Client

Sunny Day Fund

Overview

Sunny Day Fund is a financial services firm providing tools and resources for individuals to save, budget, and invest wisely. Its mission is to foster financial security by helping customers prepare for unforeseen expenses and achieve their financial objectives. The company promotes a positive outlook on financial planning, encouraging individuals to prepare for brighter futures.

The Challenge

Duration

  • Redesign the existing website interface to optimize user engagement and encourage commitment to financial goals.

  • Implement user-centric design strategies aimed at enhancing usability and simplifying navigation.

  • Introduce persuasive design elements to motivate users towards active participation and goal achievement.

Heuristic Study 

Adding humanity boosts trust significantly

Role

UX Designer & Visual Designer

Apr 2021 - May 2021

Trust building is the ultimate design goal. To understand how to build trust through design, we asked users to give a score on trustworthy from 1 to 4 when they first landed on the website and when they went through all the pages.

Here are the problems we found on the original website.

Instant insights enhance trustworthiness with a single click

Imagine getting on a bus without knowing the destination—wouldn't you feel panicked? Similarly, when users struggle to understand the navigation, they feel lost because they have no idea where it will take them. So, we first focused on refining the existing navigation scheme to be more conversational. The "for employer" and "for employee" tabs are also reinforced through the boxes below. Then, we let the buttons do the talking and guide the users seamlessly.

This is one reason why we use human photography on landing pages instead of illustrations. Let's hear from our users.

“Come to finance, I prefer to see people. It gives me a feeling that real people are doing what I’m doing now.”

“The woman shows inclusivity. It brings the score up to 3 without knowing what Sunny Day Fund is.”

A Balanced information fosters trust, avoids overwhelm

On the landing page, we offer just enough information for users to grasp the current situation and find their next step. Introducing a consistent color palette of blues and orange maintains a clean and soothing page appearance. By refining the landing page, we convey the message that we care for you.

Users seek control and personalization in finance

They feel more trusted when they have the ability to control their finances and fulfill their specific needs. So when moving to the dashboard, we are dedicated to bringing personalization features, giving them the freedom to set personal goals and control their savings. The graph here clearly shows where you stand in the saving process. During the usability test, we asked users to describe their learning style. 100% of them preferred visuals. Visualization is another approach that comes into play with the learning features. So we are not only providing article links, but also letting the images set the tone.

Users distrust partner features if they appear pushy or resemble advertisements during testing

So, in our design, we made an effort to avoid making it look like ads by centering the information on the page and leaving enough white space around it. This prevents the page from feeling crowded and ensures the information isn't squeezed, which is the opposite of how ads are typically laid out. Another way we build trust is by showcasing how carefully Sunny Day Fund builds partnerships. We also discovered that users often don't know how to start learning about finance, so we added a question section to give them an idea of what to expect. Overall, our goal is to provide a human-centric experience through design as part of our trust-building efforts.

Design System

Alongside the front-end engineering team, I created an atomic design system to make every screen a consistent experience. Being consistency is the key of building trust through design.

Results

  • Trustworthiness metric elevated from 2.1 to 3.7.

  • Sunny Day Fund client poised for trust enhancement initiative.

  • Prioritized file annotations facilitated via Zeplin.

  • Favorable feedback received from CEO and Lead Engineer.

  • Anticipating dissemination of results and client feedback.

Reflection

Defining the MVP

  • Navigating time constraints presents a unique challenge. Following each iteration of usability testing, collaborative sessions were instrumental in delineating the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), ensuring timely project delivery without compromising quality.

Acknowledging Development Constraints

  • Effective design transcends aesthetics; it must align with technical feasibility. By comprehending the intricacies of product development, enhanced communication channels were established between the design and development teams.