Fintech | Design sprint x RBC
As a student at BrainStation, I participated in an RBC sponsored 5-day design sprint. The outcome was a mobile app that empowers preteen first-time bankers to feel in control of their finances.
Timeframe: 5 Days
Role: UX/UI Designer, Strategy and Research
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Invision
Team: Carolyn Cathcart, Michelle Lam, Laura Sajdik and Nadia Shervani
Discover
ABOUT THE CLIENT
Figo Bank is a friendly and approachable brand, with the primary goal as a business to help simplify the many elements of saving, spending and investing money.
Client constraints included using ‘Avenir’ as the primary font and specific brand colours.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
“Our customers have been asking for a native mobile app for a long time. However because customers can already manage their personal finances through the responsive website, we want our mobile app offering to provide value that uniquely speaks to each of our target customers types.”
TARGET AUDIENCE
Preteens/teens opening their first join bank accounts with their parents or guardians, and post-secondary students applying for their credit cards; how can we encourage them to make the best financial choices young? How do we ensure they are loyal to Figo Bank all their lives?
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Considering we only had a day, using guerilla research methods, our pool of interviewees consisted of preteens and their parents. We arrived at the following insights.
Majority of the parents expressed a desire for their children to learn the importance of goal-setting and saving early on.
Most believed that the effective way for their children to learn about financial literacy would be to allow them to have control over their money with the hope that they would learn the benefits of saving over time.
Parents wanted their children to be able to exercise self-discipline with spending, hoping to teach their children to curb impulsive spending early on in life.
When motivating their children to save, parents believed a visual goal like putting money in a piggy bank acted as a better incentive than an abstract concept like ‘the future’.
How might we help preteens feel in control of their finances in order to help them achieve their tangible goals?
Define
USER PERSONA
Based on the insights from interviewing preteens and their parents, we arrived at the following persona as our ideal target user for our product.
EXPERIENCE MAP
We then mapped out a scenario in Liz’s life based on her persona and proceeded to mark out areas of opportunity where she could interact with the app.
Ideate
TEAM SKETCHES
Once we selected a core task, we began sketching ways in which the app could teach Liz financial literacy in a fun and engaging way. We also looked at other fintech apps catering towards first-time bankers. The sketches revealed some commonalities between the way we were thinking as a team to visually represent a way to help kids track saving and spending progress.
Solution
VISUALISING SPEND VS. SAVE
In order to help Liz track her savings and expenditure it was important to have that available visually alongside her goal.
CHILD CONTROL TO ALLOCATE THEIR MONEY
Providing an opportunity for the preteen to split earnings in Savings and Spending gave them a sense of independence and control over decision making.
INCENTIVE TO SAVE UP FOR THINGS THEY WANT
The motivation to save was reinforced by the ability for the parent to match the amount if they made that conscious decision to save. Creating a system of positive reinforcement.
VISUAL PROGRESS TO KEEP CHILD MOTIVATED
The motivation to save could be strengthened by a visual tangible goal.
Usability testing
USER TEST INSIGHTS
After running our usability test through five participants we derived some key insights on what was working and areas for improvement.
WHAT WAS WORKING
The opportunity to split earnings in Savings and Spending gave our users a sense of independence and control over decision making.
The progress bar was very exciting to our preteen user to visually track her goals.- an uphill climb to get to that golden bike
WHAT NEEDED IMPROVEMENT
Although the majority could not identify the chore icon list, it did resonate well with our preteen user.
The upload picture function was a bit ambiguous. Users needed more context to know what to upload.
Restructuring the chore list to show how the more difficult tasks get more money, can help Liz see how working harder can earn more money.
Marketing website
We were also required to create a responsive marketing website to promote awareness for Figo’s banking app catering towards first time bankers.
Next Steps
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Possibility of exploring a ‘Think Ahead’ investment account to reinforce the concept of the earlier you invest the better.
Referral program as a source of income for our young users.
A concept of a shared goal for example, if Liz and her gang want to go for a concert, it could help create a healthy competition to achieve a common goal and stay motivated as well as acquire customers.
Explore a Parent-child dashboard to highlight their interactions on a digital landscape.
Learnings
TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
I was AMAZED at how much we were able to achieve in just 5 days. Time allocation prior to starting any brainstorming activity during the discovery or ideation phase really helped keep us on track. Assigning roles and responsibilities at the start and being reminded of the goal or agenda at the beginning of an ideation session was essential in streamlining conversations and keeping us on track within a 5-day sprint.