The Opportunity

Inspired Savings* is a financial e-commerce platform that inspires people to multiply their savings and afford big purchase goals for life’s special moments. Their unique selling point is that they involve close friends and family in the buying decision which prevents the user from making impulsive choices and incurring debts. They wanted to redesign their web app to make it understandable, credible and fun to use.

The Solution

To make the app easily understandable, we made it more intuitive, so users could follow each step easily. We designed a special landing page for signing up and introduced a rewards system to gamify the wait period. We rebranded the app with colors that were more inline with Inspired savings core values.

* Name and logo changed due to confidentiality clause

Platform

Responsive web design

Team

Damayanti Bhattacharjee, Jeanine White,
Alden Bohrmann

Role

UX/UI Designer (Business and Competitive Research, Ideation, Wireframing, Visual Design)

Timeline

2 Weeks

Research

Stakeholder Interviews

We started by interviewing the stakeholders to understand what the business needs were.

Key Takeaways

1. Increase the sign-up rate of the website
2. Make it easy for users to involve their friends and family in making purchasing decisions

Usability Testing

The objective of the usability test was to find out what the user pain points were. Six users were given the current website and asked to complete a task, while explaining their thought process along the way.

Usability Infographic.jpg — What we discoverd?

1. Users didn't fully understand the purpose of the website
2. Users were not sure what items they could search for
3. Users were confused with two different sets of navigation

User Interviews

We wanted to get to the root of the problem and understand the pain points and user expectations in depth. So, we first conducted a research/screener survey and followed it up with in-depth user interviews. The objective of the user interviews was to find out:

1. How users will use the app
2. Who will use the app
3. Understand users' mental makeup when it comes to saving and social sharing

Key Insights From the Research/Screener Survey

Key Insights from User Interviews

1. People want to save more and would love an app that allows them to do so

2. 66% interviewees confide in a loved one before making a big purchase

3. 100% participants plan for big purchases

Here are some of the quotes we heard from the users

Girl Quote.jpeg — **“Even after going through the entire site, I’m not 100% sure what the site is”**

Alexa

Man quote.jpeg — "What is this providing to me that is different?"

Brandon

Problem Statement

Based on the user interviews and the research survey insights. We came up with the following problem statement.

People with a source of income want a way to save more money and consult with their loved ones before making impulsive purchases so that they can make mindful spending decisions.

Based on the user insights, we designed two personas.

Competitive Studies

Since Inspired Savings has aspects of banking, e-commerce and crowdsourcing all in one, we looked at a number of competitors across the board.

E-Commerce Competitors

Key Takeaways

Inspired Savings aesthetics did not convey the personality of the brand as strongly as some of the other e-commerce stores.

Financial Competitors

Key Takeaways

Inspired savings app did not communicate trust and credibility as is exhibited by most financial services.

Crowdsourcing Competitors

Key Takeaways

Clarity and strong, clear call to action are key to most crowdsourcing sites. There is an opportunity to integrate that into Inspired Savings app.

Ideation & Design

Based on research insights, we wanted to redesign the app so that it meets both the user and business needs. Some important points of focus were:

1. The app should easily communicate the goal of the service
2. It is easy and intuitive to use
3. It inspires trust and credibility
4. It is easy for users to include friends and family in their purchasing decision