Scarlett Shi
Welcome to my design universe!
Fintor.co
Team:
Maya Albayrak: Data Analyst
Scarlett Shi: Research Lead
Sachi Shah: Product Designer
Mashia Mazumder: Project Manager
Project Duration: 9 weeks
Tools: Canva, Figma, Google Slides, Zoom
Methods:
Stakeholder Analysis | Customer Journey Mapping | Semi-Structured Interview | Contextual Interview | Think-Aloud Protocol | Speed Dating | Affinity Diagramming | Experience Prototyping
Overview
In order to gain a better understanding of how might we empower young adults with existing financial commitments (i.e debt) to feel confident with future financial planning involving homeownership, we identified that participants are inclined to project their immediate socio-economic situations to make decisions and are apprehensive to imagine their long-term goals and financial recommendations from other people (i.e. parents, friends) are important to young adults.
Problem
How might we empower young adults with existing financial commitments (i.e debt) to feel confident with future financial planning involving homeownership?
Young adults are in a position to set themselves up for financial freedom, but are restricted by hindrances like existing debt or lack of imminent need to take action. They are inclined to project their immediate socio-economic situations to make decisions and may be apprehensive to imagine their long-term goals.
Methods
Think-Aloud Protocol
To learn more about the problem scope and its solution, we conducted Usability Think-Aloud studies on an existing mortgage lending website with 4 different users.
We used QuickenLoans as our testing website asking our participants to explore QuickenLoan's compatibility with various income levels, assess if QuickenLoan's tools support users with debt and understand how users engage with QuickenLoan's tools to assess what support is available for their financial needs.
Insights
2
Young adult participants were inclined to project their immediate socio-economic situations to make decisions and were apprehensive to imagine their long-term goals.
3
Users engage more with short-form media (i.e graphs). New home buyers desire to-the-point information and would prefer to see less information that is not relevant to their tasks.
Contextual Inquiry
We explored the financial commitments and current state of financial planning of young adults by interviewing four different participants. Through a contextual interview format, we were able to use artifact analysis to review their current systems and processes which led to future insights.
After conducting the contextual interviews, we are able to extract general insights from our affinity diagram that helps lead us towards possible pain points for our users we can start generating solutions for.
Insights
2
Young adults are inclined to use tools they are already familiar with and have easy access to.
3
Young adults understand the importance of investing even if they don't do it themselves.
4
Young adults are unaware of what tools exist to support their financial planning.
5
Existing financial commitments are a big motivator for young adults to start financial planning.
Speed Dating
After we walking the wall as a team, we consolidated each member's ideas and led us to the main insights and questions that were most relevant to our identified user needs.
We categorized user needs and voted on the four categories we wanted to make storyboards for.
The top 4 categories were:
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Overwhelmed by Debt/ Existing Financial Commitments
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Access to Tools/Organization
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Need for More Tailored/Customized Advising
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Preference for short media.
Prototyping
Low-fi Prototype
We did sketch prototypes after we voted on our final storyboard idea, and then we group up together discussed the rationale of our sketch prototypes. We picked our favorite parts in each wireframe and put each clip together to make the whole prototype more coherent.
High-fi Prototype
We further refined our lo-fi sketches into higher fidelity based on some initial user testing to validate our concepts.
Our mobile app can matches young adults with financial mentors by taking into factors like past debt, projected salary, ideal location of homeownership.
Solution
Our solution enables young adults to think more long-term about their actions by creating a relationship-based financial mentorship tool.
Our solution matches young adults with financial experts by screening for similarities in financial history. Users can specify which criteria they want to learn more about - from the home buying process to investment advice - and increase their levels of confidence about homeownership despite pre-existing financial commitments.
1
Due to knowledge gaps, participants often took the information at face value and used the terminology provided to form opinions.
1
Family and friends play a big role in guiding financial decisions and providing resources.