Empowering Financial
Independence for
Young
People
Introduction
FinEdge is a conceptual mobile application designed to help young people manage their finances by saving money, gathering interest over time, and becoming eligible for low-interest loans for future business ventures. This case study showcases my process as a product designer, demonstrating my skills in user-centered design, UX laws application, and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Through detailed research, iterative design, and data-driven decision-making, FinEdge aims to provide young users with the financial tools they need to achieve independence and long-term success.
My role
As the sole product designer, I was responsible for the end-to-end design process, including user research, information architecture, wireframing, high-fidelity prototyping, usability testing, and design iteration. Additionally, I collaborated with developers to ensure technical feasibility and worked closely with stakeholders to align the product vision with business objectives.
My tools
Figma, Figjam, Google Analytics
Project timeline
Project Duration: 6 weeks
Target audience
The app is designed for young professionals and students aged 18-30, typically early in their careers or still in education.
- Young Professionals (21-30): Recent graduates or individuals early in their careers seeking to save for future business ventures, travel, or large purchases
- Students (18-24): University students looking to save for tuition or future personal projects while enhancing their financial literacy.
These individuals often face inconsistent saving habits, lack access to low-interest loans, and have gaps in their financial literacy. The FinEdge app aims to simplify the saving process, incentivize good saving behavior, and provide users with educational resources to improve financial decision-making.
Problem discovery
During the research phase, user interviews revealed three significant pain points among
the target audience:
- Inconsistent savings habits: Many users struggled with financial discipline, leading to irregular saving patterns.
- High-interest loans: Current loan products often come with high-interest rates, discouraging young people from seeking financial support.
- Financial literacy gaps: A lack of knowledge about managing savings and loans hindered users ability to make informed financial decisions.
How might we design a financial solution that helps young people save consistently, accumulate
interest, and qualify for low-interest loans while educating them on financial literacy?
Success measurement
I defined success metrics to measure the hypothetical impact of the product, focusing on the following:
- User retention:Aiming for a 40% monthly retention rate, driven by personalized savings plans and loan tracking
- Engagement:Targeting a 30% increase in daily active users due to engaging educational content and reminders.
- Loan eligibility improvements:Tracking a 20% improvement in loan eligibility within six months through consistent savings behavior.
- User satisfaction: Measured through post-testing surveys, with a goal of achieving a 90% satisfaction rate.
My solution - Finedge
Providing personalized savings plans, interest-earning opportunities, and easy access to low-interest loans, helping young people reach their financial goals and fund future business ideas with confidence.
Design process
User research and personas
I conducted surveys and interviews with over 50 young professionals and students. Based on this research, I developed detailed personas representing the primary user segments:
- Sophie (23): Entry-level marketing job, struggles with inconsistent savings and high social expenses.
- Jake (27): Freelance graphic designer, wants to save for a house and expand his business but finds loan criteria challenging.
Identifying pain points
During the research and user interviews for FinEdge, several critical pain points were uncovered. These insights helped shape the design direction and core features of the app.
Lack of personalized financial solutions:
- Many users expressed frustration with existing financial apps because they felt too generalized and did not cater to their individual financial needs or spending habits.
- Competitor apps lacked flexibility, forcing users into rigid saving and investment plans without accounting for their personal goals or lifestyles.
Low motivation to save:
- Users struggled with staying motivated to save regularly. Existing apps did not provide clear, engaging progress tracking or rewards for achieving savings milestones.
- The absence of visual indicators meant users felt little gratification from reaching financial goals.
Unclear loan eligibility:
- Many users were interested in obtaining loans but found the criteria for eligibility unclear in existing financial apps.
Lack of transparency in interest accumulation:
- Users had difficulty tracking how their savings were accumulating interest over time, making it hard for them to see the benefits of consistent saving.
- This lack of transparency discouraged users from seeing long-term financial growth through their savings.
Complex user experience:
- Competitor apps offered many features but were often seen as too complex for younger users, especially those who were just beginning to manage their finances.
- Users wanted an app with a simpler interface and fewer overwhelming options.
Competitive analysis
To ensure FinEdge stood out in a crowded market, I conducted a detailed competitive analysis on three major financial apps: Acorns, Chime, and SoFi. Each of these competitors provided valuable insights, highlighting opportunities for differentiation.
1. Acorns
Acorns is widely known for its micro-investing feature, allowing users to round up purchases and invest spare change. While this is a popular feature, Acorns falls short in several key areas that affect the overall user experience.
Key Lacks:
- Personalization: Acorns offers generic investment portfolios and savings plans. Users cannot set personalized savings goals or tailor their financial strategy according to their spending habits or life circumstances.
