I designed an app to help women feel more confident investing.

ROLE: UX Designer & Researcher

PLATFORM: Mobile

TIMEFRAME: 6 months

OVERVIEW: I designed this proof of concept after asking women why they don’t invest. Far too many answered along the lines of “I’m not sure how.” This app (financED) gives it’s users knowledge about investing so they can feel empowered to take action with their money. This was the result of my Masters thesis work at Maryland Institute College of Arts.

Problem Statement

Working women don’t invest (or start investing late) because they generally lack confidence and knowledge in financial investment terms and protocols. They tend to save their earnings instead of growing their wealth.

 

Discovery & Planning

I often asked myself why do women earn less? I knew that women are paid 80 cents to every man’s dollar so how can they grow their wealth? After a competitive analysis of financial apps in the market, I decided to attempt to solve the problem with an investment app designed specifically towards women.

Something that stuck out to me most during user interviews was that women rely on trusted peers who have worked in the finance industry to get information, because they feel overwhelmed at the amount of information on the internet and aren’t sure which to trust.


 

Research

I wanted to gain an understanding of finance tools out there available for investors in general and investors who identified as women. Here’s what I did:

  • Held in-person and virtual interviews with industry-experts (fiduciary financial advisors, product designers @ Ellevest, and CPAs)

  • Conducted in-person user Interviews with entry/mid-level professional women who had a moderate-to-advanced knowledge

  • Competitive analysis of investing tools

 

Out of the research, I was able to make a persona, a storyboard, and customer journey map to help frame why the financED app could make an impact. While I made these assets, I made sure to design around these fundamental pillars that I established while synthesizing research:

  1. No one (regardless of gender) should start investing until they have 3-6 months of savings, most of their debts paid off, and concrete goal(s) to work towards.

  2. You should only invest in companies and options that you know, not because someone told you to.

  3. Women tend to start investing after a significant life event (ex: promotion, job change, etc)

 
 

Design

Before jumping into wireframes, I developed a list of key features and user stories to help me map out the information architecture of the app. Besides using the app as an educational tool, I wanted the experience to be one that would compliment the user’s journey user as they learned how to invest and watch their assets grow.

Unfortunately, because of time constraints I only had the bandwidth to design and test for features 1-3. I created a happy path and was able to go through 3 rounds of design for these features.


 

Key Feature #1 - Interactive Quiz

This was meant for helping the investor know her investment style. The results from this feature would inform the content for the rest of the app. If someone’s investment style was “conservative investor” then the educational material would show related content and the suggested investment goals would match.

Key Feature #2 - Educational Videos & Articles

This was meant for teaching the user common investment terms, reading up on market news, and learning about their investment style. Because it is a designated tab in the app and content is curated according to the user’s investment style, it can alleviate any frustration or decision fatigue that would have otherwise taken place outside of the financED app.

Key Feature # 3 - Goal Creator

This was meant for getting assistance when it comes to creating a realistic and attainable goal. By creating a concrete short term or long terrm investment goal, the investor can have something to work for.

 

Test & Findings

To better understand the utility of the design as well as the functionality of the 3 main features of the app, I used usertesting.com to conduct remote, un-moderated usability tests. There were 2 rounds of research which were completed with a total of 9 participants. To align with the testing goals, each usability test asked for feedback on the design and had 3 usability tasks to complete.

 
 
 

Takeaways

The journey to start investing is an emotionally draining one, and it’s important to design with that in mind. Seeing women react positively during user testing sessions proved to me that this proof-of-concept had legs! Since creating this I’ve even seen a lot of similar tooling live in the market.

Going through the beginning-to-end process of designing an app in such a short timeframe taught me that big ideas need to be simplified in order to be tested with. I think that some opportunities for future designs of this app can be:

  • Career coaching on salary and getting promotions

  • Adding partners or family members to the account

  • Re-calibration from unused funds in budget