RainyDay | Money Saving App
Role | UI/UX Designer
Skills | Research, Problem Solving, Ideation, Competitor Analysis,
Wireframing, Usability Testing, & Visual Branding
Timeline | March ‘22 - April ‘ 22 (1 Month)
Tools | Adobe XD, Figma , Balsamiq
Why RainyDay?
Everyone has attempted to save money at some point in their life, whether that was to pay for a wedding, college, or simply tucking money away in their “Rainy Day” fund. RainyDay’s mission is to ease the stress of saving and help users focus on and achieve their goals.
This project began unlike any other project I’ve worked on by taking a Brand Identity first approach. My goals were to create a bright and inviting color palette, utilize a playful yet professional typography, and to incorporate illustrations that were focused on the goals users would be saving for and not on the act of saving itself. Here you can see some earlier iterations of what would later become RainyDay’s Logo.
RainyDay Brand Guide
Competitive Analysis
While working on a Brand Guide for RainyDay I also conducted competitive analysis of a few existing financial apps. The apps I examined in greatest detail were Truebill, Mint, & YNAB.
YNAB offers users a very straightforward interface and experience but is catered more to building out an entire budget and monitoring every transaction and making adjustments throughout the month to achieve your budget.
Mint has very similar offerings to YNAB but with a less sterile interface to present it’s services on. One nice feature is the ability to view your credit score, something to consider for future iterations of RainyDay.
Truebill has a service that is similar to the others but the branding is what really sets it apart. It is a very inviting app that helps users set and achieve goals and track their budget but it doesn’t feel as daunting as its competitors.
Initial User Interviews
As I was working on a compressed timeline, I was unable to conduct proper user interviews. Since no project deserves to exist without any user input, I looked to the App Store to read user reviews of existing apps to see what works and doesn’t work for them. Something I saw over and over again was user’s discomfort and confusion during the initial stages of linking their banking accounts to their financial apps. This insight led me to focus on RainyDay’s onboarding process.
“I couldn’t add one of my accounts and it took me about 3 hours on chat w customer service to finally fix it”
alexisburger2016
“If you’re hoping for a good way to track multiple accounts, this isn’t it.”
Aegraphic
“It used to be a nice app, but this year they failed twice at connecting to bank accounts.”
cheeryinmay
Problem Statement
How might we build an app that offers users an intuitive and stress-free onboarding process that helps them set and achieve their savings goals?
User Stories
“As a new user, I need to be able to create a profile, so that the financial advice I receive is personalized to me, my spending habits, and tailored to my goals.”
“As a money-saver, I need to be able to input information on the money I am receiving and spending (and on what), so that I can see an overview of my finances.”
“As a user, I need to be able to tell the tool what my savings goal is and how long I have to reach it, so that I can save accordingly.
User Flow
Utilizing Figma I was able to construct a basic User Flow that would give my users the simplified onboarding process they desire, as well as the ability to achieve additional goals.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Once I had curated a user flow, I began working on some low-fidelity wireframes for RainyDay. Initially utilizing some quick pen and paper sketches, and then trying my hand at Balsamiq for the first time.
Onboarding | User Goals
Splash
Onboarding | User About
Onboarding | User Inputs
Accounts
Dashboard
Accounts | Confirm
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
After choosing the layouts and patterns I intended to use, I jumped into Adobe XD to incorporate RainyDay’s branding to my black and white mid-fi wireframes. I utilized unDraw to provide illustrations focused on celebrating achieving goals. Users are now able to link their banking accounts during the onboarding process instead of waiting to add once they land on the dashboard. Time for testing!
Onboarding | User Goals
Splash
Onboarding | User About
Onboarding | User Inputs
Accounts | Confirm
Accounts
Dashboard
User Testing
The goal of this test was to assess the learnability for users interacting with RainyDay for the first time on mobile. I wanted to observe and measure if new users understood the project, its value, and how to complete basic initial functions such as logging in, linking their accounts, and creating a new financial goal. This test was conducted over Zoom, I utilized voice memo’s on my phone for a backup.
Test Prompt
"A friend recommends Rainy Day to you after they utilized it to save for their summer vacation. Sign up for an account and create a new goal to get started."
Key Insights
2/3 of users unsure how to add multiple banking accounts
Dashboard not providing enough detail
Unclear about “Goal Confirmation” page
Solutions
Redesign secondary button “Add another account”
Include dollar amount in dashboard chart and update transaction titles
Update wireframes to include examples
High Fidelity Wireframes
Taking all of the insights gleaned from user testing, its time to watch RainyDay really come to life with some color, icons, and final copy! Thanks to MockupPhone for making this so easy!
Onboarding | User Goals
Splash
Onboarding | User About
Onboarding | User Inputs
Accounts | Confirm
Accounts
Dashboard
Reflection
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Branding went very well. Color palette & Fonts were decided almost immediately. As was the choice to use illustrations
Skills
Color Theory | Typography
Processes
Branding
Solution
Continue consuming design inspiration to expand and innovate my designs
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Getting the project off the ground was the most challenging as I didn't have any previous experience with financial apps.
Skills
Competitive Analysis | User Feedback
Processes
User Centered Design
Solution
Make time in all future projects for initial User Interviews
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This project showed me I need to do more design pattern research to ensure variety in my design solutions.
Skills
Research | Design Patterns
Processes
User Centered Design
Solution
Frequent sites such as Bēhance and Dribbble to stay up to date on design patterns
Thank you so much for reading!
If you like what you see, reach out on LinkedIn and let’s connect!
