client
 FinTech App at CowryPension
sector Wealth Management , Banking , Financial Services ,
project time 2 days
my role My role as a UX designer, was to research, analyse and address the potential problem a client between the age 35-55 with £200,000-£450,000 plus (looking to invest) might face and define the user experience a lot better based on findings using simple UI designs.
my contribution
  • User Interviews
  • Competitor Research
  • Data Synthesis
  • Research
  • Survey Analysis
services
  • App UX/UI Design
  • Web UX/UI Design
  • Wireframes & Userflow
  • Tools: Adobe XD
  • Languages: HTML & CSS
team
Richill ARTLoe(UX/UI Designer)
CowryPension is a digital platform that guides individuals to invest in pension plans based on their investment style and profile. The digital platform provides a transparent simplistic approach to make it easy for anyone to invest in pension plans with confidence. Their vision is to make retirement planning fun, hassle-free, informative, intuitive and accessible to everyone.
Financial Services tools aren’t the most exciting products to use, they can feel cold, boring, and very corporate. As complex tools with tons of functionality and customisation, most provide insufficient training and education. The challenge was to address potential investment challenges a client might face when using these financial services to select the right investment. A UX Analysis was designed to explain CowryPension’s services and products to its users (clients), encourage it’s clients to register, be able to provide informative simplistic information to its clients, and to help it’s clients to make good investment decisions for their retirement plan.
methodology
Design Process: The diagram displays the Design Thinking Process to be utilised in order to design the solution (when focused on the needs of the users).
problem statement & solution
How might we improve the UX/UI experience and process for the business & users.
  • problem statement #1
    User's Experience - Problem Statement

    Adam is a middle-aged professional working in the UK. He is looking to retire early and will therefore like to start investing in his future. Adam wants to ensure there is enough funds for his retirement and would therefore like to set up a savings plan. Adam has little knowledge on investment & how to find the best investment plan that tailors to his preference. He is looking for a trustworthy plan, that is accessible and easy, which will support him in making a good investment and saving up for his future.

    Hypothesis
    How might we support Adam in his retirement project by providing him with an easy, accessible, and trustworthy solution to invest? For the financial app, we believe that, by creating a visually appealing app with a clean interface design and by refining the user experience by breaking down complex investment process and data, we will achieve a way to allow Adam in making the right investment decisions in selecting the right financial package tailored to his preference and also increase his financial knowledge through a designed financial guidance pop-up and through a clear simplistic graphical presentation of his potential investments.

  • problem #1
    Lack of an informative platform, simplistic investment process & financial guidance

    The main challenge was to:
    1. Alert: Build an alert/notification feature, that provided simplistic information on: All pension Fee charges, Auto investing, Investment performance, And where funds were being invested
    2. Trust: Improve user's trust with app: Test application before registration, Provide financial assistance on financial package and selection process whiles testing the app
    3. Engagement: Make the app more visually pleasing for anyone interested in investing
    4. Time: Improve application registration process

  • solution #1
    Create an easy, accessible, trustworthy & informative platform

    How might we support Adam in his retirement project to invest? The goal was to create a transparent, simplistic UX designed journey that was clear and frictionless. The main focus was on:

    1. Alerts: design notification alerts: Mobile alert → app inbox → detailed info on transfers & fees
    2. Trust: Graphical display of potential investment broken down in a simplistic detailed way
    3. Engagement: Avatar & blog on financial performance. Gamification - goal orientated approach
    4. Time: Shorten application with valid question - leave application to the last
    Select amount/yrs → produce report → fill investment application & Auto fill form via Scanning

