FinGrow

The strategic financial consultancy application that helps low-income post-graduate university students to achieve their financial goals through zero-fee financial mentors.
https://fingrow.wixsite.com/fingrow
CASE STUDY
6 min read

Context

 01
For this capstone project in my Junior year at UW, I formed a group of 4 people with 1 other Designer and 2 Developers and took on the full role of a UX/UI Designer. Through an 6-month process of researching and testing, I created a  high-fidelity prototype with Figma and our team managed to develop an Android version of our app for further user testing.

Date

Jan 2022 - May 2022

Role

UX/UI Designer

Missions

UX Research
Wireframing
UI Design
Prototyping

Immersion

Research

02
Our team conducted several rounds of literature review first to have a concrete understanding of our problem background: Young people from 18-30 often have problems with credit debt management, shopping behaviours and often don't have access to financial classes/seminar in college; they set out fewer financial planning goals long-term and short-term , and they have less access to financial services and products. As next steps, we did a competitive analysis of the existing solutions on the market for fintech solutions, and found areas that we can improve regarding: customization, accountability and targeting our main users - low income population.
We then conducted a survey with potential users (post-grad undergraduates) and received 30+ responses, together with interviews with 6 users, allowing me to conceive a suitable user experience for two actors: first, a newly grad who really wants to get over with her student debt but she doesn't know where to start, and secondly, a senior financial advisor who has lots of experience in the field and wants to be a resource for young adults since he knows how overwhelming finances can be.
As a new undergrad, how can I connect with volunteer professional financial advisors when I have financial problems?
As a administra, how can I provide a safe space for young adults to talk about their finances ?

Conceptualization

Qualitative data

03.a
Organizing themes
Qualitative data from Beta User testing  
We went on to design our first low-fidelity prototypes from the insights we have gained talking with our target users and from our secondary research analysis, consisting of 3 main use cases: 

1. Pro-bono advisors matching based on individual needs
2. Long-term & Short-term Goal Setting & Tracking
3. Receiving quick Resources & Tips from advisors

We then conducted our first round of user testing and then I went on to organized our qualitative data into concrete themes in order to form our next steps.
Wireframes
03.b
The wireframes were a key issue of the project because it allows me to ensure that the workflows were intuitive and completed. Thanks to the user testing insights. we realized the key improvements for our high-fidelity prototypes: 

1. Some kind of gamification/motivation integration
2. More refined theme and color scheme
3. Scheduling/chatting flow should be more direct & easy to understand for our target users.
EXPERIENCE MAP TO GENERATE JOURNEYS

Implementation

Prototyping

04.a
FIGMA PROTOTYPING 
When designing high-fidelity prototypes on Figma with another designer, I incorporated design components and auto layout to increase effectiveness, especially when designing for different screen sizes, and also to ensure the consistency of our design throughout the pages.

I learned that for certain interactions on Figma, it’s not sufficient to use just normal prototyping tools for user testing, and so I had to incorporate Animations on Figma. This has created a more intuitive experience for our users during our second round of user testing, allowing them to freely explore for all our user flows questions.

Selection of Interfaces
For the users

Mobile app dev

04.b
LEARN AND IMPROVE
In order to hand-off our high-fidelity prototype effectively to our engineers, I outlined clearly the flow of our prototype along with documentation for each use cases on Figma (including spaces between components, font/icon sizes, color coded, etc).

I also organized weekly meetings to have a quick update on their process and make design changes according to their technical feasibility in order to align with our timeline for the final capstone showcase (Jan-May).
Android Development of our App
For the users

Review

Introspection

05
In our ethical consideration, we value clarifying user privacy, being responsible with user data, and creating inclusive technology. As for our concerns, our first is that we’ll be violating our user’s privacy when viewing their bank transaction history. To address this, we’ve decided not to save any detailed information of their spending habits, but instead use their information to make a few early calculations. Next is our financial planner’s ability to balance coaching with advising without overstepping in one area or the other. To help with this we’re intending to introduce ice-breakers through chat/message with the use of AI/Chat-bot to help our users create a strong trusting relationship with their advisor.
As for our next steps, our team will be keeping this project open to the next cohort of iSchool students to continue adding features and improvements to the overall workflow. Here's our website landing page for further information of our contact information: https://fingrow.wixsite.com/fingrow
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS & NEXT STEPS

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