Better Future - Our Goals and Research Methodology
Better Future - Our Goals and Research Methodology
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Our Goals
Our Goals
Our central goal was bridging the information gap between retail investors and brokerage investors by providing information about businesses with a low Environmental Social Governance (ESG) score that might be attractive to invest in.
SDG Goals
SDG Goals
Affordable and Clean Energy
Climate Action
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Directing retail investor funds towards ethical businesses can benefit all 17 goals.
Why is this Important?
Why is this Important?
Businesses lacking strong ethics is a global problem, if their stock prices take a hit then they are incentivized to change their business practices. This is a problem that exists everywhere.
Who are the target users?
Who are the target users?
Retail investors are a recent phenomena and investing responsibility helps everyone.
How many people will benefit?
How many people will benefit?
In a recent global survey conducted by the deVere Group, 77 percent of millennial investors said that environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are their top priority when assessing investment opportunities. There we assume that 77% of investors would be interested in using an ESG app. According to dqdydj.com there is approximately 13,655,475 investors in the United States. Based of these two numbers we can get total number of investors who would be interested in our app (13,655,475 * .77). This equates to 10,514,715.8 potential users.
What is our solution?
What is our solution?
Providing an application for interested retail investors to direct their investments towards sustainable, ethical businesses.
Comparison to Existing Solutions?
Comparison to Existing Solutions?
Our solution is unique as it puts ethical investing before profits.
What Technology did we use?
What Technology did we use?
React Native and Mobile Devices. Our audience western investors who are more likely to have interest and desire to use a mobile app.
Research Methodology
Research Methodology
Our group conducted three design iterations before settling on a final prototype. Below are our design steps:
Systematic Literature Review
Systematic Literature Review
At the conclusion of our literature review, our group had reviewed 8 papers on ESG investing. The papers overwhelming agreed that ESG scores were a useful metric for both investment and global benefit. However, we were not able to find any research involving information access and retail investors, nor information technology that has attempted to bridge that divide.
We believe that Better Future is a very unique app idea as a result, as there have been no studies on the effect of ESG and retail investing. We also discussed how ESG would relate to the individual and metrics how the user could see that clearly, such as a ESG meter.
To the left, you can see our original designs for Better Future.
System Analysis
System Analysis
We reviewed 8 existing ICT solutions regarding ESG scores and concluded that most existing ICT solutions are focused on institutional investors. The two most prominent of these ICT solutions are CSRHub and Sustainalytics. Both of these companies house large ESG databases.
These ICT solutions limit interactions with their databases, especially for those looking to incorporate ESG metrics into their investment data. Our ICT solution looks to change this. We want to give retail investors the ability to evaluate their own portfolios and understand how they are impacting the world they live in through their investments. Therefore, we view the possibility of an ESG focused app for retail investors as a completely original concept.
To the right, you can see our updated designs for Better Future.
User Study
User Study
We conducted 4 interviews to study the current app design and get feedback from potential users. Our interviewees stressed the importance of showing stocks that will make them money. While we don’t want this to be the purpose of the app, we acknowledge the importance of this when it comes to finding potential investments.
From this feedback we implemented a page that explains the credibility of the ESG system, including where and how the analytics are collected. This will help users with any questions they may have for the system and whether or not it should be trusted.
To the left, you can see our updated designs for Better Future.
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