Why does it matter?

Many of our user's long-term financial goals are to own a house, get a better car, or even start a business. All of these goals require a good credit score.

Own a House

Get a Better Car

Start a Business

All of these goals require
'Good credit scores'

User Research

We conducted 10 in-depth stakeholder interviews

We conducted 6 semi-structured interviews with target users and 4 expert interviews (including community experts and banking representatives) to understand how low-income individuals manage their finances, the challenges they encounter, and how we can offer assistance.

To further understand the users’ financial situation and needs, we tried an activity using Likert Scale during the interview.

After the user interviews, we wrote down transcripts immediately and then moved to the empathy map to highlight the key insights.

Interview Highlights

Why don't low-income people of color use traditional banking services?

Lack of trust in banks

“I only put 50% of my money into the bank, not 100%. What if they just take it?”

Wayne Simpson 34, Staten Island, New York

Negative financial habit

“I don’t use my credit card now because it has already maxed out.”

Shavonna Conyers 33, Bronx, NY

Language barriers

“I am not fluent in English so I don't understand the information that is given to me in English.”

Lois Pine 30, Brooklyn, New York

Other reasons

• Had negative banking experience in their home country

• Unable to meet minimum balance requirements

Ecosystem map

Ecosystem map to determine complicated relationships between influential actors and users

With help from the financial experts we interviewed, we were able to better understand the complicated relationships between various actors who possess social, financial, informational influences on the user.

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Persona

To truly understand our focus, we chose Keira as a representation of our target users

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Design Principles

We established four core design principles through research

After user research and expert guidance from Qualitas of Life, a non-profit with 14 years of Latinx community financial education experience, we developed four design principles to address user pain points.

Brainstorming and Prioritizing Ideas

Brainstorming

Based on four design principles, we brainstormed potential features to address the challenges users face: how to sign up with minimum identification requirements, how to create a personalized plan, how to engage in the online community forum, and how we can provide financial resources.

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Co-design workshops

We hosted a co-design workshop with four target users remotely to verify whether potential features are useful and viable for them. This allowed us to discover potential opportunities and identify their priorities.

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Information Architecture

Refined information architecture with final features based on user feedback

After deciding on the final features based on the feedback from co-design workshops, we built the information architecture, considering how users would use our products.

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Style Guides & Component Library

Promised design guidelines to ensure product consistency and enhance team work efficiency

I solely created an overall brand system, style guides, and component libraries for the team. This successfully resulted in consistent product design and improved work efficiency within the design team, all within a limited timeline of 3 weeks for the final pitch to Citi Ventures.

The image above represents a small part of the design elements I've created. There are many more components and patterns, including accordion, card UI, toasts, and data visualizations.

Takeaways

Defining project scope and initial steps

It took us a significant amount of time to define our project scope. We had to take into account various factors that users face, such as unpredictable income and living situations. However, laying out the entire user journey, from the user's current financial standing to where they aim to be in the next 5-10 years, proved beneficial for the team. It allowed us to identify the initial steps we could take to assist them on their journey.

A new try, co-design workshop

We hosted co-design workshops, and initially, I doubted how beneficial they would be as it was my first time. However, I soon realized my misconception. I gained insight into users' priorities regarding ideas generated during brainstorming sessions in the workshops and had the opportunity to receive honest and detailed user opinions. It proved to be an invaluable tool for validating assumption-based solutions for users.

Next step

Come up with a new product name

Our product name, Finana, was inspired by one of our users in co-design workshops. However, after the final presentation, we received feedback saying that it might not be appropriate to use a banana to symbolize a product directed towards the African American community. Therefore, even though it's unintentional, it's important not to cause any confusion or misunderstanding.