August 2025
Project Overview:
‘Think Ahead’ is a mobile app and website designed to encourage and guide teens and young adults into forming healthy saving habits. The app allows users to set financial goals, track progress and receive motivational tips. The website focuses on teaching the audience more about different approaches to saving, achieving goals, etc.
Problem:
In this era of inflation where the economy’s cost of living just keeps rising it can be very disheartening to the younger generation of teens and young adults who fear any attempts at financial stability may be futile as it seems things are harder to achieve now than they were for the older generations.
Goal:
The goal is to provide teens and young adults with the simple, starting steps of building smart, financial habits now to try and get ahead of the game. ‘Think Ahead’ makes goals realistic and achievable, tracking progress, enhancing motivation and guiding the youth towards financial independence despite today’s challenging economy.
My Role:
I will be completing this project as apart of my UX Design studies, increasing my confidence and skills as a Beginner UX Designer.
I am responsible for running the project from start to finish covering each phase, empathizing, defining, ideation, prototypes and testing.
Understanding The User:
My User Research helped me distinguish my audience of people between the ages of 18-25. I learned that it’s very common this group expresses concerns for the future due to the rising cost of living and the low income they’re earning that makes saving consistently very difficult for them. The research also showed that many users would find the implementation of a progress tracker, automatic bank updates, graphs, smart insights, tailored budgeting and inclusion of investments to be the most sought out features in a savings app.
Pain Points:
Inflation Concerns:
Majority of users expressed a strong level of concern for the increased cost of living, as they aren’t certain their savings will be able to keep up with the rising prices.
Financially Unready:
More than half of the surveys participants admitted to feeling unprepared for the future, showing a lack of tools and confidence to plan on a larger scale for the future.
Low Income:
Most users in the survey confirmed that the main reason for their savings struggles was the minimal income they were earning making saving consistently difficult.
Competitive Analysis:
Many banks have similar concepts with limitations, for example the Bankwest app allows users to create one free savings goal, before charging for more and it only has basic tracking features with no motivation. Our design ‘Think Ahead’, plans to implement more features and allow users to create multiple free savings accounts, tailored to help them achieve their goals.
Similarly, the Commonwealth Bank’s app tracks multiple goals with a progress bar, but its focused on adults and not tailored to teens and younger adults with its limited educational tips. My design is focused on teens and young adults, providing beginner-friendly education to the less experienced with automated updates, regular motivational reminders and information about savings on our websites, with tips and advise.
Persona:
Annie’s Problem Statement:
Annie is a student who wants a clear weekly savings plan to help manage her spending, so she can reach her financial goals.
User Journey Map:
This map was created off of Annie’s persona, a young adult who has realistic goals of renting out a home and maintaining a savings account but is uncertain if it is possible due to the increasing inflation.
It displays how the app helps her formulate a plan to achieve her goals and how she progresses overtime.
Starting The Design:
Sitemap:
App:
The goal is to produce an app that can assist users with creating a plan to achieve their financial goals, whether it’s sticking to weekly deposits, saving for a home, etc.
The app will have graphs to visually show users tracked progress, motivational tips and encouraging reminders. Users will be able to edit goals anytime to adapt with lives changes.
Website:
The websites purpose is to provide users with more information about the company’s mission, provide information about current economical growth, offer motivation through success stories, educate on different methods of saving and highlight the apps features; encouraging viewers to sign up if they haven’t already.
Paper Wireframes:
App:
The goal was to produce as many different wireframe ideas for the apps homepage, playing around with where to place the main features; current balance, insights and goals.
Each design considered how each area could be quickly accessed, so the user doesn’t have to scroll to the bottom to find each tool.
After sketching a few ideas, the better parts of each design were noted and combined into the final paper wireframe for a clean, accessible design.
Website:
The goal with the website was to produce a simple learning platform, that preferably had a similar layout to the app so that there was no juxtaposition between the two, making it easier for the user to navigate both as they follow a mutual set-out. Keeping the title at the top along with the horizontal slide through shortcuts was the main way we tried to keep consistency between the two.
I also didn’t want the sign up to be ‘too in your face’, so I went for a more simple, subtle approach keeping it small in the top corner so it’s always visible, but not the first thing your eye draws attention too.
Digital Wireframes:
App:
The main focus was to transfer the paper wireframe designs to a digital platform, experimenting with some different screen sizes (iPhone 16 and Android Compact) to see how visually it’d convert between the two. Some changes were made from the paper copy to create a more visually appealing page, that flowed with better consistency, e.g., changes to the ‘profile’s screens order.
View App Wireframe (iPhone) View App Wireframe (Android)
iPhone
Android
Website:
Moving the websites wireframe from paper to a digital copy was straight forward as it’s a lot less complex than the app due to less compiled features. Not many changes were made other than minimizing the quick access shortcuts bar due to there being less information, focusing more on using white space to help manage a clear, simple design.
Desktop
Low-Fidelity Prototype:
App:
For the app I decided to go with the Android Compact screen size.
Starting the user flow with the onboarding (sign up phase), taking the user through a brief survey that collects standard information about them to help build their tailored profile. After the user has ‘signed in’ they’ll make it to the homepage where they can use the shortcuts for quick access to their goals, profile, tips, etc.
The usability test is currently ongoing, and the changes will be made in the mockup for better time efficiency.
Website:
The website’s user flow starts on the ‘about the brand page’ and nothing else can be accessed until the user has ‘signed in’.