- Savings motivation: While Acorns focuses on investments, it lacks a clear, motivating system for everyday savings. There’s no emphasis on building small, sustainable savings habits, which leaves users less engaged in long-term financial planning.
- Loan features: Acorns doesn’t offer any loan features. For users who are looking to leverage their savings behavior for low-interest loans, Acorns doesn’t provide any pathway, leaving a gap for users needing more comprehensive financial tools.
- Financial education: While Acorns has basic educational content, it lacks in-depth resources that help users understand the nuances of personal finance, budgeting, and saving. This creates an opportunity to offer users more targeted educational materials through FinEdge.
2. Chime
Chime is a widely-used mobile banking platform offering features such as fee-free overdrafts and early access to direct deposits. However, it has limitations that reduce its effectiveness as a holistic financial solution for young people.
Key Lacks:
- Savings encouragement: While Chime offers automatic savings features, it doesn’t strongly incentivize users to save. The app doesn’t provide clear visual trackers that encourage users to achieve savings milestones.
- Interest on savings: Chime offers minimal interest accumulation for savings, which can be demotivating for users who want their savings to grow. There’s little emphasis on long-term wealth-building through interest, making it less attractive for goal-oriented users.
- Loan access: Chime provides no direct pathway for users to obtain low-interest loans. Users are often left looking for external loan services, which creates an opportunity for FinEdge to integrate savings behavior with loan eligibility as a core feature.
- Custom savings plans: Chime’s savings feature is quite basic. It doesn’t allow users to create customized savings goals or plans based on individual behaviors or needs, leaving room for FinEdge to introduce a more tailored approach.
3. SoFi
SoFi is known for its robust financial products, including student loan refinancing, personal loans, and investment options. However, it primarily caters to higher-income individuals or those with more significant financial needs, which alienates younger users.
Key Lacks:
- Complexity: SoFi’s user interface is cluttered, offering a wide range of features that can be overwhelming for younger or less experienced users. There’s no streamlined path for new users who need simpler tools to start managing their finances.
- Savings-focused tools: SoFi focuses heavily on loans and investments but lacks dedicated features for simple savings accumulation. Users seeking a straightforward savings plan, especially early in their careers, might find SoFi’s complex offerings unappealing.
- Loan eligibility transparency: SoFi offers loans, but the eligibility criteria are not transparent upfront. Users are not always aware of how their financial behavior impacts loan approval, creating a trust issue. FinEdge, by contrast, clearly ties savings habits to loan eligibility.
- Targeting younger demographics: SoFi’s marketing and product design focus more on individuals with existing financial stability, such as those seeking to refinance student loans or invest large sums. It doesn’t cater well to users just starting out in managing their finances, unlike FinEdge, which focuses on young adults who are building their financial literacy.
User journey mapping
I mapped Sophie’s and Jake’s journeys through the app, identifying key interaction points where the app could guide them towards better financial habits.
- Onboarding: Set up financial goals and establish savings habits.
- Savings plan: Track progress and receive nudges to stay on target.
- Loan eligibility: Visualize loan eligibility based on savings behavior.
- Financial education: Access educational content to boost financial literacy.
Brainstorming storyboard
Ensuring support for the ideal solution
scenario.
To support Sophie’s ideal journey with FinEdge, we transformed our design requirements into actionable statements. These are crafted to be broad enough for various solutions but focused enough to guide our efforts.
Information architecture
To ensure ease of navigation, I developed a simple and intuitive information architecture.
- Dashboard: Overview of savings, interest, and loan eligibility.
- Savings plans: Create, track, and modify personalized savings goals.
- Loan eligibility tracker: Real-time tracking of loan eligibility based on the user’s savings behavior.
- Education hub: Tailored financial literacy resources to improve users’ understanding of personal finance.
- Profile settings: Manage personal details, preferences, and notifications.
This structure was validated through a card-sorting exercise with users to confirm that the app’s navigation met their expectations.
Design goals
Based on the pain points identified, I established the following design goals to ensure FinEdge would offer an engaging, personalized, and transparent financial experience for young users.
Personalized smart savings plans
Create savings plans that adapt to user’s financial behavior and personal goals. This will ensure users feel the app is tailored to them, addressing their unique needs.
Motivation through visual trackers.
Implement engaging visual trackers that show progress toward savings goals. This will motivate users by providing a clear sense of accomplishment.
Transparent loan eligibility score.
Introduce a clear, visible loan eligibility score that updates based on users’ saving behavior. This will provide transparency and build trust, as users can see how their actions directly impact their loan eligibility.
Simple, intuitive user experience
Design an interface that is clean and intuitive, with easy navigation that doesn’t overwhelm users. Focus on essential features without unnecessary complexity.
