Focal: financial education fundamentals
Context
When? What? Who?
Educating people of beginner and intermediate financial literacy levels by providing approachable learning.
Year
2024 Spring
Role
Research, design
Team
Self + 2 UX designers
Context
Mobile app
Background
So what's the problem?
Through our research, we discovered that individuals under 35 who self-report as being at a beginner or even an intermediate level of financial literacy share many common difficulties and behaviors in their financial knowledge-seeking, such as struggling to find and apply appropriate knowledge due to poor basics.
Accordingly, we developed a set of research-derived requirements and centered every iteration on those requirements, creating Focal: an educational app for building foundational financial literacy targeted at young adults.
Background
Who?
Relatively few young adults are given formal training on financial topics; financial literacy tends to come with age, but financial understanding is often most crucial at a young age, when important decisions regarding the future must be made. As such, our project’s primary goal is to address the gaps in users’ financial fluency and empower them to make independent, informed decisions in the financial sphere.
Primary Research
How?
After conducting secondary research, we conducted primary research with 149 survey respondents and 14 interviewees.
Primary Research
So, what did the research reveal?
Following analysis of our interviews and survey, we determined five key themes.
Preference for human assistance
People seek out information from friends and family; in their absence, they tend to rely on social proof
Lack of basic knowledge
People lack knowledge and experience in financial domains; they find the terminology and jargon difficult, seeking quick and easy answers
Financial topics as a chore
People do financial tasks because they must, not because they want to
Variance in opinions
There is substantial variance in opinion on what makes a resource engaging or a person/thing credible
Distinction in education v. advice
Education isn’t the same as advice; people don’t welcome unsolicited advice, highly valuing their autonomy
Primary Research
Let's talk requirements
Based on our research, we generated a set of prioritized requirements. M is highest priority, descending priority to W.
- M - Must have
- S - Should have
- C - Could have
- W - Will maybe have
Iteration
Lookin' at lo-fi
Our lo-mid wireframe incorporates all requirements as determined by our research. The features corresponding to Mo and S are shown here; these are the base functionality of self-selectable educational content as presented in onboarding and in the dashboard, alongside the carefully designed AI feature, which is specifically bounded to prevent it from overtaking core app functionality.
iteration
Heuristic takeaways
We reviewed our initial concept with an internal heuristic analysis, identifying the following key considerations. These and others helped form our design system.
Icon treatment
Icon consistency needed improvement
Labeling
Sizing and justification of labels needed consistency
Navigational flexibility
Needed inclusion of back & close functionality
ITERATION
After lo-fi comes mid-fi
With these and other considerations in mind, we iterated again. This iteration was additionally used for unmoderated first-click testing.
evaluative testing
Take a click, it'll last longer
We issued seven tasks to thirty participants. The tasks were issued in random order. The results of our FCT led us to reconsider the structure of our pages, clarifying information architecture and hierarchy throughout the app. We achieved this by changing the size of various elements in addition to introducing some clarifying attributes to those elements.
Design system
On Wednesdays, we wear orange
With the results of our FCT and heuristic evaluation, I made significant contributions to setting up the group’s design system based on group discussion, which included interactive elements and elements with alternative styling options. Some are shown here.
evaluative testing
Penny for your thoughts (please say them out loud)?
With our hi-fi clickable prototype, we conducted moderated usability testing. We systematically logged our results in a Google Sheet, prioritizing issues with the highest criticality ratings and making prototype modifications–like accessibility options and quick select options–according to the following findings.
Font size
Older users struggled to see some font size, suggesting the need for accessibility options
Profile editing
Users had an established mental model for tapping a profile picture to initiate editing
Multi-select
Some users wanted to select all available options in onboarding, for which there was no option
The design
Focus up: it's time to meet Focal
Focal aspires to fill in the gaps many young adults find in their financial education by providing a personalized experience that enables them to choose courses of interest; users may seek clarification from the app's financial AI assistant or from real people using the app. The app reinforces its own features and prevents over-reliance on the AI chat feature by providing quick-select options in addition to suggesting relevant courses and community topics where topical.
Get onboarded
The onboarding flow introduces users to the AI buddy, Zeke, and collects some basic information about the user to personalize their course recommendations, dashboard, and learning experience. Users are provided a curated list of starter courses based on the information they’ve provided.
Requirements fulfilled
See a dashboard made for you
After onboarding, users are brought to their dashboard, which shows enrolled courses, relevant news, and relevant resources. These are personalized based on both onboarding information and user interaction within the app. This tab furthermore acts as the home tab and landing page for returning users.
Requirements fulfilled
Feast on a course smörgåsbord
Users can see all their enrolled courses and all courses they have previously completed in the courses tab. Users may also browse for new courses in this tab by directly searching a course name and/or keyword or by selecting a category. Users may additionally apply filters to sort by likes, views, and relevancy, as well as filtering by topic, total time obligation, or relative difficulty level.
Requirements fulfilled
Learn how you want to
After selecting a course but prior to starting a lesson, users are shown an overview indicating the number of units and the time obligation of the unit. Individual units contain a variety of content, from videos to definitions to quizzes to small games. Users can save notes and definitions, which can be later revisited in the user’s profile; furthermore, when completing a unit or a course, users may ask Zeke clarifying questions.
Requirements fulfilled
View your history
In the profile, users can manage settings, view saved resources, track engagement metrics like learning streaks and completed courses, and see earned achievements. It provides a holistic overview of user activity and accomplishments within the app.
Requirements fulfilled
Get the information and community you need
The community tab enables users to engage with both fellow users and real-world professionals. It features two sections: Professional Insights, where industry experts share their expertise, and the Forum, where users can discuss and ask questions. Users can interact by liking, replying, and commenting.
Requirements fulfilled
Find the answers to that way, way, waaay-too-specific question
Zeke is an AI buddy feature which addresses the unique needs of individual users. We carefully considered the behavior of the AI buddy to prevent it from overtaking other app functionality. While users can use it at will, we've implemented boundaries to maintain a balance between it and the app’s other functionalities. For some questions asked by the user, instead of functioning as a pure chatbot, Zeke will direct users to features of the app, such as the community or specific course pages.
Requirements fulfilled
Reflection
Looking back
The timeline for the project was very condensed for design compared to research and evaluation; despite that, I’m fairly proud of the overall design and design system we created for it.
Given a little more time to spend on this project, these are the things I’d love to do:
- Design system: I’d love to clean up the application of the design system for additional consistency.
- Branding, graphics/UI: I might explore the inclusion of an additional color or two in the color palette to bring a little more energy to the overall design and upgrade the brand/UI direction.
- User testing: I would love to conduct additional user testing to further flesh out the IA and interactions in the flow. I would also love to do some attitudinal testing on the content of the app.
