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Savi Finance
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Savi Finance is a company that offers personal finance planning services. During my research and user testing, I discovered that users were having difficulty with the manual transaction input flow. They found the current design overwhelming and frustrating. With the help of user feedback, we were able to redesign the user flow to reduce cognitive overload and make it a more user-friendly experience.
Project Overview
The manual transaction input process in Savi Finance needs to be redesigned. Currently, the input fields and number of clicks required to complete a transaction are frustrating users who are trying to input transactions quickly and efficiently in their busy schedules. The current process is not intuitive and often leaves users feeling frustrated with the feature.
Our main goal with the redesign is to minimize scrolling and clicking by making the process more intuitive and user-friendly. By doing so, we hope to reduce errors by 20% and make the task of manually adding transactions more efficient and enjoyable for our users.
My Role
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Did light research to understand the needs of users.
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Did user experience design including creating user journey flow, wireframes, and testing
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Created high-fidelity wireframes to demonstrate end-to-end product flow.
Team
Ralph Marmari (Product Manager)
Disha Bonner, UX Designer
Current State
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Jira, Confluence, Google Suites, Design Sprint
My Process
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Research
As part of my research to develop a manual transaction input process, I conducted user interviews with eight individuals. To my surprise, I discovered a recurring pattern in the feedback: users found the current flow too cumbersome, leading to frustration and abandonment. Additionally, users expressed a desire to be able to add friends or co-workers to the transaction. In response, I conducted a market analysis of existing products to better understand their manual transaction process.
Research Goals
To keep myself anchored to the users' need, I clearly defined the research goals. This will help me keep my design solution user-centric.
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Understand deeply where the user frustration is stemming from with manual transaction input.
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Analyze KPIs to help understand the gaps.
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Identify competitors' user flow of manual transaction.
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Discover how the app can help users meet their finance tracking needs efficiently.
Competitive Analysis
In order to better understand what the market already offers in terms of budgeting apps and manual transaction input, I conducted the competitive analysis between biggest competitors of Savi Finance. We will use Savi Finance, which is a financial budgeting app and conduct our analysis through features, audience, value, and organizational characteristics.
Monarch
Mint
YNAB
Features
Monarch Finance offers a comprehensive set of features for budgeting, expense tracking, and investment management. It provides personalized financial advice based on the user's financial goals and spending patterns.
Mint App offers features such as budgeting, expense tracking, credit score monitoring, and bill reminders. It can categorize transactions automatically and provide charts and graphs for better visualizations, user's financial goals and spending patterns.
YNAB focuses on zero-based budgeting, encouraging users to assign every dollar a specific purpose. It offers features like goal tracking, debt paydown strategies, and reports on spending habits.
Audience
Monarch primarily targets young professionals and individuals looking for a holistic approach to financial management.
Mint App targets a wide range of users, including individuals, families, and small business owners seeking a user-friendly budgeting and financial tracking tool.
YNAB primarily targets individuals and couples looking to gain control over their finances, get out of debt, and save more effectively.
Pricing
Monarch offers a subscription-based pricing model with different tiers based on the user's needs. It also offers a free version with limited functionality.
Mint App is free to use and generates revenue through advertisements and partnerships with financial institutions.
YNAB follows a subscription-based model and offers a free trial period for new users.
Strength
Personalized financial advice feature and user-friendly interface. It provides users with actionable insights to improve their financial situation.
Mint App is known for its ease of use and automated transaction categorization. It provides a high-level overview of the user's financial situation and offers personalized suggestions.
YNAB excels in providing budgeting tools and a supportive community. It has a strong emphasis on budget planning and helps users change their spending habits for long-term financial success.
Weakness
May have a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its advanced features. Additionally, some users may find the subscription pricing model expensive.
Mint App's free version comes with ads and limited customer support. Users also report occasional syncing issues with certain financial institutions.
YNAB may not be suitable for users who prefer a more hands-off approach to finance management. Some users find the subscription price relatively high compared to other alternatives.
User Flow of Daily Expense Budgeting App
I conducted A/B testing between Savi Finanace manual transaction input and the Daily Expense, a free app available on Google play to understand the mindset of user needs. By doing this, I was able to identify the challenges and needs of the user. As a part of my research for the team, I put together a complete user flow of Daily Expense to help us understand why users liked some of the feature on the app.
Onboarding Splash Page
Transaction Page. Easy to read. My eyes directly goes to the top three CTA’s
No scrolling required to add an expense. The fields are clearly marked.
Has an ability to add frequently occuring expenses and income.
Easy flow to follow. Additional options such as adding categories, receipts are available for users who need those features but not over crowding the UI.
Has an ability to customize and add categories
Provisional Persona
After conducting initial research and usability testing on our current app, we developed proto-personas to ensure that we prioritize our end users' needs over our desire to offer more features. By understanding each user's unique financial requirements, Savi Finance can create customized investment plans that align with their long-term goals.
