Ipon
Saving money might be cumbersome to some, if not most, people. In fact, according to a survey last 2018 by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), only 32.8% of the Filipinos reserve money for personal and future financial security. The survey also states that 46.2% of which save their money at home while 26.5% put their funds on cooperatives, and other financial investments. Doing the math, only approximately 34.9 million Filipinos versus a total of 106.6 million Filipinos save their money last 2018. Since it has become important to secure our current and future financial situation, this case study aims to help users save money.
Empathizing
7 people were interviewed ranging from students to working adults regarding their saving and spending patterns to better design a prototype that aims on helping users save money. Below personas summarize and lay out all the findings:
Defining
After creating the personas, all findings and quotes were written on sticky notes and they were used to create an empathy map which divided the interviewees' “said”, “did”, “thought”, and “felt”. The interviewees’ thoughts and feelings were the most challenging parts to determine, but paying close attention to the interviewees’ behaviors, actions and thought process really helped.
Point-of-View statements turned in to madlibs were done afterwards in order to formulate the following problem statements:
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A working mother who needs to save money to buy personal items because she needs to prioritize her desires too.
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A worker who needs to save money because it’s only being spent impulsively on luxuries, and so she can start building her emergency funds.
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A student who needs to save money to buy a laptop because it will be needed for college soon.
It was also discovered that using traditional methods such as piggy banks really helped the interviewees save money since their childhood. The three problem statements were then transformed into 12 how might we questions to creatively explore solutions for aiding users save money.
Ideation
From the how might we statements, it was decided that virtual piggy bank is the way to go - allowing users to opt-in and subscribe to a piggy bank at a comfortable cost, so they can grow their money at a stable and manageable pace/frequency. Sketchstorm was performed to quickly produce mockups. Sitemap was iteratively created along with the sketches to layout the functionality and features of the app. The concept is named “Ipon” which is a Filipino term for “saving money”.
Prototyping and Testing
The primary color used for the prototype is color pink to mimic physical piggy banks complimented by dark grey, white, and bluegreen. Figma was used to create medium-fidelity prototypes while following the IOS’ design principles and guidelines. Just like the actual piggy bank, the amount saved is hidden at first but users can hold onto the screen to view the actual fund amount.
The prototype is tested through convenience testing with close friends and relatives. 3 out of the 5 testers agreed that they will entrust their saving journeys with Ipon, while the latter will heavily depend their decision on the app’s availability, and customer support so to gain confidence. The navigation are well accepted as they are patterned after the popular mobile banking applications in the Philippines such as GCash, BPI and Metrobank.
Some laws of UX applied:
1. Law of Common Region
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Each piggy bank and its details are grouped closely and divided by a thematic break so it will be separated from each other.
2. Jakob’s law
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Ipon is patterned after GCash, BPI and Metrobank to gain familiarity on using the prototype.
Retrospective
“Most Financial Technologies out there such as Gcash seem to push users to spend than to save more”, as stated by one of the interviewees during the empathy stage. While this is (in my opinion) not the primary motive of such app, users tend to spend more due to discounts and partnership with e-commerce websites. Because of this impression of FinTech, it was challenging to conceptualize how to enable users to start saving for the future. So, the empathy map really helped in understanding the unsaid needs of the users. It’s apparent that saving through piggy banks is a universal norm that allowed us to conserve money since our early years, and that’s why, Ipon is the best way to introduce such habits to mobile users.
One of the hurdles of conceptualizing Ipon is its user flow —from creation of piggy banks to subscription to fund withdrawal — especially that there are no similar apps available on App Store. I learned that it’s important to pay close attention to your and your users’ behaviors, so you can try to introduce the tasks of using your physical piggy banks in to the digital world. Then, it’s crucial to test your proposed flow with your target users through wireframes, so you can make necessary adjustments.
As for the producers of Ipon, the funds that will be cashed in can be invested to bonds, stocks and other investment schemes, so it will grow significantly. Incentives/interests can also be given to users who can save a specific amount so they are driven to keep and grow their cash with Ipon. Ultimately, it’s important that the app is viable for the company’s strategic goals as well.
Screenshots
References
Villanueva, J. (2018, December 8). "More Filipinos saving up their money". Republic of the Philippines Philippine News Agency (Blog).
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1056070
The vector "savings concept illustration" on the log in screen is designed by slidesgo / Freepik.