An Effort to Improve the Usability of a Savings App
Client
Flourish Savings
My Role
UX Design Researcher
Deliverables
Competitive analysis, Heuristic Evaluation, User surveys, Usability testing report and analysis, high fidelity wireframes, high fidelity screen mockups.
Introduction
The Flourish App is a money savings app that aims to provide a fun, engaging and rewarding experience to its users while developing healthy saving habits. Their target users are typically 18-35 year olds, earning a low to middle level income, first generation immigrants or US citizens.
The Challenge
Since its conception, the app has been struggling to retain its registered users and has been experiencing low user engagement.
Problem Statement
How Might We enhance the user engagement and user experience of the Flourish App to attract new users and retain its current users.
The Process
In order to enhance the user engagement of the app the client requested that I perform research by conducting user interviews to gather requirements from the target user audience and redesign the user experience according to the feedback. After understanding the company’s goals and challenges and evaluating their current user research and other marketing material I came to the following conclusion:
They had sufficient user research in the forms of user interviews, insights, personas etc.
They had not conducted any usability testing before or after the launch of the app.
Based on these findings I suggested that instead of interviewing new users (previously done) we should test the app with current users to find out the successful features and the pain points. These testings would provide us with the specific areas that need improvement and the ones that have been preferred.
The Process requested by the Client
The process I suggested after understanding the challenge
Discovery and Research
1- Competitive Analysis
After understanding the company vision and reviewing the existing user research I decided to conduct usability testing. But before that I decided to perform market research on the competitors. This would give us an idea of the business strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We learned that Flourish Savings have some pretty well established competitors with a large user base. The one thing that stood out was that all the competitor apps provided motivation to users for saving money by allowing them to be able to set goals. This piece of information was key since the Flourish app currently did not provide a feature like that. The apps also had a very clear navigation layout and some other features like visual goal tracking which made them popular with users.
Tip Yourself rated fair overall
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Digit rated best overall
2- Heuristic Evaluation
Since the Flourish savings app had low user engagement I wanted to find out the pain points in the app’s usability. I decided to perform a heuristic evaluation on the UI Design of the App based on the ten usability heuristics based on Nielsen Norman’s design principles. The purpose of the evaluation was to find if the app violates any of the usability and design heuristics. We concluded with evidence that the app actually does violate 4 design heuristics.
Findings from the Heuristic evaluation
Usability Testing - The Missing Link
We decided to conduct user testing for the app with new and current users to discover the pain points and point out the positive features of the app. We repeatedly tried to get in touch with the current users to schedule testing but when we did not hear back from them we decided to shift gears. Time is precious so we decided that we will test new users who match our target audience. I started out by sending user surveys to target our required user demographic.
User Surveys- Start with finding the right users
Finding the right target audience was key for this project since the app is designed for a specific audience. I sent out screener surveys to the connections provided by the client and also reached out to my own network. These were some of the user specifics I gathered from the surverys:
Age Range (18-35)
Mostly employed part-time
Low to mid income level
Moderated User Testing
From my survey results I chose 5 users that matched the target profile and created a list of tasks that I wanted them to perform during the testing. The tasks that I chose were specific to the core of the savings app. My goal was to figure out where and why we were losing user engagement and what features of the app were working well. I conducted 3 moderated in-person and 2 remote moderated sessions.
Think Aloud and Perform Tasks Strategy
Users were asked to perform these actions and provide feedback:
Register and link bank account
Explanation of the home screen
Set a savings goal
Check your rewards
Check your savings amount
Key User Quotes While Testing
“What does ‘Map’ mean?”
“ I would just rather see my next milestone…”
“ I don’t know how I can set a savings goal..”
“ How do I earn coins? I’m confused..”
“Why can’t I edit my profile information?”
“I like the playfulness and the look of the app..”
Key Findings from Testing
5/5 users were unable to set/edit a savings goal
4/5 users were confused about the home page navigation
3/5 users were unclear about how rewards were earned
2/5 users thought the profile would be editable
THE IDEATION AND REDESIGN PROCESS
Sketches
A simple pen and paper sketch is where the ideation process evolves. I kept the user feedback and insight in mind when designing the screen layouts on paper. My main goal was to keep navigation clear and simple by using the right wording, layout and UI elements.
Ideation starts with sketching screen layouts on paper.
Wireframes
Using Sketch I created wireframes for the high fidelity screens. In my design I aimed for the following:
Improving Navigation from the Home screen
Adding a savings goal section where goals can be added and edited
Changing the layout of the home screen for easy access to other pages
Making the profile part of the home page and making it editable
High Fidelity Screens
Since the users liked the existing ‘look’ of the app, I decided to design around the theme and went with the playful look of the app.
Redesign Home Screen for Clarity and Improved Navigation
I used visual spacing for the layout to keep relevant information together and clear. I replaced the current home screen named ‘Map’ with ‘Dashboard’ since it provides an overview of a user’s savings, rewards, goals etc . I decided to use the home icon for the dashboard to keep it simple and conventional. I added ‘Goals’ in the main navigation as well as created a separate link to it from the home page so users can easily add or edit goals. Users can also view how much of their goal they have achieved from the home page.
User quotes influenced my design process
Users Able to Create, Track and Edit Savings Goals
The main purpose of the app is to encourage savings and the existing design was trying to achieve that by providing the users feedback when they reached a savings milestone (a preset amount of total money saved). I felt that this could have been their biggest missing link where they were not being able to sustain their user engagement and keep them from frequently using their app. Putting myself in the user’s shoes, researching the competitor’s apps and getting user feedback all led me to the conclusion that saving towards a tangible goal is the biggest motivator for saving money! Not only that but being able to visually track your progress towards the goal helps. Therefore I made sure that I gave critical and utmost importance to the user to be able to create, edit and track multiple savings goals at one time.
New screens were added for adding or editing savings goals
What I learned from the project and future steps I would take….
This project was heavy on user research and using that feedback and incorporating it for redesign while meeting the client’s business goals. My client was a start up Fin-tech with limited funding and a very small team (mostly remote). I enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate directly with the COOs of the company as well as other team members. My key takeaways from the project are:
1- How to effectively provide solutions under limited constraints of time and money.
2- Asking a lot of questions and digging deep into the problem before jumping into the process.
My contract with the company was for 4 weeks. If I had more time my next steps would include :
1 - Creating an interactive prototype using Invision incorporating the new screen designs in the current app.
2 - Run a second round of user testing (preferably A/B testing).
3 - Further Iterations to design based on the feedback.