To the average person, the thought of investing can feel overwhelming. Many people believe it's time-consuming, risky, and complicated. 

Investr is an app that I designed during a design sprint that makes it easy to invest regularly and continuously. This app allows users to create an investment schedule, defining the amount and frequency of the investment, and the app manages the rest by pulling the money from your bank account and putting it into your selected investments. The app was designed with an intuitive flow, and simplified language, making it perceptible to all, and accessible to even the most inexperienced investors.

This app was designed as part of a design sprint, so I couldn’t conduct interviews to learn more about the user. Instead, I interviewed my client to learn more about users and the user experience. I used the information my client provided to build my user personas, empathy maps, and user journeys. I found that users of this app are people who don’t really have time for active investing. They want a set and forget scenario, where they can simply set their investment up to be pulled from their account as often as they want, and that money is automatically invested. That way it requires minimal effort, and they don’t have to remember to do it every month, or every time they are paid.

Ben S is an outgoing guy who likes to spend time with his friends, travel, and experience new things. He especially loves trying new restaurants with his friends. He’s been a construction manager for the last 7 years at a company in San Francisco, CA. Ben is charming and likable and extremely social. He likes to stay active as much as possible by spending time outside, playing sports, hiking, or riding his bike. 

Ben wants a way to set his money aside for savings and long-term investments. He knows he should be setting money aside for his future but he doesn’t have the time to learn about investment or to actively manage investments. Ben wants an app that he can trust to put his money in the right investments and not have to think about it too often.

Based on this persona, I took the time to better understand the user by developing empathy maps and journey maps.

After getting a grasp on the users' pain points, frustrations, goals, and motivations, I then began brainstorming solutions. I started with creating flow charts to define and illustrate how the user would interact with the app and what pages would be needed to accomplish their goals.

I then identified what basic functions of the app would need to be included, and then began sketching up ideas for what these pages might look like on the app. 

I decided the winning design would be the one that is most simple and clean. I didn’t want to overwhelm the user with information.

That meant it was time to develop a digital prototype and test the idea with more details and functionality.

I created a clickable low fidelity prototype in Figma.

I then did user testing, hoping to gather more insights about my design. Among other things, I tested whether or not users understood everything or if they got confused, and if they found the app to be enjoyable. I interviewed and surveyed them after the test was complete. This process provided valuable feedback. It confirmed that people liked the app and understood the design, but I was also able to identify things that could be improved.

At this point, the design sprint was done, but I had lots of valuable takeaways and made recommendations to my client on what could be improved for future iterations. My recommendations included:

• Add the “change account” and “change investment” options to the hamburger menu
• Simplify the language
• Add a dictionary of investing terms
• Change progress steps to a progress bar
• Add more security options
• Add a beginning page that explains the app and the onboarding process
• Improve the percentage of people who say they are likely to use the app by allowing day trading so they can see bigger gains. Also, educate people on the advantages of using the app and show them how much potential there is in investing for long-term results.   

Not only did I have tons of fun creating this project, but I also had learned a lot from it. 

I discovered the importance of sketching and developed a love for it. Sitting down and allowing the ideas to flow without interruption is such an incredible way to come up with ideas. It allowed me to explore everything that came to my mind without taking too much time or getting overly attached to any ideas or results.

I gained a deeper respect for user testing. Of course, this has always been an important part of my process, but the feedback I gained on this project was surprising, and it was exciting to feel creative energy and inspiration to iterate my designs after completing the user testing. 

I learned that good ideas can come from nowhere when I allow myself to explore all the ideas that come to my mind. By not judging my ideas or auditing my thoughts, I was able to simply trust the process and find creative solutions for my designs. 

I’m proud of how the app turned out and I believe the accessibility of the design allows anybody that wants to set money aside to begin their investment journey.