Spending Genie

2023 | Product Designer

My role

Designed the core user journey

Advocated a research-focused UX process

Delivered hi-fi specs

Background

We want to develop an application that can help millennials become aware of their expenses. It's a map-based app that can automatically track where and what our users spend their money on.


Problems

How might this app help a user solve the issue of overspending?

What is overspending?

Overspending is spending more money than you earn.

  • Convenience spending 

  • Emotional spending 

  • Impulse spending

  • Comparative spending

Research the landscape

Many types of services available, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone. You need to narrow down to your target users to really address their pain points and needs.

Narrow down the focus

    • 25-30

    • Single or newly married couple

    • Getting started on their life and career

    • Urban environment

    1. no time

    2. trivial urban spending (convenient / emotional / comparative spending) add up; hidden fees / subscriptions eat up the income

    3. often has an important, hard-to-reach financial goal

    4. no financial literacy / just get started

    1. low effort, automatic background process

    2. track and highlight spending that are often overlooked

    3. help users set financial goals, and create a sense of achievement for saving

    4. financial wellness education at the right moment

The hero solution

“Genie”

Find ways and motivate users to save from their daily expenses (believe me, there are a lot!) 

.. to fund their big goals

Key user journeys

  • Onboarding

  • Get insight into overspending

  • Create genie to save to spend

  • Monitor and adjust

App structure

4 sections

  1. Home - Overview

  2. Genie

  3. Transactions

  4. Me

The hero journey

Genie

How to create a genie that helps Amy set up savings to fund their big goals.

The hero journey

Prototype

Step-by-step Genie setup flow

Landing experience

Homepage

People can see their overall financial status and what are the things that require their attention.

Look at this from a longer time span…

Genie in your life

Challenges & learnings

Challenges

  1. How to differentiate?

  2. How to catch user attention in their busy schedule?

  3. How to make mundane task to delightful and motivating experience?

Learnings

  1. Research into millennials’ needs and find the right customer segmentation  

  2. Less is more - clean and streamlined information architecture 

  3. Bright and cheerful visual design and UX writing