Customer Experience Strategy | Research | Stakeholder Management | Stakeholder Workshops | Competitor Analysis | Customer Research | Usability Testing | Guerrilla Testing | Wireframes | Interactive Prototypes

Discover

Research Activities:

• Stakeholder Workshops: Engaged with key stakeholders, including investors, financial advisors, and developers, to understand their needs and expectations.

• Market Analysis: Conducted a comprehensive study on millennial banking and investment behaviours, revealing a strong preference for mobile-first digital solutions.

• Competitor Analysis: Evaluated competing mortgage fund apps to identify strengths, weaknesses, and market gaps.

Define

Problem Statement: Millennials need a user-friendly, digital-first mortgage fund solution that offers transparency, simplicity, and competitive returns.

Stakeholder Interviews: Conducted in-depth interviews with internal and external stakeholders to gather insights into business goals, user expectations, and technical constraints. These interviews highlighted the need for a product that aligns with VentureCrowd's mission while providing an engaging and intuitive user experience.

User Surveys: Distributed online surveys targeting potential users, primarily millennials, to collect data on their investment habits, preferences, and pain points. The surveys revealed a strong desire for an investment platform that is easy to use, offers educational content and integrates seamlessly with existing banking apps.

User Journey Mapping: Created detailed user journey maps to visualise the end-to-end experience of using the Fundi App from a user's perspective. This process identified critical touchpoints where users may experience friction, such as account setup, investment tracking, and accessing support.

Focus Groups: Organised focus group sessions with a diverse group of millennials to discuss their financial goals and test the initial concepts of the app. Feedback from these sessions emphasised the importance of clear, simple language and the ability to make investments quickly and easily.

Usability Testing: Conducted usability tests with low-fidelity prototypes to observe how users interact with the app and identify any usability issues. Iteratively refined the prototypes based on user feedback, ensuring the app's design is intuitive and meets user needs.

Competitive Benchmarking: Analysed leading mortgage fund apps and other financial products to benchmark best practices and identify opportunities for differentiation. This analysis informed design decisions and feature prioritisation, ensuring the Fundi App offers a superior user experience.

Ideate

Co-Design Sessions: Collaborated with potential users to generate ideas for features and functionality, focusing on ease of use and integration with existing banking apps.

Wireframing Workshops: Created initial wireframes based on user feedback, prioritising intuitive navigation and clear information display.

Key Features Identified:

• Instant Investment: Enable users to invest and start earning returns with just a few taps.

• Real-Time Updates: Provide real-time investment performance tracking.

• Educational Content: Offer accessible financial education to empower users.

Prototypes

Low-Fidelity Prototypes: These were simple, hand-drawn sketches on paper that represented the basic layout and functionality of the app. This stage was crucial for quickly visualising ideas and gathering initial feedback without investing too much time in detailed design. Using these paper prototypes, I conducted early usability tests and gathered initial user reactions. This helped identify major design flaws and areas for improvement right from the start.

Interactive Digital Prototypes: Based on feedback from the lo-fi prototypes, I moved on to high-fidelity, interactive digital prototypes. This stage enabled the team to conduct more in-depth usability testing and gather specific feedback on the app's look and feel navigation and overall user experience.

User Flows and Wireframes: To ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience, I designed comprehensive user flows mapping out the step-by-step journey users would take within the app, from account creation to managing investments. Wireframes were created to provide a blueprint for each screen, focusing on layout and functionality without getting bogged down in visual details. This process allowed for iterating quickly based on user feedback and refining the app's overall structure.

Usability Testing with Prototypes: By observing how users interacted with the app, my team and I could pinpoint pain points and areas of confusion. We recruited diverse participants to ensure the app met the needs of various user personas, including tech-savvy and first-time investors. Additionally, I conducted A/B testing on various versions of key features to determine the most effective design solutions. The insights that were gained from these sessions were invaluable for refining the design and improving the overall user experience.

Test and learn

Findings: User feedback was highly insightful. They appreciated the app's simplicity and intuitiveness, valuing the real-time updates and educational content. However, minor adjustments were needed to improve navigation and reduce cognitive load.

Iteration and Improvement: The team integrated user feedback into the app's design, ensuring it evolved to meet user expectations. A system was established for ongoing feedback, allowing for continuous improvements. Combining rigorous testing with a commitment to continuous learning, we refined the Fundi App to deliver a seamless, user-friendly experience that resonated with our target audience.

Conclusion

Through the design thinking process, we transformed the Fundi App into a powerful tool that caters to the specific needs of millennial investors. This case study demonstrates the value of a user-centric approach, leveraging stakeholder insights, rigorous testing, and continuous iteration to create a product that meets market demands and delights its users.

Outcomes

I left the business whilst the Fundi App was still in development and therefore, unable to provide a comprehensive outcome of the final product. However, the project was on a positive trajectory, with strong user engagement and satisfaction during the testing phases. The groundwork laid through the design thinking process ensured a robust framework for the app's continued development and success.

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