Project Overview
Thrifty Savings App
The project, which was completed as a part of my UX design coursework, was to create a financial services phone app, in this case I chose to focus on designing an application that encouraged building healthy savings habits and rewarded building wealth, rather than encouraging users to consume by taking on debt.
The outcome of the project was a prototype of a phone app for a fictional start-up called Thrifty, that would help users set savings goals and save up for important purchases right in the app itself.
For more details, please see the below case study slide deck, which was completed as a part of the course.
Background Research
Survey Results
I sent out a brief questionnaire to friends and colleagues to get some general background information on how people used savings applications.
66% of respondents used personal finance apps, but only 33% of respondents used apps with targeted savings goals
Respondents generally used savings accounts to save up for big purchases
Most respondents cited credit card points or rewards as a factor when choosing a payment method
Academic Research
Saving Behavior: Financial Socialization and Self-Control (Manfrè 2017)
"Our results show that financial socialization received early in life is positively associated with general saving habits"
For the greatest impact, the product should be targeted at younger users to help build savings habits
Youthful and colorful visual style would be most appropriate for this project
Savings Goals and Saving Behavior [...] (Lee and Hannah 2015)
Study found that savings goals that fulfilled a personal desire, rather than an esoteric duty or obligation increased the likelihood that they would save
The app should be built around savings goals for specific personal expenditures (ie. tangible products and experiences) for the greatest impact
Behavioral and Contextual Determinants of Different Stages of Saving Behavior (Barrafrem et al. 2024)
“We find that individuals are more likely to start saving and save more when their friends are saving for the same goal”
Study showed that the attainability of goals had a crucial role in depositing funds, with more achievable goals having higher deposit likelihoods.
Ambitious goals, despite their challenging nature, attract more substantial savings.
High savings goals make your initial deposit less likely, so a user’s first savings goal should be very small and gradually build
They found that “hedonic goals” as opposed to “utilitarian goals” were more successful. Therefore the app should be tailored to saving for personal consumption rather than to encourage savings because it is beneficial
User Research
For user research, I extrapolated from the survey that I conducted and from the academic research I reviewed to create two profiles of likely Thrifty users. I assumed that the users would be younger, and without a lot of experience with building savings.
Creating user personas and journeys led me to focus on the social function of the app, so that you could show your peers what you are saving for and also to set up group saving goals. It also led me to create an achievements/rewards system to make the app more gamified and engaging for younger users.
User Personas
User Journeys
Ideation
Paper Wireframes
Ultimately Scrapped the idea to have the goals be a pulldown, instead of a separate page, after realizing how many goals a user might have.
Digital Wireframes
Iteration and Testing
Usability studies with the app yielded the following findings and adjustments:
Percentages was not an informative way to show how much had already been saved. Percentages were deemphasized and the saved and goal amount are both clearly shown
Labels were added to navigation, as every tester was confused by what several icons represented
Users felt that the home screen felt busy. The home screen was adjusted to allow for more breathing room and negative space. Number of social posts above the fold was limited to 3, which is in line with other similar apps (Venmo, for example).
Users who went to quickly through the navigation became lost and frustrated without convenient back buttons. Back buttons were added to allow users to back up within their flow.
Users felt that there could be more information about their goals on the goals hub screen, but also that the existing information was not presented in a pleasing way. Solution was to create an expandable information tab for each goal.
End Result
Academic research heavily shaped my design choices. I decided to focus on savings goals for tangible goods, rather than for the altruistic reason of “its good to save more” as that would be more engaging for users. The decision to emphasize a social component to the app was also derived from academic research as “peer pressure” has been found to be a big driver of savings activity among young savers. Going forward I would love to test some of these assumptions with younger users, as my network skews older than the target demographic for this product.
The achievement system is a way to “gamify” savings, and could likely become even stronger if partners could offer some sort of financial reward, in addition to incentive deals.
This product could likely be improved by deepening the savings group feature, and could even be extended to a feature to manage group spending (ie. services like Splitwise).
I would also like to further flesh out other ways that the app could encourage savings behavior, either though small round-up automatic contributions, or through push notifications.
Takeaways and Areas for Improvement
Have constructive feedback? Want to chat about this project? Please get in touch!