FINBOX: FINANCIAL APP
Role
UX/UI
Year
2024
Industry
finance
Platforms
Mobile
Context
Finbox was created out of the need to simplify financial organization for women users who face difficulties in managing their expenses and structuring their income in daily life.
The product aims to support financial education in a practical way, helping users turn knowledge into action, with a strong focus on organization, planning, and financial decision-making.
Challenges
Understanding the financial behavior of users aged 40 to 60
Supporting the development of consistent financial habits
Helping users turn financial knowledge into daily practice
Improving income visualization and financial organization
Project Goals
Help users maintain consistency in financial tracking
Promote financial autonomy in daily life
Improve clarity on income, expenses, and available balance
Support more conscious financial decision-making
Discover
During the research phase, qualitative interviews were conducted with women aged 40 to 60, aiming to understand their pain points, expectations, and behaviors regarding financial organization. The interviews explored how users manage their finances in daily life, their main difficulties in controlling income and expenses, how they handle unexpected financial situations, their level of financial knowledge and application, and the barriers they face in maintaining consistent financial habits.
During the interviews, some users mentioned relying on financial advisors to help them manage their finances. Based on this insight, additional interviews were conducted with financial advisors to better understand how financial guidance is provided, especially in the context of female users and their specific needs and behaviors.
Based on the insights gathered from these interviews and with the goal of synthesizing the main behavioral patterns, pain points, and needs identified, a persona was created to make the user profile more tangible and to guide design decisions throughout the project.This persona reflects a recurring pattern identified in the research: a gap between financial understanding and its practical application, especially when it comes to maintaining long-term financial organization. A competitive analysis was also conducted to map existing market solutions that support financial organization, planning, and education, as well as to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. At this stage, the focus remained on these three pillars, while investment-related topics were intentionally excluded and planned for a future phase of the product roadmap. Among the solutions analyzed, five were mobile apps and two were websites. Mobile applications were prioritized, as the research indicated that users primarily rely on mobile devices to manage their finances on a daily basis.
Define
After the research phase, a synthesis and analysis of the collected data was conducted to consolidate key insights and guide the development phase. This process transformed qualitative findings into clear product directions, identifying behavioral patterns, recurring pain points, and opportunities to improve the users's financial management experience. Among the main findings, it was identified that users struggle to maintain consistency in financial tracking. It was also observed that many users have difficulty categorizing their expenses and clearly understanding how much they are actually spending, which affects their overall financial overview.
Develop
The ideation phase began with a brainstorming session to explore potential features aimed at addressing users’ financial organization challenges. The goal was to generate a wide range of ideas related to personal finance planning, tracking, and management. After this stage, some features were removed or deprioritized to better align with the product scope, ensuring that the first version focused on the most critical user needs. This helped define a clearer, more coherent, and intentional set of features for development. To support the ideation process, the Crazy 8s technique was used to quickly sketch different solution ideas within a short timeframe, enabling rapid exploration and refinement of concepts.
After the Crazy 8s, the generated ideas were refined and structured to create a high-fidelity prototype, where the selected solutions were translated into a more realistic product experience, focusing on structure, interface, and interaction flow.After the high-fidelity prototype was created, user testing sessions were conducted to evaluate how users interacted with the platform and to understand their perception of the proposed experience. The main goal was to identify potential friction points, validate the usability of the features, and collect qualitative feedback on clarity, navigation, and the usefulness of the information presented. The tests followed a task-based script, where users were asked to simulate real-life actions such as recording expenses, viewing categories, and tracking their financial overview. During this process, behaviors, difficulties, and questions were observed, along with spontaneous feedback collected at the end of the session.
After the high-fidelity prototype was created, user testing sessions were conducted to evaluate how users interacted with the platform and to understand their perception of the proposed experience. The main goal was to identify potential friction points, validate the usability of the features, and collect qualitative feedback on clarity, navigation, and the usefulness of the information presented. The tests followed a task-based script, where users were asked to simulate real-life actions such as recording expenses, viewing categories, and tracking their financial overview. During this process, behaviors, difficulties, and questions were observed, along with spontaneous feedback collected at the end of the session.
Key Feedbacks
Better understanding of spending when expenses were organized by category
Interest in alerts or insights about expenses exceeding planned budgets
Increased awareness of overspending in specific areas
User Statement
“It was very interesting to use the product because it helped me clearly see where my money is going. I had never realized how often I go over my planned budget in certain categories. Seeing everything organized made me think about how I could have used that money in a better and more conscious way.”
Outcomes
User testing validated the product concept and showed that organizing expenses into categories significantly improved users’ financial awareness. The tracking features helped identify overspending patterns and provided a clearer understanding of money distribution.
Key Learnings
One of the main learnings from the process was the importance of narrowing down the scope for the MVP, keeping the focus only on what was essential at this stage: financial organization. During ideation, many expansion opportunities emerged, including more advanced features related to financial education and investments. However, it was necessary to prioritize what truly addressed the users’ core pain point. This reinforced that good ideas can (and should) be explored in a future roadmap, but the MVP must remain focused, clear, and solution-oriented. More complex features were intentionally postponed to later phases, ensuring a solid foundation centered on organization and financial tracking.
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