Context and scope of work
At the end of 2021, I participated in the UX Advanced course conducted by SoftUni in Sofia, Bulgaria. The main focuses of the course were conducting research and interviews, creating user guides and instructions, user testing, and, as a special emphasis, design systems.
That's why the final task was to build a design system for an application (web or mobile) in a chosen domain. Prior to that, an analysis of the competition had to be conducted, user research needed to be carried out, and an inventory of one of the main market players had to be made. The design system and the screens developed with its assistance were meant to be a redesign of an existing market solution.
Due to my previous experience in the field, I chose the sphere of personal finance. The workflow went through the following stages:
Research
Competitive landscape
The analysis of the competition involved reviewing the applications (and respective functionalities) offered by the most popular companies in the personal finance management field. Basic features such as budgeting, recurring payments, statistics, and automatic bank statement imports were present in all of them – after all, budgeting (and its control) is the fundamental tool when it comes to personal finance. Versions for iOS and Android, as well as a decent level of security, were also offered by almost all of them. The differences (and the opportunities for market positioning based on unique competitive advantages) emerged in-depth:
Managing investments initially seemed like a potential untapped niche, but the user research in the next stage shed a different light on this matter – the main motivation for using such applications turned out to be dealing with a lack of funds (i.e., investment is not a topic at this stage) and a desire to gain control over finances (again, far from the concept of investing discretionary income). From this perspective, monitoring specific expenses (such as subscriptions, for example) and receiving alerts in certain cases (atypical expenses, exceeding the budget, bank fees above market average, etc.) proved to be valuable to users but were largely missing from existing solutions.
Taking into account the users' motivation, strategies for dealing with overwhelming debt turned out to be a genuine lack (referring to the standard methods for gradually repaying debts that exceed multiple times the incomes, such as snowball, avalanche, etc.), evidently underestimated by existing solutions.
Another useful (yet missing in all market players) feature was the automatic input of cash expenses through scanning of receipts, for example. In the next stage, users confirmed the seriousness of this issue, as all current solutions require manual entry of such expenses.
Shared budgets (with relatives and/or household members) also proved to be missing in half of the applications. Possible reasons could be specific to the target user group, such as individuals living alone, but despite that, neglecting the way couples, families, and roommates organize their finances leaves an open market niche.
Survey
The survey was conducted using a questionnaire that received 23 responses. The questions were divided into three categories: tracking income and expenses, budgeting, and attitudes towards credits, obligations, and savings. The last section focused on the demographic profile of the respondents.
In the first category, information was sought about the types and frequency of various income and expenses, the methods and tools used for tracking, the motivation behind tracking, and the difficulties encountered.
Regarding budgeting, the main focus was on the motivation to use budgets. To eliminate the phenomenon of individuals overestimating their own motivation and underestimating others' (or vice versa), direct questions about the reasons were duplicated with control projective questions. Additionally, information was gathered about personal experiences with budgeting, tools used, encountered difficulties, the point at which exceeding the budget is noticed, types of expenses where the budget is often exceeded, involvement of others in budgeting, and the need for additional information on the topic.
In the section on credits and savings, the focus was on personal experiences and motivations for using and repaying credits, as well as for saving. Approaches to managing these aspects and encountered difficulties were also explored.
The findings of the study largely confirmed the observations from the competition analysis:
- individuals with lower incomes are seeking specific functionality (ensuring their money lasts until the end of the month, organizing their funds in a way that allows them to afford what they want, etc.), while those with average and higher incomes strive to save and manage their money better;
- manual entry of expenses and cash transactions prove to be major hurdles in budgeting, as well as unidentified expenses in bank statements;
- budget overspending is uncontrollable as it is only realized at the end of the budget period.
From this perspective, a user-oriented budgeting product is expected to...:
- ...be customizable (through the tools it offers) according to users' personal goals, such as efficiency, savings, faster debt repayment, limiting expenses to a certain amount, etc.;
- ...provide automated entry of cash expenses (e.g., scanning receipts);
- ...offer expense recognition in bank statements;
- ...immediately alert users of budget overspending for specific expense categories and directly compensate for the overspending by reducing the budget for other expenses. In a better world, budgeting applications would support micro-accounts, through which payments could be made, and once the resources are exhausted, further payments would be impossible;
- ... provides periodic analysis of financial behavior based on users' personal goals, along with advice and guidance on how to improve it.
Inventory
The next task was to choose one of the competitors from the analysis and conduct an inventory of their website or application. My choice was YouNeedABudget - a personal finance and budgeting management application that, at that time, only had a website.
The inventory involved a comprehensive review of the entire website and categorizing the color scheme, typography, iconography, spacing, as well as interface elements such as banners, status bars, menus, headers, rows and columns of tables, pickers, drop-downs, buttons, switches, input fields, filters, charts etc. These are part of the working files:
The findings from the inventory revealed that at that time, the website lacked a certain level of consistency and appropriate visual hierarchy.
Design system
Based on the inventory, a design system needed to be developed to facilitate the redesign of the selected website according to best design practices. This involved defining styles (colors, typography, icons, spacing), developing components with their respective states, including data visualization, and creating patterns to be used at a later stage.
Since personal finances can be complex and stressful for many users, I chose a design system that is maximally simple and clean, with no distractions or loss of focus. All elements of the design system serve a functional purpose (i.e., they exist for a rational reason, not just for aesthetics), interactions are meaningful, and the hierarchy is clearly communicated. The ultimate goal was to prioritize the user and their behavioral patterns and ensure consistency in every aspect:
Pages design
The final task was to redesign two pages - a dashboard and a collaborative page - using the design system while preserving the original structure and functionalities.
For the dashboard, the focus was on presenting the user's key financial information. I employed a clean and minimalist design, along with graphics that visualize crucial data. The arrangement of elements was optimized for easy visualization and comprehension by the user.
The collaborative page served as a budget management page. I utilized a clear interface structure that allows users to easily add, edit, and analyze information.
The goal of the redesign was to provide functionality, clarity, and convenience for the users by offering them intuitively usable and aesthetically pleasing pages that cater to their needs and objectives.
The result of the exam was the highest possible grade, but the more important result for me personally was that I had the opportunity to work on a favorite topic from a design perspective and to focus not only on functionalities but also on design as a communication tool.
Thank you for your attention, and remember to approach your personal finances responsibly!
