Empowering banking customers to start investing
Designing a new app feature aimed at getting one million customers to start investing via mobile.
Client
HSBC
Dates
Jan to Dec 2022 (12 months)
Role
Wireframing, interaction design, visual design, prototyping, systems and product thinking, UX writing
Platforms
iOS and Android apps
Teams
Product, Content, Engineering, Architecture, User Research, Legal and Commercial
Tools
Sketch, InVision, Axure
Summary
Supporting HSBC’s plan to motivate one million customers to start investing via mobile, I worked alongside the agency Zühlke to design a new app feature that empowers customers to set financial goals, educates them about investing, and inspires them to invest as a way of achieving their aspirations.
Outcomes
18,750 goals created every month
7,000 goals completed in the first five months
Drastic improvements in user feedback
Between the first and last round of user testing there were vast improvements in user feedback thanks to design changes I made.
THE CHALLENGE
Empower one million customers to invest via mobile
HSBC wanted to empower its customers to achieve their financial goals and grow their wealth. It aimed to have one million customers investing via mobile while aligning both user and business needs.
User needs
HSBC research had revealed three key insights:
Customers want to grow their wealth and save towards significant milestones (buying a home, getting married, retiring).
Customers want more from their money than they get with low interest rate savings accounts.
Customers feel investing is increasingly relevant, achievable and something they want to try but don’t believe they understand it well enough.
Business goals
HSBC also wanted to:
Retain and win back customers from challenger banks with competitive app features.
Encourage customers to start investing with them.
Improve brand perception by supporting customers in achieving goals and overcoming challenges.
USER RESEARCH
“Fund investment is a dark art best left to the professionals.”
In 90-minute, one-on-one interviews with non-investors and people who had recently started, we made several key findings.
Myths create barriers
Commons myths (you’ll lose all your money, you need to be an expert, you need to be wealthy, you need a large lump sum, your money is locked away) put people off investing.
FOMO is a motivator
Everyone knows someone who invests — making it feel more accessible but also inducing FOMO in those not investing.
People are saving more but let down by interest rates
Savings habits improved during the pandemic but savings accounts don’t offer the interest rates people need to grow their money.
Research can be paralysing
When researching investing, people are unsure of which sources to trust and constantly feel they need to more information before starting.
DESIGN GOALS
Empower, Educate, Inspire
Based on our user needs and business objectives, we set three design goals:
Empower
users with a simple experience that helps them set and achieve financial goals.
Educate
users to debunk myths and help them understand how investing might help to reach their goals.
Inspire
users to start investing with as little as £1 per month.
IDEATION & PROTOTYPING
Creating an interactive and testable prototype
In a series of collaborative workshops, we brainstormed the process of settings financial goals and choosing how to contribute towards them.
We then created low-fidelity wireframes visualising the user journey before refining the concepts into a hi-fidelity interactive prototype.
USABILITY TESTING
“I feel a bit overwhelmed.”
We tested the prototype with seven participants (four with no investing knowledge and three active investors).
Setting goals and investing to achieve them was well-received, but there were some issues with the execution.
DESIGN ITERATION
Drastic improvements in user feedback
The designs took refining and further testing to get right. We needed to better educate users on investing and help them feel in control. But with design changes, we saw drastic improvements in user feedback.
FINAL DESIGN
Helping customers to set and achieve financial goals
Pots & Goals empowers customers to set financial goals, educates them on how they could achieve them, and inspires them to begin investing.
Set financial goals
Customers can quickly and easily define what they're saving for, how much they want to save and by when. Pots & Goals then helps them understand how much to contribute to achieve their goal by their target date.
Learn about investing & envision the future
Customers are invited to learn how investing might help them achieve their goal. Playful interactions help users explore and compare potential investing outcomes.
Set up pots
Customers are helped to open savings and/or investment accounts that will hold their contributions.
Manage your goals
Customers can manage, track, edit, and contribute to their goals from a single dashboard.
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Get in touch
Want to chat about a project? Reach out at contact@aaronhowes.com