The Finacial Planning Hub
A redesigned website that supports a small local cat shelter through clearer communication and a more welcoming digital presence.
This project explores how financial planning can become more intuitive and approachable within a banking app. Through research, concept development, and prototyping, we designed a feature that helps users understand how everyday financial decisions shape long‑term goals. Guided onboarding, personalized insights, and interactive “what‑if” scenarios turn complex information into simple, visual guidance. The result is a planning experience that supports clarity, confidence, and more informed decision‑making.
Context
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Type: App Design / Adding a new function
Duration: October - December 2025
Skills: Figma, different idea generation techniques (e.g. Round Robin, Lotus)
Project Overview
The Financial Planning Hub is a feature concept designed to make long‑term financial planning more intuitive within an existing banking app. Many users struggle to understand how everyday decisions influence future goals, which often leads to uncertainty and delayed action. This project addresses that gap by introducing guided onboarding, personalized insights, and interactive “what‑if” simulations that translate complex financial information into simple, visual guidance. The experience is built to help users track progress, explore future scenarios, and make informed decisions with greater clarity and confidence.
Brief
This project was developed as part of a course focused on identifying new opportunities within an existing banking app. Starting from a set of insights and opportunity areas generated in a previous research phase, the goal was to design a new digital feature that could meaningfully improve the user experience. The challenge was to explore unmet needs, define a clear problem space, and create a concept that adds value to everyday banking by making complex tasks feel simpler, more intuitive, and more supportive for users.
Challenge
People today navigate an increasingly complex financial landscape, where everyday choices — small purchases, unexpected expenses, or changes in income — quietly shape long‑term goals like buying a home, building savings, or preparing for retirement. Yet most users struggle to understand this connection in real time, which often leads to uncertainty, procrastination, and a lack of confidence when planning for the future. Although existing banking apps offer strong tools for managing accounts and investments, they rarely provide clear, intuitive support for long‑term financial planning. This gap creates an opportunity to design a feature that offers clearer guidance, visual transparency, and approachable tools that help users make sense of their financial lives, feel more in control, and build trust in their ability to make informed decisions.a
Context Analysis
Benchmark
Most financial apps offer solid banking and investment tools, but few help users understand how everyday decisions influence long‑term goals. Competitors often include goal tracking or spending insights, yet they rarely make financial planning intuitive, visual, or interactive. Real‑time simulations, clear metaphors, and personalized guidance are largely missing, leaving users without a simple way to grasp future impact. This gap reveals an opportunity to design a more transparent and approachable financial planning experience.
User Research
Through interviews, surveys, and exploratory research, we found that many people actively plan their finances but struggle to understand how daily choices affect long‑term outcomes. This “awareness gap” often leads to procrastination, uncertainty, and difficulty making confident decisions. Users expressed a desire for tools that feel simple, visual, and personalized rather than technical or overwhelming. They also highlighted the need for features that make planning more tangible, help anticipate unexpected expenses, and show progress in an intuitive way. These insights guided our direction toward a feature that clarifies long‑term impact and supports decision‑making within a banking app.
Key Findings
Our research uncovered several behavioral and emotional barriers that prevent users from engaging confidently with financial planning. These findings shaped the foundation of the experience:
- Users struggle to see how daily decisions affect long‑term goals.
- This “awareness gap” leads to procrastination and uncertainty.
- People prefer simple, visual tools over complex financial terminology.
- Personalized guidance increases motivation and clarity.
- Unexpected expenses create anxiety and disrupt planning efforts.
- Users need approachable ways to explore “what‑if” scenarios.
- Financial information feels overwhelming without structure and context.
Problem Definition
Financial planning often feels abstract, disconnected from daily life, and difficult to maintain. Users lack visibility into long‑term impact, struggle to stay motivated, and feel anxious when unexpected expenses arise. Existing tools do not provide simple, intuitive ways to explore future outcomes or understand how short‑term actions shape long‑term goals. This project aims to address these gaps by designing a clearer, more supportive planning experience.
Ideation Process
To translate these insights into concrete design opportunities, we explored a wide range of possible directions using structured ideation techniques. As a team, we applied methods such as Round Robin, which helped us rapidly generate diverse ideas by building on each other’s contributions, and the Lotus Blossom technique, which allowed us to expand core concepts into multiple layers of related solutions. These approaches enabled us to move from research findings to a clear set of design opportunities, ultimately shaping the foundation of the Financial Planning Hub and guiding the development of the final solution.
Experience Mapping
Target
The feature is designed for everyday banking users who want clearer guidance in managing their financial future. It supports people who plan their finances but struggle to understand how daily decisions influence long‑term goals, and who benefit from simple, visual, and personalized tools that build confidence and control.
Task Flow
The task flow outlines the user journey from onboarding to goal exploration and simulation. It maps key interactions, decision points, and system responses that guide users toward more confident financial planning. This flow was developed collaboratively and refined through multiple ideation methods, including sketching, scenario mapping, and rapid prototyping.
Branding
The branding aims to integrate seamlessly into the existing banking app while introducing a sense of clarity and calm. The visual language emphasizes simplicity, guidance, and confidence through clean layouts, soft motion, and a warm tone. A dynamic metaphor — such as a growing tree — serves as a recognizable element that conveys progress at a glance. Overall, the branding reinforces trust and approachability, supporting users as they navigate their financial future.
Solution
The solution is a Financial Planning Hub integrated into an existing banking app, designed to make long‑term planning simple, visual, and intuitive. The feature introduces a guided onboarding that helps users understand their financial situation, followed by a dynamic visual metaphor—such as a growing tree—that represents financial health at a glance. Real‑time simulations allow users to explore how short‑term actions influence future outcomes, while clear insights, one‑tap recommendations, and structured views of savings, investments, and expenses support more confident decision‑making. The experience combines clarity, personalization, and interaction to transform complex financial planning into an accessible and motivating process.
Selected Works
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