Barclays Balance
The link between money and mental health_
Money and mental health are often intricately linked. One problem can feed off the other, increasing financial problems and worsening mental health that is hard to escape. The challenge was to use technology and innovation to develop a new digital experience, service or tool that bridges this gap.
People need tools to help them take control & banks can provide these tools. Survey shows that mostly money issues cause stress and anxiety and less vice-versa and 66% people find online banking not an easy activity. I discovered many insights like this through the survey and then I went on doing the interviews of users and experts
Does saving up reduce your stress?_
User's point of view
•Old aged people are more comfortable in managing money because of experience.
•People think if its convenient, it might not be secure, so the challenge here was to make something secure and simple to use.
•Sometimes people overspend to feel better.
• Quoting users “I’m more relaxed when I see I am managing my money well”.
• Approx. 80% users think visual representation of the data could help them manage and remember statistics better.
• 66% people find online banking not an easy activity.
Therapist's point of view
I talked to the therapist to understand the general wellbeing problems caused in relation to money management, and the techniques to help with them. The top factors in this case are, stress, anxiety, paranoia and depression. She recommends the ABC module. (Action, behaviour, consequences) and having firefighters (a backup plan incase ABC has been tried)
Financial advisor's point of view
There are 3 types of users that he noticed facing similar problems:
•Older generation who believe in paperwork, tangibility and trust more than online banking.
•Adaptive users, quickly mastered the digital banking after being active customers of the offline bank.
•Young people who are new to managing money and find it stressful, want a fast and easy life.
Therapy techniques for a banking app_
This is where it gets interesting! All these insights had to be put down to finally see the link joining all the major facts and feelings. Here is a flow chart to explain my plan for an idea!
Solving the brief with the help of the therapist’s ABC technique by knowing the needs wants and motivations of our target audience suggested by the financial advisor, I made 5 How might we statements to kickstart ideas
Taking back the control of money_
How might we?
1. How might we reduce the number of clicks?
2. How might we help people be more alert to avoid anxiety inducing triggers?
3. How might we prevent problematic scenarios and still have firefighters (back-up)
4. How can we make people feel in control of their actions
5. How to make the user experience short and efficient
Physical Wireframes
To organise the usage of the app, I put all the interaction ideas connecting to each screen and removed the ones that were disconnected from the main idea of the app.
Digital Wireframes
The goal here was to make a personalised application that helps you manage money, which would relax them and visually guide and inform them about their consumption? And for the bank, profitable.
User Test
I made the digital wireframes into a clickable prototype to be able to user test an get people’s reactions on what are the features that they liked the most and what would really help them and why. They seemed to like the fact that it was easier to differentiate and understand the data with visual categories.
Design an app that reflects “We’ve got your back”_
Set goals, achieve them, if any problem, we got you, balance your consumption and understand your expenses to manage your money at your pace.
