MyInvest - Mobile App & Responsive Website

Challenge: Because investing isn’t part of the college curriculum (outside of finance related majors), young adults are unsure about how and where to get started

The product: MyInvest is a platform focused on making investing as accessible as possible

Target audience: Young adults around 18-30 yrs. old

Project goal: Design an app that will make it easy for young adults to get started with investing

My role & responsibilities: UX researcher and designer for the app and website from conception to delivery. This included user research and interviews, digital wireframing, low and high fidelity prototyping, and usability testing.

Research

I conducted interviews to better understand my user base and their needs. One of the main user groups identified during my research were young adults, either college graduates or current students, who don’t have prior knowledge of investing and are nervous to get started.

I also conducted a competitive audit to assess the competition and find gaps where my platform could stand out.

Initial Designs & Prototype

Based on prior research, setting up automated and recurring deposits is a must-have feature for an investment application. I made sure that users have the option to select the frequency when setting up a new deposit. The prototype is here.

Usability Study Results

I completed an unmoderated, remote usability study to test my lo-fi designs and prototype and made changes based on the user feedback.

For my first modification, I added the option to select an end date during the process to schedule a recurring deposit. This is for users who only would like the automated deposits to come out during a certain period and then stop.

A few users noticed that there was no way to go backwards during this process meaning they could not make changes on previous inputs, so for my second modification, I added a back button on each page to resolve this.

Final Mockups - Mobile App

For the high-fidelity mockups and prototype, in addition to making the changes based on my usability study feedback, I also included some simple animations throughout to make any interactions clear for the user, but not too distracting. The prototype is here.

Final Mockups - Responsive Website

For the responsive designs of the website, I created screen size variations for mobile, tablet and desktop. The designs were enhanced to fit each device - this includes changing font and imagery sizing. The desktop view prototype is here.

Conclusion

Impact: Young adults can have an accessible way to get started with investing and feel comfortable instead of scared. One of the usability study participants said: “The design is reminiscent of my mobile banking app so I don’t feel nervous at all!”

What I learned: I learned about the importance of listening to user feedback. While I may not always want to hear criticism of my work, I was able to make changes for the better thanks for what my users noticed.