Lagom
Designing a digital wallet to bolster financial literacy including features like organizing, budgeting, and filtering past purchases in-app amongst Gen Z and millennials who prefer cashless payments.
ROLE
Sole UX/UI Designer
TIMELINE
6 months
TOOLS
Adobe XD, Balsamiq, Figjam, Figma, Google Forms, Photoshop, OptimalSort, Procreate, UsabilityHub, Zoom
METHODS
Competitive Analysis, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Sketching, UI Design, Usability Testing, User Flows, User Personas, User Research, Wireframing
THE PROBLEM
Many Gen Z and millennials grapple with personal finance management.
Despite being a tech-savvy demographic, managing multiple digital wallets to cater to diverse needs proves challenging. These individuals aspire to attain financial literacy and independence, yet barriers to entry of financial education impede their progress.
THE SOLUTION
Lagom is designed to enhance the features of existing wallets and improve financial literacy through transparency and organization.
By assessing the strengths of competitors and capitalizing on opportunities, Lagom is designed to bridge the educational gap in financial literacy.
MARKET RESEARCH
During COVID-19, a global survey conducted in 2021 revealed that 75% of individuals regularly used digital wallets.
This statistic reinforces the essential role that digital wallets play in our lives, from managing transfers to offering insights into credit scores. With this information in mind, I set out to delve deeper into user behaviors associated with digital wallet usage.
Research Goals
Understand the market of digital wallets
Identify the primary demographic of digital wallet users
Analyze the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses
Uncover user behavior related to digital wallet use
Determine features that users like and dislike about digital wallets
USER RESEARCH & AFFINITY MAPPING
I conducted a survey and multiple interviews with Gen Z + millennial users to understand their driving motives, if any, on personal spending and savings.
Some of the questions addressed personal spending habits, views on financial literacy, and the ease of use of digital wallets. I grouped the interview findings via affinity map and summarized key insights from the research.
THE OPPORTUNITY
How might we design a digital wallet that builds on existing features that works well in the market and addresses the need for building financial literacy?
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Existing wallets often lack the educational content necessary for fostering financial literacy.
Transactional finance services like CashApp, Venmo, and Zelle, while designed for access and use, lack a fundamental structure to promote financial literacy. To broaden my understanding of all types of wallets, I then expanded my discovery into personal finance management apps like Mint, PayPal, and YNAB to glean insights into effective organization and finance tracking.
The goal is to develop a digital wallet that maintains functional, user-friendly features while integrating educational content from personal finance management apps to create a comprehensive solution. I mapped out the features that these apps did well so that I could incorporate them into Lagom.
What were beneficial features among these apps?
Account management
Every app required secure verification to access its functionalities
Transaction history
Each app offered a mechanism to retrieve past transactions made in-app or linked to a financial institution
Money transfer function
Some apps have a peer-to-peer transaction system for sending or requesting funds
User-friendly UI with sufficient negative space
Each app has a simple, modern UI, designed to prioritize important features
SKETCHING
I explored preliminary screens based on what the final design needed to have.
Using a “no bad ideas” approach, I designed features to enhance financial literacy, experimenting with various charts, graphs, and lists. The goal was to provide users with a clear, informative, and intuitive experience.
PROTOTYPING + USABILITY TESTING
I recruited Gen Z and millennial users in order to conduct testing to gather feedback and inform revisions.
I conducted moderated remote user testing sessions with 5 participants of my target audience (Gen Z/millennials, users of digital wallets, familiar with technology) to see whether they understood the purpose of Lagom and uncover any opportunities for improvement.
Specifically, I wanted to assess if users found the navigation and features straightforward and intuitive to use and whether they were satisfied with the experience. Based on the feedback, I implemented the following revisions:
Added dropdown selection for monthly recaps
Updated the user interface with more vivid colors using green tertiary colors in support of color theory
Integrated intuitive interaction patterns derived from similar apps, such as the floating action button in the bottom navigation bar
Overall, 100% of users were happy to see that this app had everything in one place and was visually appealing to use.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
Scroll through account summary and insights
Providing relevant transactions and account balances empowers users to take control of their finances and utilize the knowledge in making informed decisions regarding future purchases or transactions.
Browse organized categories for regular tracking and analytics
Users can review a summary of monthly transactions, sorted by category and corresponding color. This offers a clear and bold overview at-a-glance.
Discover more details by interacting with the donut chart
This feature allows users to delve deeper into important purchases, or categories that require more monitoring.
Establish budget to spend responsibly
Establishing budgets is an effective way to avoid overspending. Users can toggle between two tabs to help them set realistic financial goals.
REFLECTIONS
Embrace iteration.
This project was my biggest and most complex challenge yet. I had to find a way to differentiate Lagom from the saturated market of digital wallets. I often found myself questioning procedures and empathizing with the user during all phases of the design. Some learnings and takeaways:
Prioritize insights over process expectations. The current copy is actually the 4th iteration of Lagom, with many of its initial features refined based on rounds of user feedback. At every stage, it is imperative to fall back on research insights so that I can validate design decisions.
Trust the process. I found it challenging to design the prototype and ample adjustments had to be made in the following iterations. Moving forward, this will help me grow as a designer and execute more efficiently.
Money is a complex matter. Given more resources, I’d like to consult with financial advisors on how to make Lagom more user-friendly and professional.
The goal is to develop a digital wallet that maintains functional, user-friendly features while integrating educational content from personal finance management apps to create a comprehensive solution. I mapped out the features that these apps did well so that I could incorporate them into Lagom.
NEXT STEPS
With more time, I’d like to expand on testing with the latest version of the prototype and build out functionality into the app.
The next steps would be to build out the remaining systems and iterate the high-fidelity prototype, such as:
Add more functionality to the ‘Budget’ page
Include necessary information for notifications, profile settings, privacy and legal settings in the ‘Settings’ page
Conduct a second round of user testing with the new high-fidelity prototype to identify if there are any usability issues
Once finalized, the design will be ready to enter the development phase. The design deliverables will be organized and handed off using Zeplin.
