SoInPo: Social Investment Portfolio App
Design a social investment portfolio app focused on fostering educational conversations around investing with a mission in increasing financial literacy in Gen Z and younger generations.
My Role:
Project Lead // Case Study
Date:
Oct 2022
Project Includes:
App, UX/UI, Branding, Research
Contents:
Overview
Break barriers to entry in the investment sphere for younger generations by supplying educational tools and encouraging community discussion .
Users & Research
Meet Miyah, a young professional who needs supplemental income to help pay her student loans post pandemic. She wants to enter the investment field for the first time.
UX/UI Considerations
Using UX from investment and social apps to encourage financial conversations such as adding newsfeed tabs based on interests, portfolio analytics, and friend activity.
Project Overview
SoInPo is a social investment portfolio app focused on financial education through community discussion.
Talking about money and investments has long been considered a taboo topic. "Investing will be even more prevalent in our lives. You may already be having conversations with your family or friends and we'll see this trend continuing." With the increased accessibility to financial information and tools, along with periods of market volatility, "People managing their own portfolios is becoming a major trend..."
*Brooke Roberts, sharesight.com
*David McEwen, sharesight.com
A few issues beginners face entering the investment sphere include huge learning curves and rapidly changing information
“... it can be dangerous especially when a beginner does not take the time to learn the ropes or implement well thought out strategies. Day trading is like any other career – you have to be trained in order to learn what strategies to implement...” Ross Cameron, warriortrading.com
Pain Points
Financial issues impacting Gen Z.
Pain points Gen Z faces regarding finances include Covid-19 job loss, unemployment qualifications, and food insecurity, resulting in an increased need for supplemental income.
“Gen Z and millennials were much more impacted by job losses and (there’s) a need to supplement income, (for example) 33% of millennial and Gen Z workers lost their job due to Covid-19, compared to the 9% of Gen X workers.”
“Young adults are not only experiencing more job losses during the pandemic, but many also don’t qualify for traditional unemployment insurance [and also] makes them more susceptible to food insecurity.“ Kassandra Martinchek, urban.org
User Research
Blending social, investment, and educational UX for younger demographics.
Features allowing conversation or gaining advice are highly sought after in FinTech apps
“According to an Albert spokesperson, ‘during early parts of the pandemic (the app) saw a huge spike’ in its Genius feature, which allows users to send questions to professional financial advisers.” Jennifer Sor, labuisnessjournal.com
“Miller said many questions submitted by users in the past few months suggest increased interest in investing [including] finding “the best stock to invest in,” and stocks with the highest growth potential during the pandemic.” Jennifer Sor, labuisnessjournal.com
Reviews of investment apps suggest a need for more educational content, visual aids, and straightforward navigation
- Acorns is praised for their educational content making it a popular app for new investors
- Robinhood has limited customer support & minimal educational resources
- ETrade's website is difficult to navigate & users report having trouble finding the tools they need
- Sharesight has too much text information listed at once, and few visual aids to break up the information
User Persona
Miyah: Beginner investor looking to pay off her student loans
Miyah is an tech savvy 24 year old who lost her job during the pandemic. She has a bachelor’s degree and $33,000 of student loan debt. Miyah’s stressed from the uncertainty of student loan forgiveness/ forbearance legislation. She applied for pandemic unemployment assistance, and is nervously waiting for a reply of how much she will receive. After losing her job, Miyah started researching financial portfolio advice through free media resources such as Youtube and Reddit- she’s hesitant since she knows it’s a complex and volatile field filled with hidden fees, but feels she has no choice while she doesn’t have a consistent income.
Considerations:
Problem:
Too much text, complicated information, doesn't understand all terms being used
Solution:
Use visual aids for complex information
Problem:
Lack of community, needs advice, overwhelmed with making the right choice
Solution:
Create a newsfeed for friends to spark conversation
Problem:
No formal trading education, not sure where to start with research
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Solution:
Add newsfeed tabs for different subjects, such as trending news, portfolio- based content, or friend activity