Under a quarter-long collaboration with the Google Pay product team, I had the adventure of leading research, design and strategy to enable better financial health for vulnerable and coping segments of Gen-Z.
Vicious Cycles of Guilt Spending:
We observed impulse buying as a coping mechanism to the stress and anxiety caused by finances. The users also seemed desensitized towards digital money as compared to cash or payment cards.
Personalized Experience:
We enabled better financial health for users by simplifying & personalizing the process of saving money, and empowering them to set, track and achieve their saving goals through visual associations.
Congratulations! You just graduated from high school. Endless possibilities ahead of you, with all the information at your fingertips. Feeling on top of the world? Hang on!
$58k in university debt, right off the bat. Ouch.
Surviving on instant ramen, working 20 hours, well.. that's college.
And then, COVID hits! Life suddenly shrinks down to one room, online classes and a laptop.
You're optimistic nevertheless, but the economy crashes and you struggle to land a decent job.
Inflation is astronomical, your savings are none and earth is on a highway to climate hell.
What would you do? How would you feel?
Welcome to the life of an average financially compromised Gen-Z — the upcoming workforce, and our target consumer.
Based on true story of User Interview Participant #8
77% of Gen-Z is financially vulnerable.
Recognizing this shocking disparity, we embarked on a mission to move the needle towards building their financial resilience.
As the UX Lead, I actively contributed in multiple capacities throughout the initiative:
1 - scoping of focus areas
2 - identifying consumer's social competencies
3 - evaluating current app experience
4 - carrying out generative research
5 - exploring opportunities
6 - transposing insights for idea generation
7 - co-creating user flows, low-fidelity mock-ups & clickable prototypes
8 - leading the concept testing
9 - testing app designs for usability
10 - showcasing flagship features
Starting from the ground up, I took charge of:
1 - mapping user context and needs
2 - sharing domain knowledge within the team
3 - syncing with tech architects to design user flows
4 - translating research into dashboard concepts
5 - handing off wireframes to visual designers
6 - infusing business goals into UX iterations
7 - collaborating with business analysts to develop user stories
8 - storyboarding opportunities of differentiation
9 - driving user testing/feedback sessions
10 - pitching the UX impact to the CFO executives
Given the broad scope of the problem, our team opted for a research-intensive approach: first formulating hypotheses, then iteratively building and validating the solution.
We began with the following understanding:
/ Constraints and liberties
/ Pay and Save, not Manage and Invest
/ Different from Wallet app experience
/ Only low-fidelity minus Google identity
Based on this interaction, we went ahead and outlined a research plan.
For a strong foundational / contextual understanding of the problem, we carried out extensive secondary research on three key aspects of the prompt:
/ the Gen-Z consumer and their social competencies
/ UX strategies of G-Pay vs competitors
/ a framework to measure financial health
Motive: Map the consumer behavior against market offerings
Medium: Secondary research
Mapping: Mind Map, Behavioral Insights
I worked specifically on identifying the social needs of Gen-Z and an assessment of various pay-and-save apps in the market to cater to those needs.
Gen Z = social + digital + hyper-aware + inclusive
Apart from these, we discovered innovative market players that tap into the cultural environment of Gen-Z users and offer unique value.
Some of the brilliant strategies used by these apps:
/ Cooperation (family, friends, money pooling)
/ Competition (daily contests)
/ Conscious activism (climate, politics, community & shared values)
/ Social savings (rewards, group expenses, thrift stores)
Notes for primary research:
/ Understand how users feel about involving their network (friends, family, acquaintances or even strangers) in their payments app
/ Identify and validate social group-specific use-cases for pay and save
/ Identify and validate users’ interest in unique, non-cash modes of transactions
/ Understand if users' association with a social cause helps them save better
Motive: Assess the current app experience to identify gaps
Medium: Heuristic analysis
Mapping: User flows
Findings from this mapping:
/ Inconsistent information architecture
/ Non-intuitive grouping of elements
/ Incomprehensible information
Motive: Relative and absolute strengths of other players
Medium: Competitor benchmarking
Mapping: Comparison matrices
Motive: Reach the target audience
Medium: Secondary research
Mapping: Framework for Fin Health
To break it down at a high level, we looked at the 4 pillars of long-term financial survival as outlined by United Nations.
Interestingly, these 4 elements align well with FHN's indicators to measure financial health: Spend, Save, Borrow and Plan.
Motive: Identify ideal participants for 1:1 interviews
Medium: Screener survey
Mapping: Coping Risk Areas
Our screener focused on target demographics and financial health indicators to quantifically select individuals representing coping and vulnerable 18-24 year olds for 1:1 interviews.
Using the data gathered from the screener, we were able to create an accurate snapshot of our users’ perceived financial health.
