Let's make personal finance approachable

In March 2021, I met with the Co-Founder of a fintech startup called Investii. I was given the opportunity to join their team to work on and amplify the UI of the browser platform and develop a better experience. Investii is a socially-driven fintech solution increasing American financial literacy, empowering users to build positive financial habits, and incentivizing saving.

Problem

Investii’s goal is to create a more equitable financial system by aligning creditworthiness with healthy financial practices. The US credit score system is aligned with spending rather than saving and this isn't always encouraging for the younger generations, which obstructs these healthy financial practices needed to prepare for a financially stable future. I observed that the current UI - which had not yet been released - wasn’t approachable for the target market, and didn't provide any visual learning opportunities for those who aren't fluent in financial terminology.

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How might we make personal finance approachable and comprehensible to those just starting out on their financial journey?

My Starting Point

When I joined the team, Investii's platform was developed by a startup accelerator program and had the basic functions configured, but didn't successfully demonstrate any hierarchy, information architecture or approachability through design.

Account Dashboard

• statistics not visually represented
• no visual hierarchy
• too much white space
• doesn't gain customers trust

Control Center

• visually blank
• order of cards/importance
• confusing toggles
• no gratification or reassurance when actions are completed

User Persona

Meet Ali, a young professional, a few months into her first full time role as a graphic designer in Minneapolis, MN. Where did Ali come from? Well, she is a direct result of our user interviews collected by the investii team before I jumped on board. While digging through these interviews, I discovered several patterns that influenced my decisions when developing Ali.

#OnWisconsin     #GenZillenial     #mpls

GOALS

• pay off her student loans
• learn more about personal finance
• set herself up for a stable financial future

HABITS

• weekly amazon purchases
• stops at dogwood coffee every morning
• tiktok scrolling

PAIN POINTS

• confusing financial resources
• the credit score system and creditworthiness
• boring and frustrating bank apps

Feature Prioritization

As I dove into the existing prototype, I discovered hierarchy was my main priority. Everything in the original prototype was given equal importance, when it’s clear some are needed above others, both from the users and from the encouragement of the investii team. This prioritization matrix includes all of the features included on the platform, but ranked to understand the hierarchy needed for the design.

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Style Guide

The founders and I had a few meetings about branding and we discussed the everything from simplistic color scheme and icons, to the full brand story. We landed on the concept of stacking - stacking up your accounts and your coin to better your financial situation. You can see this pattern hinted at throughout the style guide.

Product

After the considerations above, developing the UI for the investii platform came relatively easy. Incorporating the hierarchy and brand to the needs of the user all came together. The product was released to the waitlist on July 18th, 2021.

What's Next

With the release of this version of the platform, we are working to finish building the marketplace and user profile. Moving forward into those next steps, we are also looking forward to the mobile app. We are currently testing users to better understand the improvements needed and to further discover the priorities of the users in the platform.

Below is a sneak peek into investii's mobile app development.

Learn more about Investii here

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