Empowering Financial Wellness
The Nedbank Money App is a secure and convenient platform for clients to manage their finances. My Smart Money, a key feature within the app, provides a snapshot of financial performance with actionable insights and educational tools to help clients improve their financial behaviors.
As a Design Lead, I focused on evolving the Financial Wellness section to align with strategic goals while navigating technical, user, staffing and stakeholder challenges.
Overview
Key Challenges and Industry-Specific Needs:
Technical Financial Insights
Financial data presented to users was overly technical, making it difficult for individuals with low financial literacy to understand or act upon the insights provided.
Misunderstanding target users
Poor financial literacy leads to poor financial behaviour which is exacerbated by tough economic conditions.
Most unequal country based on the Gini index - 63
Inefficiency
Too much user involvement. Not enough automation
What we discovered
Through research and iterative design, we uncovered:
Users needed at-a-glance spending insights with an option for deeper exploration.
Financial literacy tools were vital for guiding better financial behaviours.
Savings and investment options
Clearer visualisations and transparency in uncategorised spending were necessary for trust.
Guiding design principles
Simplicity
Distinct but understated UI.
Informative
Highlights good or concerning spending behaviours.
Glanceable
Understandable at a quick glance.
Implemented Solutions
Simplified Visualisations
Redesigned the spending card to show a high-level overview of financial performance while allowing users to drill down into detailed categories.Increased Transparency
Displayed uncategorised transactions as part of the total spend, improving trust.Data for New Users
Defaulted limits for first-month users with minimal spending data, dynamically updating after a month.Collaborative Design Workshops
Aligned stakeholders through workshops and demonstrated the value of early user testing to guide decisions.
Trade-Offs and Challenges:
Technical Limitations: The technology stack constrained transaction categorisation, resulting in uncategorised transactions.
Bias in User Data: Initial inputs could introduce unconscious biases, affecting generated insights.
Development Delays: Limited resources delayed additional features like classification libraries.
Impact and Reflections
Impact
While I left soon after the launch, early feedback included:
Positive sentiment from users, especially regarding the improved transparency and visual updates.
Design system updates were prioritised ahead of schedule due to strong user feedback on the updated Financial Wellness section.
Reflections
This project was a unique opportunity to balance technical limitations, user needs, and stakeholder goals. It reinforced the importance of aligning diverse groups through collaboration and leveraging user research to drive impactful decisions.