

Concepts and proposition testing

We ideated on how to give people a measure of their financial wellbeing and how to display the data using a score.

Evolved the proposition through testing several concepts and evaluating whether it fulfils a tangible need. We learned that facing the truth about money situations is emotional and that people want insight and advice without judgement.

Content mapping

We created content topics and prioritised them to define the MVP scope, considering both user and business needs.

I worked with the copywriter to form the tone of voice for the app and wrote a paper on OneScore’s philosophy on Financial Wellbeing to align the team.

User journeys

Designed the content, flows and wireframes for each user journeys, along with another UX designer.

The aim was to create bite-size steps so information is easy to digest. The structure enabled users to learn about a topic and progress through tasks.

Working with a behavioural psychologist I learned about reward systems and gamification to inform the value exchange strategy.

User testing and iterating

I managed the research process, from recruiting users to analysis of findings. Gathering feedback regularly helped guide decision making and assess the potential success of the app. 

We did guerrilla testing for immediate feedback of design ideas, and in-depth user tests and interviews with ClearScore users to understand reasons behind why a journey did or did not work. I set up quantitative usage measures to evaluate the Beta release. 

I grouped the findings and colour-coded sentiments. We mapped issues and solutions on an effort v impact graph to prioritise development changes.

The outputs of small-scale regular testing findings were noted and discussed. For the 2 larger testing sessions of the prototype I created a deck to present to the CEO and the rest of the team.

Learnings

ClearScore is a successful scale-up business without a defined design process and a mindset of build-then-test. I helped in adopting a more user-centred approach.

It was my first experience of being in a “start-up” environment, working without clear direction and idea of the output, and tackling a huge topic. I learned to be comfortable with the unknown and trust the process.

Our brief was to be "51% right" which enabled us to be confident in our unconventional ways of talking about money.

Working closely with an opinionated CEO with strong design ideas was tricky at times, but I observed that following gut instinct is important along with user feedback - especially when designing for innovation.