Money Expert

MOBILE SCREEN GALLERY

Use the grey arrows on the left and right below to scroll through all the mobile screens.

The Final Prototype. 90+ screens!

Let’s get started on the prototype…

• Scroll down to “Find Experts”

• Tap the square “Retirement” button

• Tap the square sort button on the bottom right (funnel icon)

DESIGN THINKING PROCESS

I used the Design Thinking Process to guide my project. The center of the Double Diamond outlines the steps I took to on this project.

PROBLEM

People fail to seek professional financial advice for numerous reasons.

• The fee structures are confusing.

• We fear commitment to untrustworthy advisors and think it’s expensive.

• Others couldn’t meet due to Covid or other circumstances.

How might we encourage more people to seek professional financial help?

THE SOLUTION

An ecosystem to talk to vetted financial experts with affordable pricing and no commitments.

THE BEGINNING

Let’s start from the beginning...

How did I discover this problem and reach this solution?

SECONDARY RESEARCH

I searched for problems to solve in the highly competitive financial advisor market. Here are commonly mentioned pain points around using financial advisors.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

I ran a competitive analysis on four direct competitors to see how they dealt with these issues. The competitors were the highest ranked results from a Google search of “Financial Advisors” or on NerdWallet’s top Financial Advisor recommendations.

S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS

HYPOTHESIS

I formed a hypothesis with the insights and data from my research.

I can exploit a competition gap by creating an ecosystem to talk to vetted financial experts with affordable pricing and no commitments.

SURVEYS

I ran a survey with 50 respondents to gather insights into my potential target users and test my hypothesis. Based on my S.W.O.T. discovery, I included a question on demand for shorter affordable 30 min calls.

66% of respondents need 30 mins or less with a financial expert.

CLIENT INTERVIEWS

I verified the quantitative data from the survey by gathering qualitative data from interviews.

“Top 5 Target Markets For Financial Advisors”

-The Pipeline at Zoominfo

Taking my survey findings, I ran 7 user interviews. My interviewees fit one or more of the above “Top 5 Target Markets For Financial Advisors.”

What insights did I uncover?

INTERVIEW INSIGHTS

People want transparent pricing, vetted experts, and video chat.

I organized key interview points onto post-its and distilled them into my insight above.

I used Strategyzer Learning Cards to translate the insights into actions.

CLIENT JOURNEY

From my interview insights, I created Dr. Laura and her journey as a client using the Money Expert app. Dr. Laura seeks a retirement expert with experience living abroad.

EXPERT INTERVIEWS

I interviewed four financial experts and shared my low-fidelity prototype to gather their insights.

I also needed to understand the expert’s POV.

EXPERT JOURNEY

I distilled the insights into a financial expert. This is Theodore’s expert sign-up with the three key insights in blue.

WIREFRAMES

I incorporated research insights into my design. I started by sketching low-fi wireframes of the different user journey scenarios.

3 KEY INSIGHTS INCORPORATED

I incorporated three key insights from the Strategyzer Learning Cards into my high-fidelity wireframes.

1. Experts want to market themselves.

2. Experts need to upload financial licenses.

3. Experts need to receive financial documents from clients.

SETBACKS AND REFOCUSING

I bit off more than I could chew. I had to refocus.

Setback 1: I started the Money Expert Web app to be international. The number of legal issues, differences in licensing, and government regulations of different countries made it too difficult to continue. I decided to refocus on the U.S. only.

Setback 2: I started with eight categories, including “Insurance” and “Real Estate”. This conflicted with hourly pricing as real estate and insurance work from commission. I refocused on core financial services and removed these two.

USABILITY TESTING

I conducted seven usability tests and ten peer reviews to uncover user pain points.

MAJOR ITERATIONS

From the combined feedback, I made four major iterations.

ACCESSIBILITY

Designed with inclusivity in mind. Incorporating accessibility for specific people in need can eventually benefit all people.

• Designed to meet WCAG 2.2 standards.

• Designed with Google Material i/o 2 guidelines.

• Responsive design for different screen sizes. No flashing or blinking content can trigger seizures for people with epilepsy.

• Multiple language options.

• Dark mode for less eye strain.

THE FINAL KEY SCREENS

The Final Product.

An ecosystem to find, book, and talk to vetted financial experts, with affordable pricing and no commitments. I designed a prototype with over 90 screens.

Link to my entire Figma work file here.

The style guide.

Designed to meet WCAG 2.2 standards. Designed with Google Material i/o 2 guidelines.

CONCLUSION + LESSONS LEARNED

What I’d do differently next time.

I would also coordinate my interviews in advance better. I should have decided to make my App for the U.S. only earlier. I made a mistake by taking the international idea into high-fidelity steps.

What I’d do if I had more time.

I would conduct more interviews with financial experts. I would implement the design for the desktop and do more user tests on the prototype.

Final Thoughts

My original HMW question was, “How might we overcome these obstacles by encouraging people to seek professional financial help?” And my solution is the final product. An ecosystem to find, book, and talk to vetted financial experts with affordable pricing and no commitments.

I explored many options to find a suitable solution. I created four significant iterations of my UX/UI to ensure every aspect was designed with intention. As this was a mock project there was no follow-up for a success metric with data. I feel good about my answer, as this was a big challenge, and the financial service sector in the United States is highly competitive. Overall I’m grateful for my results and this learning experience.

For more work inquiries or to grab a coffee, or craft beer email me at jasonpanux@gmail.com ☕️✨ Back to the Top

Thank you for reading.

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