Once ‘signed in’ the user can view learning content about investing, tips and resources, as well as view their finances progress and stats, but they aren’t able to move money around, etc. as the website focuses on learning. The usability tests are currently ongoing, and changes will be made in the mockup for more efficiency.
Usability Study Parameters:
- Study Type – Unmoderated Usability Study
- Location – Perth, WA
- Participants – 3 people
- Length – 5-15mins (each design)
Instructions & Feedback Surveys
Usability Study Findings:
App:
During the usability study I learned that some participants were not a fan of the survey and the location of the quick access – shortcut bar.
Survey Frustrations:
- Some users found the survey frustrating and would prefer if the app read through their bank statements and learned and adapted from their habits to create a financial plan
- Less effort for the user
Relocate Shortcuts:
- Users expressed dissatisfaction with the quick access bar’s location
- Users want it at the bottom of the screen instead as their fingers naturally linger there without having to stretch to reach
Website:
During the usability study only two pain points were discovered, as participants found the design simple and easy to follow with the only frustrations being the inability to sign out and the slight inconsistency in title placement from screen to screen.
Unable to sign-out:
- Users want the security that their information is safe
- Users would like to be able to sign out for piece of mind
Titles move:
- Users found the shortcut titles to be inconsistent, moving positions between screens
- Users would like more consistency with wording placement throughout screens to avoid confusion
Refining The Design:
Mockups:
App:
When designing the mockup for the app, I took onboard the knowledge gained from the Usability Study to improve the design.
Users did mention not loving the initial onboarding survey, but I chose to keep it as most participants were unphased by it; understanding it as normal practice. I also thought that as this app is designed for a younger audience having AI technology read through all their spending history to learn their habits would be invasive. Having the survey also helps the users think about what their goals are.
The other thing users mentioned was that the shortcuts at the top of the screen being an inconvenient place, so I relocated them to the bottom of the screen for better accessibility.
Some other changes to the design were made here and there as I was going to make it more visually appealing and flow better.
Website:
Again I used the information gathered during the Usability Study to improve the websites design.
I included a logout method to provide security to users as mentioned by a participant.
I also kept all the titles in the same place, highlighting the pages title in a different colour to make it stand out which screen has been selected to avoid confusing users.
High-Fidelity Prototype:
App:
Not many changes were made to the overall flow of the app, mostly just additional screens like a budget screen, individual goal and insight screens for every goal and a page to manage and edit goals. I also made it so you can skip the onboarding survey if you already have an account, logging in instantly.
Website:
The flow of the website was kept the same, with a few additional pages implemented for greater interactions, e.g. the tips and investments page.
Second Usability Study Parameters:
- Study Type – Unmoderated Usability Study
- Location – Perth, WA
- Participants – 4 people
- Length – 15-20mins (each design)
2nd Round of Instructions & Feedback Surveys
Study Findings:
App:
During this Usability Study I got heaps more feedback, perhaps because it was more clear what the audience was looking at now. Also asking more direct, complex questions helped really engage the participants and show their understanding, Some smaller mentions include, changing the progress bars colour to match the budget page (red, orange and green) so progress is more clear and obvious. Also, changes to font and formatting for a greater appeal and highlighting shortcut boxes so they stand out better.
Changes to the flow:
Make sure pages return to the page they were previously at, e.g., budget screen to goal management.
Additional information:
Change the information from goals on the home-screen to local assistance to help those really struggling, e.g., charities, food banks and government assistance.
More Colour:
Using more colour so that the information is more clear and easier to interpret; noted in the charts & graphs.
Being more accessible to those who may have visual impairments.
Website:
During this Usability Study I got a lot more constructive criticism than complements unlike the app, which overall made me realize more time needs to be spent on developing the websites design.
Relocate Information:
Users requested the resource information was added to the tips page as they can be categorized the same.
Add Additional Info:
Users expressed wishing the resources provided information about local assistance, government help, salvation army, food charities, etc.
Implement Modern Design:
Users expressed the overall appearance being outdated and confusing to navigate.
Accessibility Considerations:
Simple Language ‘Clear Titles’:
Simple language was used, mostly with the intent of a younger audience, but it’s also beneficial to those who may have cognitive difficulties or visual impairments.
Basic Web Design:
The website has a very simplistic basic design, which helps make navigating and finding information easier for those who may not have a lot of experience with technology or find too much on a page overstimulating.
Going Forwards:
Takeaways:
Impact:
The impact this design earned was mostly pleasant with users being able to confidently navigate the app and website, listing reasons why they would recommend ‘Think Ahead’ to others.
What I Learned:
‘Think Ahead’ really showed me how important asking the right questions are to get constructive feedback on improvements. I learned that websites aren’t as straightforward as I imagined if you want to get good user experience results.
Next Steps:
Implement second studies feedback:
I received a lot of constructive criticism that needs to be implemented into the app and website to improve the user experience and design – adding information on local assistance and economical growth.
Diversify participants:
For this study most participants came from my social circle, therefore being a similar age to me. In future usability studies I’d like to explore with a more diverse age range than 19-23, really expanding to the target audience of 18-25 to see if it’d really suit the entire group.
Accessibility:
Compared to my other project, I focused a lot less on accessibility, so I’d like to put more emphasis on that area, perhaps starting by adding more colours to the charts to help the information stand out, making it easier for those with impairments to interact with and interpret the information.
Add Banking:
Moving forwards, I would need implement screens where users can connect their bank accounts for those who don’t want to regularly input their information manually.
