Penny Financial App
Branding, Layout, Art Direction, UX/UI, Web Design, Copywriting Tool: Figma
Collaborators: Olin Berger & Sid Hauser |Timeframe: Ten weeks
Overview: With this project, we sought to create a financial management app that appeals to Generation Z and young Millennials.
Challenge: How can we create a financial services app that allows for clear and accessible understanding of financial processes, does not involve much time to utilize, and can be found trustworthy by those concerned with sustainability and ethical causes?
Demographic: Through our research and survey results we discovered that Generation Z and Millennials require a financial management app that makes financial planning more understandable and accessible, and that can be semi-automated to fit within a busy schedule.
Gen Z & Millennials also share a greater concern for ethical management. Entities managing finances must show a similar concern through transparency regarding how their funds are managed and what causes they support.
Solution: Penny is redefining how financial management is done by integrating the tenets of accessibility, education, pragmatism, social consciousness, empathy, and trustworthiness. Penny invests in its users by providing educational resources through online classes. Penny emphasizes its core beliefs of accessibility and empathy by providing a friendly virtual chat feature for common questions asked about finance. If the questions become too complex it refers you to a Certified Financial Planner to help users make informed decisions about their finances. Penny also provides a practical and comprehensive view of your financial accounts, loans, debts and helps you accomplish your savings goals. Lastly, Penny proves its trustworthiness through its 3rd party certifications that vet its social investments and governance.
Deliverables
Archetype & Task Flow One
Archetypes
Each archetype is represented by different pains, gains, motivations, and inhibitions. The qualities represented under each of these archetypes are reflective of the data we collected during our research stage. We stayed away from developing personas so as to not oversimplify our demographic, and lean too heavily on trends and product attributes. We wanted to really think about the situations we would find our users in and what their motivations would be to use the app.
Archetype & Task Flow Two
Archetype & Task Flow Three
Landing Pages
Click the images below to view the full responsive layouts
Desktop
Tablet
Mobile
Process
Research
Most of our survey respondents are familiar with online banking and put some of their monthly earnings into savings. However, they also feel that Financial Management is a dense subject that is not easily understood, especially when their free time is limited. Our app will aim to make our users more familiar with the terms and processes of financial management so they feel less intimidated by that process and can confidently grow their ability to manage their own finances. The app will also provide automated services so that our users can move towards their financial goals without spending a large amount of their free time.
Generation Z invests in companies that mirror their goals for sustainability, social justice, and other causes they deem important. Our app will support similar goals by allowing users to direct the types of causes their money goes to support. Transparency and trust will also be supported through the ability of our users to reach out to a live representative of the company (via chat bot Penny or Certified Financial Planner) to discuss their financial plans or to ask questions about our management company.
Stylescape
OOUX Excercise
Olin facilitated an OOUX exercise that Sid and I participated in. Afterward, we used affinity mapping to find common patterns in how each of us would expect the app the work. This helped us determine the information architecture for our task flows and landing page.
Financial App Objects
Affinity Mapping
Low and Mid-Fidelity Task Flows
I developed the Penny Chat and Education Task flow based off of the archetype Jade or The Student. Featured below are early iterations of that task flow.
A Taste of Our Design System
Final Insights
We successfully created a financial management app and landing page for Gen Z and young Millennials. I gained a deeper understanding of the OOUX method and how it can help save time when defining the information architecture for task flows and landing pages. As a personal achievement, I improved my workflow with auto layout and working within a design system in Figma.
We also discussed at the end of the project how it would have been helpful to discuss/plan team dynamics, roles, and expectations at the start of the project. If I was to take this project even further I would user-test the app and landing page for comprehensibility and usability and further refine the UI.