Our average participant scored below the FHN’s standard for financial health. Three out of the four financial health indicators fall within the coping zone, and that “Pay" is perceived by our users to be the least at risk. Using our new FinHealth framework, we find that Resilience, Goal-Achievement, and Confidence are all below the financially healthy mark.
This confirmed our previous assessment: yes, Gen Z is struggling with their finances, but the majority of their pain lies in future-based content, not present.
Being financially healthy means you don’t just function well in the present, but that you plan for the future as well.
I led the ‘How Might We' exercise within the group.
/ Individual brainstorming: Total 60 HMW statements
/ Clustering into focused categories as per common themes
/ Prioritizing through dot voting based on what we perceived to be valuable as per secondary research.
As a class, we decided that any cluster with 4+ votes was worthy of further exploration.
Now we were eager to understand them on an even deeper level. That's where the interview and affinitization process began.
To dive deeper into the lives of underrepresented Gen-Z individuals and discover the hurdles they faced in managing their finances, I curated an interview protocol document.
Money is a double-edged sword: it can make you feel comfortable and secure, but also confused and scared.
Listening to their stories and coping mechanisms was interesting and humbling.
42 total hours of recorded content from 28 separate interviews resulted in 13 very interesting and thought provoking insights, each highlighting a different aspect of our users’ current situation.
These insights became the guiding light for the project.
below one is for the script + example / gallery:
So imp to stay aligned at every step - meticulously derived insights
There was a dire need for an individualized, flexible experience that grows with the users.
Gen Z is struggling financially, but they’re all struggling in fundamentally different ways.
At this point, we split into teams based on inclination towards high-level problem areas + skills. This paid off beautifully and was greatly appreciated by the Google team.
Blue Sky Ideation:
We shortlisted 3 solid ideas through dot-voting:
#7: Visualizing goals
#8: Tapping the social network for the push to save
#10: Adding Friction - lock the money
Thinking tracks:
Self-control
FOMO
Out of sight, out of mind
External motivation
Hypothesis process:
For these two hypotheses, we started to mindmap the branches of thought. This led us to identify interesting themes to ideate our concepts.
We followed the same approach to land the second concept.
We continued to integrate more details into those early ideas.
Resting on Laurels: When the distance to a goal is far away, sub-goals can help reduce uncertainty in users and increase effort. Conversely, when users perceive the achievement of the goal as certain and nearby, sub-goals will generate complacency.
The psychology of saving and collections:
Metaphors to establish an emotional connection with the process of saving:
Prototyping the user flows:
Testing Goals:
1 - To understand if consumers feel an emotional response to the screens provided, and whether these reactions inspire them to pursue savings goals
2 - To understand if users feel comfortable speaking about finances within the app environment we have created - does it resonate with them
Here is the testing guide I designed to record tasks and user inputs.
We reached out to the GPay product team with questions:
- How to step back and validate the need of the concept?
- How do you test a visual concept without any visual cues?
1 - We decided to strip the mock-ups of any visual elements to prevent bias.
2 - We dropped the Trust Network idea as it did not indicate strong unanimous user need/interest. While some participants appreciated the comfort of anonimity, the concept still needed some deliberation into how the experience can make users feel secure.
When it comes to saving money:
Consistency > Intensity
System > Goal
A feature which allows you to set saving goals and assign custom visuals to them.
You will have to power to add to your saving goals (either manually or automatically), and they are presented within a visual collection.
Once goals are completed, you will be able to earn and share achievement badges with your friends.
Additionally, you will be prompted with smart insights on ways to improve savings habits.
✓ Stop excessive overspending: Add barriers to accessing funds, then visualize the impact of their use
✓ Enable healthy spending habits: Don’t fully discourage spending money, but recommend its healthy usage
✓ Realize achievable goals: Break down and categorizes savings goals, then visualize their accomplishment
✓ Act as an empathetic guide: Understand that no one is perfect, but don’t smooth over bad decisions
By developing a future-forward savings system based on gamified psychology, we can enable financially vulnerable Gen-Z to engage with their values today while preparing for tomorrow.
From Concept to Feature: user story, feature and benefit (User Acceptance Criteria)
As a [role], I want to [goal] so that [benefit]
Mockups
We ended up just using progress bar to not take away the attention from the core idea.
The team also ideated a visual skin library, with personality-based styles such as,
Purist / Naturalist / Gamer / Kinesthetics, and documented it for future roadmap.
Providing a financial experience focused on savings by achieving goals is proposed.
This saving journey is initialized by setting up goals with visualized personalized through customization.
It progresses through financial contributions or constantly being conscious of the saving progress and making edits and dissolving goals.
During or when goals are accomplished, users obtain badges and tiered achievements in the financial saving experience that leads to larger achievements.
