top of page
New Leaf Budget Buddy thumbnail.2.png

Project Scope

Role: UX Researcher (Strategy-focused)
Client: n/a
Project type: SaaS feature
Project length: 4 days
My contribution: Research Plan, Secondary Research, In-depth Interviews, Proto-Persona, Usability Testing; Presentation
Tools: Figma, Google Workspace, Slack

Budget Buddy Online Banking Feature

General Assembly Financial Hackathon

Overview: In a four-day hackathon, our team was tasked with designing a new budgeting app to improve financial literacy. 

 

However, early research revealed a critical misalignment between the prompt and real user needs.

 

Result: Budget Buddy — a SaaS feature integrated into an online banking suite of services, enabling users to directly link their income and spending habits.

 

Impact: My role focused on reframing the problem, translating research into a strategic direction, and guiding the team to a more viable solution.

THE CHALLENGE

Initial Prompt

Design a standalone mobile or web app for budgeting.


Core Tension

  • Business/brief assumptions: Users need a new bdugeting tool.

  • Emerging user insight: Users resist adopting new financial apps.

​

​

​

This tension created a strategic question:

Should we build what was assigned — or what users need?

MY APPROACH

Structuring the Problem

​

I reframed the challenge into three core questions:

1. Behavioral Reality: How do users currently mangae their finances?

2. Adoption Barrier: Why do budgeting tools fail to stick?

3. Experience Opportunity: Where can budgeting fit naturally into existing behavior?

RESEARCH

Secondary Research

Too many Americans exceed their set monthly budgets. A 2023 online survey of 2,000 U.S. adults found that three-quarters (74%) of Americans have a monthly budget. However, 84% of Americans with a monthly budget report they sometimes exceed that budget (Nerdwallet, accessed August 14, 2023).

In-Depth Interviews

After I drafted a discussion guide, we held four (4) interviews with participants who use financial software to monitor their financial health.

Unfortunately, my partner did not record her interviews, leaving us dependent on her notes and memory. So, we chose to review the highlights of all four interviews to uncover commonalities. I used this information to construct a proto-persona.

Meet Avery.

Image of the Proto-persona, Avery.

Crucial Insight (Strategic Inflection Point)

Users want their mobile banking app to help with their budgeting.

Most interviewees prefer to manage budgeting witnin their existing banking platforms due to:

  • Trust and security

  • Convenience and consolidation

  • Reduced cognitive load

STRATEGIC REFRAME

​

Based on this insight, I advocated for a fundamental shift:

From a standalone budgeting app to an embedded budgeting feature within an existing banking ecosystem (SaaS model).

Challenges

At this time, five team members — two data scientists, an engineer, and two UX designers- quit the hackathon. Short-staffed, the two remaining members (engineers) and I coordinated with the hackathon organizers to rebuild our team. By the end of the second of four days, we welcomed two engineers and a UX/UI designer.


To move forward, I:

  • Synthesized research into a clear, persuasive narrative (proto-persona Avery)

  • Framed the pivot as a user-centered and strategically defensible decision

DESIGN

Creating a solution statement

To address our users' needs, the (new!) UX designer and I workshopped several solution statements until we arrived at the statement below:

​

Avery needs a new budgeting feature that allows her to set and edit her monthly budget on her bank’s online banking tools so that she can feel confident about her spending.

​

​

This guided:

  • Feature prioritization

  • User flows

  • Interface decisions

​

​

​

Concept: Budget Buddy

A SaaS feature embedded within a banking platform that:

  • Links income and spending automatically

  • Enables quick budegt setup

  • Surfaces spending insights in-context

TESTING

Comprehending the tool's capabilities

Five (5) participants tested my team's prototype in medium fidelity. I crafted a usability test guide to determine whether users could:

  1. Set a spending limit of $250 on streaming services and

  2. Determine which category they overspent this month.


Users should be able to complete tasks in under 30 seconds and with 100% accuracy.

Usability Test Results

Key Findings

  1. Users struggled with navigation clarity across budget categories

  2. Onboarding needed to better communicate system structure and flow

  3. Accessibility issues emerged (e.g., small tap targets, unclear financial indicators)

Usability Test Results Table

PROTOTYPE

Iterative Strategy Adjustments

Based on testing, we:

  1. Introduced an onboarding framework to clarify navigation

  2. Improved information hierarchy and labeling

  3. Identified opportunities to apply universal design principles

Based on testing, we:

  1. Introduced an onboarding framework to clarify navigation

  2. Improved information hierarchy and labeling

  3. Identified opportunities to apply universal design principles

Budget Buddy Prototype link image.png

IMPACT

Meeting users where they are

Strategic Impact

  1. Successfully reframed the product from a standalone app to an embedded financial experience

  2. Aligned team direction around user behavior, not assumptions


Experience Impact

  1. Improved usability through clearer navigation and onboarding

  2. Highlighted accessibility gaps for future iterations

"If my bank [app] looked like this, I would actually pay attention to my finances more." - usability test participant

WHY IT MATTERS

Addressing the problem

"[The] financial hardships that low and middle-income families are struggling with can't simply be addressed with a budget" (CNBC, accessed August 14, 2023).

There is no one simple "hack" that will solve why so many people struggle with budgeting. Sobering as this may be, what we can do — what we must do — is acknowledge what has been working for people, recognize what satisfies their needs, and build solutions that adapt to their realities.

 

We believe tools like New Leaf's Budget Buddy, Bank of America's Budgeting & Spending, and Chase's Budget allow users to control their finances more.

NEXT STEPS

Maintain momentum

If my team had more resources, we would like to perform the following steps to improve New Leaf's Budget Buddy:
 

  • Test high-fidelity iterations with a broader user base

​

  • Integrate real-time financial data via banking API

​

  • Expand from tracking to behavioral guidance and recommendations

​

  • Continue improving accessibility and inclusivity across flows

Thank you for reading!
bottom of page