By addressing these design goals, FinEdge will provide a simple, motivating, and personalized financial solution that not only helps young users save money but also offers transparent pathways to low-interest loans and financial growth.
UX Laws Applied
Throughout the design process, I applied core UX laws to ensure a user-centered design that was both functional and engaging.
Jakob’s Law
Users spend most of their time on other apps. I leveraged familiar navigation patterns, especially in areas like goal setting and dashboard features, to minimize the learning curve.
Hick’s Law
By simplifying the number of options presented to users at any given time, especially when setting up savings plans or reviewing loan eligibility, I reduced decision-making fatigue.
Miller’s Law
I ensured that the amount of information on each screen was manageable, limiting cognitive load and focusing on clear, concise data presentation.
Technical Collaboration
Although I was the sole designer, I collaborated closely with developers to ensure technical feasibility. Considerations included:
- Load Times: I worked with engineers to ensure images, videos and icons were optimized for fast loading.
- Scalability: The design supports future expansion, including adding AI-driven financial advice.
- Security: Prioritized security features like encrypted data and secure login methods.
Low-fidelity wireframe
Simplifying design for quick iteration and
testing at this stage.
I translated our user flow into low-fidelity wireframes to visualize and test the core functionality of the app. These wireframes focus on basic layout and structure, enabling rapid iteration and early user feedback. Our goal is to ensure that the design meets the needs of our target personas while remaining intuitive and efficient. This allows us to make necessary adjustments before moving on to high-fidelity designs.
High-fidelity wireframe
Creating a personalized and intractive saving feature.
Loan eligibility and applications
Profitability for stakeholders
How FinEdge delivers value to users and
profits to stakeholders.
Partnerships with financial institutions
FinEdge will work with banks and credit unions to offer loans and savings accounts. Here’s how we’ll make money:
- Referral fees: When users get a loan or sign up for a financial product through the app, the bank or credit union will pay us a fee. This adds a steady stream of income.
- Institution fees: Financial institutions can pay to have their products featured on FinEdge, giving users more choices and creating another source of revenue for us.
Data monetization and analytics
The financial behavior of users is valuable information. FinEdge can use this in two ways:
- Targeted advertising: Banks, insurance companies, or other financial services can pay to show ads within the app that fit the user’s financial habits. For example, a user who is saving a lot might see an ad for a high-interest savings account.
- Market insights: We can sell anonymous data (without personal details) to companies that want to know more about how young people save, spend, or plan for the future. This creates an additional revenue stream.
Scalable user base with low costs
FinEdge is designed for young adults, a large group that’s likely to grow quickly as more people use the app. With our digital tools already in place, we don’t need a lot of extra resources to serve more users. This means:
- Higher profit margins: As we get more users, our costs will stay the same or increase slowly, allowing us to make more money from each additional user
- Expansion potential: Once we’ve tested the app successfully, it can be launched in other countries with only minor adjustments, allowing us to expand and increase profitability.
User retention and lifetime value
FinEdge is built to keep users engaged over the long term by motivating them to save and offering them loans when needed. This does two things:
- Lowers churn: Since users will find value in tracking their savings and becoming eligible for loans, they’ll stick around longer. This saves money because acquiring new users is more expensive than keeping existing ones.
- Upselling opportunities: The longer users stay on the app, the more likely they are to upgrade to premium features, which increases revenue without having to attract new customers.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) appeal
FinEdge isn’t just about making money. It helps young people build better financial habits, which has a positive social impact. For stakeholders, this means:
- Attracting ethical investors: Investors who care about social impact will be drawn to FinEdge because it empowers people to save and plan for their future.
- Building trust: By positioning FinEdge as a tool that genuinely helps users, stakeholders can build a trustworthy brand that attracts more users and financial partners.
Usability testing and iteration
I conducted usability testing with 15 participants.
Key findings included:
- Simplicity: 90% of participants appreciated the straightforward interface.
- Loan tracker understanding: Some users were unclear about how the loan eligibility score worked, leading me to improve the explanatory text and visuals.
After incorporating feedback from usability testing, I refined the designs to simplify complex information, especially around loan eligibility, and ensured key features were easily discoverable.
Reflection and Learnings
Designing FinEdge was an enriching experience that taught me the value of iterative design and user-centered thinking. It reinforced the importance of:
- User testing: Continuous feedback led to significant design improvements.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Working with engineers ensured the design was both user-friendly and technically feasible.
- Growth mindset: Each iteration brought new insights, helping me grow as a designer.
Next steps
Although FinEdge won’t be launched, the project’s conceptual development suggests several potential future features, including AI-driven financial advice and a marketplace for financial services.