Hello, my name is Max, a retail veteran, whimsical Japanese-English Translator, and now an aspiring UX Designer...

What follows is the work I did on the "PlutoPay" app that offers a solution to an

"all-encompassing financial app"

This was a project where I was not only the UX designer... but UI designer and User Researcher.

To begin with, I conducted a competitor analysis and learned that:

-UIs could be more polished

-Customer support was slow if not lacking

-More features could be available for basic accounts

Problem Statement:

Working adults living in a pandemic economy need a way to find and locate
options/features in the app more seamlessly, store cards, have a means of
tracking saving goals, as well as be able to view stock market activity because it
would give them better peace of mind as far as their finances go.

We will know this to be true when we see how often this app is picked up.

From here, I went about conducting interviews and surveys and additionally learned some interesting things:

-No participants had an all-encompassing financial app (all used 2 or more financial apps)

-A fair number wished to save/budget

-All had an increasing desire to do things digitally instead of physically when it came to financial matters

-A vast majority had an interest in cryptocurrency

Times being what they were, I adapted and conducted interviews through Zoom or over the phone.

Here, also, is a link to the affinity diagram that came about from this:

https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lmj_3Js=/?invite_link_id=299399060723

It was from these participants that I then developed the user personas you see here to help give me a clearer idea of WHO I am making this app for:

Now armed with my personas, next came creating user flows and sitemaps!

And a Sitemap! A Card Sort was also held and, as it so happens, my participants preferred seeing "PAYMENTS" listed under "BANK" instead of "SETTINGS" :

With all this done, I then went about brainstorming designs...

Is it rough? Yes... but I assure you, it gets more polished... Like so...

Then came a smattering of usability tests as well as new insights (again, used Zoom or phone because, *sigh* , the times)...

Based on the results of the Usability Test, I learned:

It does not hurt to label icons...

That setting a "Saving Goal" and a "Budget Goal" are practically the same thing (so farewell "New Budget" button and hello "Set Notifications" !):

Should you so please, here is a copy of my Usability Test script here

Then, after some further testing and design collaboration, I then went about:

Switching out "Withdraw" and "Deposit" for button that says "Get Cash":

Simplifying the process for confirming a Task (in this case, setting a Saving Goal) so details of the task in question are READILY in sight instead behind a "Details..." button:

Here now is a link to the current Prototype: https://invis.io/S612E5SVPQ9U

As this was one of my VERY FIRST UX Design projects I certainly found things tough in some instances... but it was also great fun. Things that I learned through doing this project are: Know your tools, prepare for the worst, plan ahead, and that I enjoyed making wireframes. Going forward, I would certainly like to work on more of the features of this app... Fleshing out the buttons I did not go into here. That, of course, would mean more testing and I am looking forward to it. The ability to create something, and test how people receive it as you work on it, is a kind of satisfaction I don't think I will ever tire of.

Thank you so much for looking at my project!

-Max