competitive analysis
An assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors.
Based on current research there were quite a lot of direct competitors. A few direct competitors were analysed and the research started with looking into these companies that offer tools to invest for retirement and compared their brands & features. The SWOT analysis focused on the strengths & weaknesses of these competitors. The indirect competitors that were analysed were: Plum, PensionBee, Moneybox and Nutmeg. The creation of the SWOT analysis helped to assess current direct competitors in the financial service space that dealt with pension. Also, due to general disadvantages of using a pension platform prompted the question of how to build a user confidence through the UX/UI design flow and how to integrate reliable data coverage, this was an important part of the research. In-depth analysis can be found here: https://bit.ly/3sbqYIh
swot analysis
  • s
    strength
    • Great for investment novices
    • Real time predicted pension balance & data update
    • Higher investment success in automated financial goal orientated approach-due to analysed user investment risk preference
    • Automated savings features
  • w
    weakness
    • Lack of Clever investment triggers [positive notifications]
    • Long registration & application process
    • Limited information on investments, Fee charges, auto investing and investment performance
    • Investment process complicated - less informative & less guidance
  • o
    opportunities
    • Internal growth opportunities (Practise more strategic tax management)
    • Ability to create a niche in the financial investment market - focusing on more diverse plans eg: fossil fuel plans (ethical investments at a low annual fee)
    • Ability to improve user investment preference to match the right investment packages using new tech. This provides an opportunity to practises differentiated pricing strategy
    • External growth opportunities (mergers and acquisitions)
  • t
    threats
    • Danger of replication of company design. Business design is the core strength of the company and the main factor of business's success.
    • Companies may be exposed to various liability claims given change in policies within the markets
    • Increasing competitive investment prices of established companies can lead to serious pressure on profitability
    • Extreme competition from domestic and worldwide rivals with quickly altering trends of customer choices.
challenges UX/UI
Challenges in the user experience & flow
  • challenge #0
    Trust: Design a process/feature that nudges users to register

    Creating an engaging design flow that allows the user to test the investment process to be able to preview predicted investment performances & fees. This in-order to allure them to register and to gain their trust and interest to invest. Also the provision of a financial assistance in a form of an avatar to guide them in the selection process whiles testing the app.

  • challenge #0
    Alert & Engagement: Creating An Engaging Informative Experience For Clients

    Displaying and designing good UX/UI pop-ups & notifications that engages with the user to meet their financial goals and also educates and informs them on different financial investment packages, investment performances and the fess involved. In this way, the experience of the app becomes more engaging, pleasant, transparent and less tiring.

  • challenge #0
    Time: Improving the user journey by decreasing the investment application process

    Creating an engaging & easy-to-use investment application process where users can autofill forms via scanning or a use and ID (with integrated APIs). This avoiding the tiresome process and high dropouts in continuing journey to invest.

challenges - sector
Challenges in the Wealth Management , Banking , Financial Services , Sector
  • challenge #0
    Tricky Investment Processes Made Complex

    Not many financial apps are able to turn tricky complex financial processes into an enjoyable experience, thereby leaving consumers feeling embarrassed, uncertain, annoyed & violated about their decisions & provided info. Creating a simplistic, informative user journey can help consumers easily view investment plans & target and set up payment plans. In this way, consumers are not subjected to complex processes.

  • challenge #0
    Delayed process in transferring funds. Significant time lag between deposit and investment

    Not all pensions are transferable, the client may not be able to transfer their funds should they change jobs. And in most cases when being able to transfer the funds the process is very long, slow and daunting. This is one of the highly complained point/service by clients

  • challenge #0
    Unable to easily access/withdraw funds

    Another challenge of pension plans platforms is their inaccessibility. Your pension is locked up until retirement day. That means if you end up in an emergency situation and need a big chunk of money to take care of it, your pension won’t help. There may be penalties for early withdrawals which could be fairly steep. 

findings from interviews & survey
With the knowledge of Design Thinking, interviews & suverys were conducted to gain feedback in order to iterate throught designs. Collected data from user interviews was analysed and synthesised into key findings. User statistics were also explored through graphical representation.
  • interview questions #1
    Interview questions

    Assuming the client already had a saving plan or would like to set up one. The questions that were conducted in person were as below:

    1. What is your age?

    2. How important is TRANSPARENCY (e.g. knowing where your money will be invested) for you when choosing an institution to set up a saving plan?

    3. How important is COMMUNICATION (e.g. being able to speak to an advisor whenever you have a question) for you when choosing an institution to set up a saving plan?

    4. How important is TRUST (e.g. recommendations from friends, or family) for you when choosing an institution to set up a saving plan?

    5. How important is MONEY (fees you need to pay and profit you are able to make) for you when choosing an institution to set up a saving plan?

