As the name states, FinGuru helps users with finance management through gamification.
In this case study we delve into designing the goal setting feature and budget tracking with
Duration
6 weeks
Role
UX/UI, Research
Group of 2
Team
Tools
Figma, Miro, Maze
focus on user engagement.
FinGuru is an AI powered finance management app. By connecting to user's bank accounts and tracking spending habits and income, helps users in:
Managing all their finances in one place
Effortlessly setting personalized budget and goals to save more and invest
Helping them stick to their plans and improve their spending habits
Context
Target Audience
People who:
Struggle with budgeting, saving and investing in general
Are used to budgeting manually but haven't had a good experience with finance management apps
Want to know where their money goes and stay on top of their finances
With a in finance management apps (by the 30th day of installing), we needed to figure out the reasons for drop offs in these apps.
Given the complexity and often overwhelming nature of finance, and the fact that fintech is associated with lots of numbers and boring charts, we needed to come up with strategies to maintain user motivation and also make it enjoyable and engaging.
Challenges
retention rate of approximately 5%
Interview
We asked mostly open-ended questions for a more engaging and conversational interview style, rather than sticking to a strict Q&A format.
Our questionnaire focused on:
What needs and expectations users have if they use budget apps
Why they stopped using previous finance management apps
How to encourage them to stick to their plan
What makes budgeting and future planning hard
So, we interviewed with 15 potential users who struggled with finance management:
11 people who
4 people who
have used finance management apps
are not familiar with finance management apps
manage finances manually
The findings from our research were then organized on an affinity map to turn the qualitative data into quantitative insight. Then, 6 of these groups helped us determine priorities moving forward in the process.
Findings
Automation, estimations and predictions to lower the manual entry and calculations
Strategies to manage overspending
Preparation of users for unexpected costs
Instant notifications to give users more control and room for growth
Clear and straightforward design with minimal learning curve
Takeaway
Automation, estimations and predictions to lower the manual entry and calculations
Strategies to manage overspending
Preparation of users for unexpected costs
Instant notifications to give users more control and room for growth
Clear and straightforward design with minimal learning curve
Takeaway
To understand how similar products in the market address user needs we conducted a thorough analysis of competitors.
Information architecture
Rollover concept
Motivational features
Visual design language
Gamification
Competitive Analysis
Strengths the competitors share:
No jargon, only the necessary information
Intuitive data visualization tools to enhance user comprehension
Difficulty in reducing the learning curve specially for users who are new to budgeting apps
Inefficiency in automation of goal setting process
Inability to enhance user engagement and motivation to stick to their plans
Weaknesses the competitors share:
After analyzing the competitors, we figured out that these apps were still boring and couldn't help with motivating users in the long run.
Hence, we conducted more research on gamification and studied some case studies about successful apps in using gamification.
Takeaway
Secondary Research:
For more inspiration for gamification elements we analyzed Duolingo, which makes a perfect case study considering user engagement.
Gamification elements:
Mascot
Point-based rewards
Badges
Progress trackers
Small visual milestones
Pros:
A character makes the experience more friendly, fun and personalized
Point-based rewards are extrinsic motivators to give reason to users to come back
Badges fulfil the basic need for self-worth, an important intrinsic motivator. Plus, users can look at their earned badges and review their progress
Small visual milestones are manageable steps to motivate users to engage consistently
Leaderboards, being compared to others and constantly competing can cause frustrations and anxiety in some users
Cons:
Also mentioned by some interviewees
In order to establish tasks for our design, and to communicate information about the users that we collected during research, we developed a persona.
Persona
User flow
Now it was time to have a meeting with the UX manager, stakeholders and engineers to present our identified challenges and developed solutions based on our research.
Ideation session
Meet the official character of FinGuru: ‘Monstie’
Taming the finance management monster
The Initial Challenges & Our Solutions
Mid-Fi wireframes will be shown later.
Here, Full Hi-Fi version of the app will be shown in Deliver phase.
the Hi-Fi version is presented solely to clarify the solution.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Iterations (phase 1)
Here are some of the iterations we made at this stage.
Design Elements
Usability & Iterations (phase 2)
Validation
To analyze the success of users in ‘Move budget’ and ‘Goal setting’ tasks, we set up a test platform on Maze.
Maze Result
8 users completed the two given tasks. Since the result were the same, only the data from the first task is shown here.
(Heat map)
Validation
To analyze the success of users in ‘Move budget’ and ‘Goal setting’ tasks, we set up a test platform on Maze.
Maze Result
8 users completed the two given tasks. Since the result were the same, only the data from the first task is shown here.
(Heat map)
Hi-fidility Prototype
Homepage
Transaction
Budget
Goal
Profile
Clickable Prototype
This case study focuses on goal setting and budget moving tasks. Other parts of the app may not be fully clickable.
Cupcakery ∣
Website
UX / UI Design, Research
FinGuru ∣
Website
UX / UI Design, Research
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