Concept testing (with Lara): to sense the usability
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YKLa40Ps6uhGVc3YRiLF33sKuh66asDF62DTWzARTBk/edit
Planning (Paper sketch) - 2 x focus groups
Protocol (print outs) - flow, tasks, open questions
Execution
Pics
User Quotes
Learnings / Insights (Greenstickies - Miro)
Stakeholder check-in - great learning (AJ's doc)+ (final virtual notes/rec)
The language of Gen-Z (Duolingo, Finch, We're not really strangers - Insta) - Figma board of inspiration :
https://www.figma.com/file/qjObohQoJtTR6yZuaTjOV4/Achieve-and-Goals-(Copy)?type=design&node-id=50-1963&mode=design
https://www.figma.com/file/7SDgow5AUm7p0NbT4tHrUy/Visualizing-Goals-(Copy)?type=design&node-id=28-6622&mode=design
Iterations & Improvement **
Final Testing ROUND 2 (classroom pinned board app mockups) -
tasks + feedback post-its + NPS type scale + quick interview
Final Flow
Re-Branding Exercise + Rationale
We had the Google Pay team fly in for the final demo. Here are a few glimpses of how we demonstrated the features.
Demos
Paper sketch
Dry run with team
In-person Demo - experience station (pics and storyline document, poster)
Virtual demo with ~50 guests, sales teams
Final Presentation Script:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gI3KQmlIVXyOcLbKRQqFTVfXJrMprvbtL-F7yLZp8aA/edit
Live personas for activity stations:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HmUbOt1HxiB4a0WQvGeac_HfnIEg7L-NwuhLe8gl5BQ/edit
MY GDrive folder:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1YFQoTUUi1WCzuFW7bn1vGB96ncFoCQPl
The inspiration for Zoflora is light, refreshing and colourful – content is aspirational, inspiring and engaging, with a touch of playfulness.
A multi-billion dollar IT consulting company reached out to our team to transform the way they collect revenues and design an optimized UX on desktop and mobile platforms.
Interesting Future Directions:
Talk to less privilieged, more vulnerable segment
Deliberate more on the rebranding: risks for a company like Google to pull this off
Open ecosystem - consider other players, collaborators, banks etc
Social aspect
Test with metrics
Extend to Gen-Alpha early on.
The ecosystem is already in place with Pay, Maps, Photos, YouTube
Cleo roast mode | Google's brand image conflict
Exploring some fun interactions could take the features to the next level
To be added
Peer Feedback (Check-ins #1, #2, Newsletter)
Client feedback:
Group's cohesiveness and ease in working together
Research questions: nice (Hannah, newsletter), insights: nice
Professor feedback:
Easy to work with
UX- sharp skills
Leading team well to drive intended outcome
Collaboration
Greater than sum of its parts....
The advantage of the Google and SCAD partnership is the opportunity to foster this unparalleled cross-collaboration. The culmination of each of our different perspectives, strategies, and methodologies lended to something greater than each of us alone, and that reality truly surfaced as soon as we began our research process.
was equal parts mind-bending and gratifying. Some of the biggest highlights for me were:
1.Calibrating my role within a group of 19 highly-skilled designers
2.Embracing the conflicts in data from user narratives
3.Prioritizing challenges to move forward with limited information
UX+ Branding - close association, aligning of goals
Some of the interactions with product team were very interesting <add one eg ofAJ / Mike> on the same track. In fact, one concept - in the works
My brilliant team
Fun Pics Gallery (Include weekly newsletter, sport)
Link to award>>>>>>>>>>
More Projects
Let's Connect!
/////Ignore:
Rainbow Spreadsheet:
https://www.figma.com/files/recents-and-sharing/recently-viewed?fuid=704427394447982833
> KANO Model :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19NhD8HXDhyCQjremeV0iapwsprdFUQJxNMbqwFitO4Q/edit
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ACyoX2w44nJF8dxtrl0pucUIPNVEGcACgBi9xbi3fVY/edit#gid=0
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sDkRLb61dhTO7X-bT37nSVLUuM8_OzrXRct_TymtKDU/edit]
> 5-Second test :
Use five-second testing to assess whether a design on their website, app, prototype or wireframe can convey a message quickly to a target audience.
> Paper prototype testing
> Polls, adjective cards, A/B testing
Starting from the ground up, I took charge of:
1 - mapping user context and needs
2 - sharing domain knowledge within the team
3 - syncing with tech architects to design user flows
4 - translating research into dashboard concepts
5 - handing off wireframes to visual designers
6 - infusing business goals into UX iterations
7 - collaborating with business analysts to develop user stories
8 - storyboarding opportunities of differentiation
9 - driving user testing/feedback sessions
10 - pitching the UX impact to the CFO executives
We gave Zoflora's website a modern and fresh facelift using a bright colour palette, custom icons and beautiful imagery.