Live in the moment spender
Needs to accomplish
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Able to track spendings to enjoy life
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Able to enter transactions and split bills with friends.
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Able to upload a receipt.
Needs to feel
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Efficient and not task oriented
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Appreciated for taking time to log in the transaction.
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Needs a reward.
A busy person, long term thinker
Needs to accomplish
Balanced saver recent grad
Needs to accomplish
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Able to enter manual transactions fast
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Be able to add notes to keep track of the finances
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has additional options to add details related to the transactions
Needs to Feel
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Able to find the option to add transaction manually without scrolling through too many pages.
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Able to add transactions efficiently and expedite the process
Needs to Feel
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At ease and not overwhelmed.
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In control of finances to plan and keep track on investments.
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Feel a sense of self-achievement
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Comfortable with learning a new tool to help fill the gaps in savings
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Confidence in using a new tool.
User Interview
After doing A/B testing, it was time for us to validate our findings. For this, I interviews 8 participants for 10-15 minutes to gain a deeper understanding of pain points and challenges with the current version of manual transaction screen.
Research Theme:
Understand the pain points with manual transaction
Goal: Gain a deeper perspective on why manual transaction feels frustrating and cumbersome for users.
Research Questions
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What do you like/dislike about the current version of manual transaction?
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How often do you use that feature?
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Why do you need to use manual transaction input?
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How does it help you in your budgeting?
I gained a deeper understanding on issues with UX as well as UI. In order to create a solution, I begin to synthesize my findings to keep me anchored in creating the best user-centric solution.
Empathy Map
By creating empathy map, I was able to understand users' ultimate needs for manual transaction and how we can align the needs of all stakeholders with a better design solution. TI gathered this information and summarized them in insights and needs. By doing so, I can refer back to them when I am designing the solution.
Thinks?
Says?
Does?
Feels?
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Wants to record transactions that are not auto synced with credit card or made with cash
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Wants to add friends for split bill.
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Wants to do it fast with little to no efforts.
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I want to be able to spend no less than few seconds to input a transaction.
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I want to add notes and sometimes scan a receipt for records
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I need to split the bill with family and friends
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There is not enough time to keep records and input transactions manually.
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It is too much effort to record transactions manually.
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Feels the need to record the transactions to help with savings.
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Wants to be on top of saving goals and records the transactions but feels frustrated and gives up.
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Sees the value of recording each and every transactions to get the full picture but gets bogged down with too much information.
Defining the Problem
Based on our user research and insights, we have discovered that the users find the manual transaction input process frustrating, primarily because of the overwhelming number of options presented to them. While users appreciate the ability to choose from different options, they are not in favor of filling out a massive form.
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How might we help users achieve the goal of recording a transaction with minimal efforts?
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How might we offer all the features on the one screen without having a long form to be filled out?
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How might we reduce the number of clicks and scrolls for the user to help them achieve the task faster?
My Solution
User Flow Chart
After understanding the needs of our end user, we proceeded to create a user flow chart that would enable us to have a better understanding of their journey. The flow chart was instrumental in helping us comprehend the user's thought process, which allowed us to design the solution better.
Low-Fidelity Design
When finalizing the user journey, I transfer my ideas to paper, test and iterate. The low-fidelity design helps me visualize my solution on paper.
Medium Fidelity Design
Even though I wasn't obligated to create a medium-fidelity design for this project, I invested some time into converting my low-fidelity ideas into a digital format. I wanted a more refined visual representation to assist me in iterating and ensuring that I kept the users' requirements as a top priority.
Design System
High Fidelity Design
At present, Savi Finance is solely concentrating on developing a design for dark mode for the launch. The primary objective is to ensure flawless user testing of the high-fidelity designs before the launch. Based on the current color scheme, I have designed a high-fidelity prototype for user testing purposes.
Usability Testing
When it comes to usability testing, I am like a child in a toy store. My goal with usability testing is to really touch the users' hearts and minds. I want them to feel confident, valuable, and inspired to use our product. Creating unbiased narrative of my product, I usually begin with usability testing with empathy.
Evaluation & Task
Task 1
Ability to locate manual transaction button and create a transaction.
Task 2
Understanding the flow task and perform the task of adding the transaction
Task 3
Ability to save the transaction.
Findings
During usability testing, we discovered that the users would love the feature of uploading the receipt and auto-syncing the input fields. There is a still need among users to save receipt. Users also like the feature to split the bill and invite friends to the transaction.
Design Iterations
The app now includes a "Split the bill" button for transactions where users want to split the cost with a friend or family member. In the future, this feature will be expanded to allow users to split bills like Venmo.
During usability testing, we discovered the receipt auto-fill feature. However, users still feel the need to save receipts, especially for larger purchases and while traveling.