  • survey questions #1
    Survey questions

    To get an idea of what people felt and what they did about their retirement plannings a survey containing 10 questions was distributed to the targeted demographic; Middle age group with and without families, ages: 35 - 55 years. Click Here To View Survey

    Targeted groups were asked about their investment status, current investment situation, their views on investment and if currently consulting an advisor or using applications to enabled them to effectively find an investment of their preference. Click Here To View Survey Results

  • key findings #0
    Limited guidance & info on available savings plans

    One of the key findings within the survey was: the survey results showed majority of people expressed concern over not having a retirement plan but showed interest in considering setting up a savings plan. The increase in this result was mainly due to limited information and the lack of financial guidance on investment plans and selecting the right investment plans. 

  • key findings #0
    Complicated investment process

    Another key finding was the complicated process and limited guidance when it came to selecting the right investment. From the survey analysis, quite a substantial number of users did not have a savings or retirement plan mainly due to the overwhelming information, complexity and less guidance when it came to selecting the right investment plan. Financial tools aren’t the most exciting products to use, they can feel cold, boring, and corporate. As complex tools with tons of functionality and customisation, most provide insufficient training and education.

  • key findings #0
    Lack Of Transparent investment information

    Currently there is a lack of transparency: From the interview questions, not survey questions, responses showed users found transparency highly important. However, intensive research on competitors' trust-pilot reviews, showed a key finding, that clients did not feel they were well informed of the fee charges related to their investment and also not well informed where their funds were being invested. 

user persona
Building empathy
  • "I want an easy, accessible, and trustworthy solution to invest"
    Adam
    age: 44
    job: Product Manager
    education: MA Management
    status: Single
    Adam is a middle-aged professional working in the UK. He is looking to retire early and will therefore like to start investing in his future. Adam wants to ensure there is enough funds for his retirement and would therefore like to set up a savings plan. Adam has little knowledge on investment & how to find the best investment plan that tailors to his preference. He is looking for a trustworthy plan, that is accessible and easy, which will support him in making a good investment and saving up for his future.
    goals
    To start saving for retirement
    To be more financially educated
    To create a financially secure future
    tasks
    Seek financial advise
    Compare fees of financial investment plans
    Research great financial investment packages
    Frustrations
    Lack of transparency of investment plans & fees
    Complex financial investment process
    Lack of financial guidance on financial platforms
    how CowryPension helps
    Provides a simple & secure way to invest
    Provides a range of tailored plans
    Provides an automated orientated financial goal approach
User Experience Map (user flow)
Structure of the App - User Journeys
A product-based journey map helped to better understand the user financial investment process and the investment package selection phases. The user journey was created to help with the ideation. The below investing method (in the below image) removes the complexity of choosing individual pension investments (though users can still invest in whatever they’d like), which makes it critical that the app builds trust with the user every step of the way. A simple misunderstanding of even basic features could theoretically lose users a lot of money! Yet because of the wealth of alternatives, the initiative to make the app fun and engaging had to be taken into consideration throughout the entire process. This sharpened our focus on building trust through visual appeal and ease-of-use. Using this information helped to identify key features of the financial application.

conclusion
Project summary

The primary goal was to address the potential problem an investor may face when considering a pension investment and therefore, to develop a great user journey/experience flow and design to eliminate some potential challenges the client may come across. This was achieved by improving the below user experience via the designs:

1. quick investment application process

2. financial educational and informative pop-up

3. Graphical display of potential investment broken down in a simplistic detailed way 

The information architecture, interaction design, usability, wire-framing and visual designs were all created for the UX design case study

learnings
Knowledge aquired through the design & development of project
  • challenge #0
    Simplifying The Complex Investment Processes

    Financial apps are seemingly at a disadvantage because of regulatory and legal requirements. Until recently, this led to poorly designed apps features and processes. Most still lack the clean interface design and refined user experiences. There was a lot to learn in creating better defined, smarter experiences that addresses the user needs. This design was risky but paid off due to its clear and simple user experience.

  • challenge #0
    Fintech Apps Don’t Have To Be Boring

    During the competitive analysis of other apps in the fintech space, it was clear most of them had bland color palettes and uninviting experiences. Investing is hard enough, so a conscious effort was made to keep things simple, both for process and interaction. Subsequently, the visual design turned out wildly different compared to other fintech tools.

  • challenge #0
    The power of clients reviews

    Feedback research on the pension fund services & apps were retrieved from trustpilot & the IOS app review log. Results from the feedback enabled the competitive analysis of each competitor and revealed the discovery of the lack of advisory support/services and transparency of pension funds. The feedback from the research enabled me to address the challenges a user experiences when considering an investment and investing in a financial package.

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