Project Overview

Lune | Product Designer

Focus: Budgeting Flow during Onboarding

Context

Lune is a budgeting app designed to help users manage their personal finances effectively. As part of the onboarding process, users are prompted to set up their budget after signing up and connecting their bank account. Initially, this process was time-consuming and cumbersome, leading to user frustration as they had already spent significant time linking their bank account.

Objective

The goal was to reduce friction in the budget setup process, making it more seamless and engaging while ensuring users could quickly see the home page and start learning about their personal finances.

Challenges

1. Lengthy Process: The initial flow required users to manually enter their income and budget details, extending the onboarding time.

2. User Frustration: Users felt frustrated by the lengthy setup after spending considerable time connecting their bank accounts.

3. Engagement: There was a need to make the budgeting process more engaging and less tedious.

Iterative Solutions

Flow 1: Initial Flow

• Manual Input: Users manually entered their monthly income and set their budget.

• Category Selection: Users selected budget categories manually.

• Lengthy Steps: Multiple screens and inputs led to a lengthy process.

Learning: Users found the manual input process tedious and time-consuming, which led to drop-offs during the onboarding process.

Problem Defined: The lengthy and cumbersome setup process needed to be simplified to retain user engagement and reduce drop-offs.

Flow 2: Improved UI and Simplified Steps

• Calendar Integration: Added a step to choose the budget start date.

• Simplified UI: Enhanced the user interface for a cleaner look and better user experience.

• Streamlined Process: Reduced the number of steps, but still required manual input.

Learning: While the improved UI and reduced steps made the process slightly better, users still felt it was too manual and lengthy.

Problem Defined: Further reduction in manual input was necessary, and the setup process needed to be more intuitive and faster.

Flow 3: Final Iteration

• Automated Income Reading: The app automatically read users' income from their bank statements during account linking.

• Interactive Budgeting: Introduced an interactive, gamified approach to setting budgets based on cost-of-living research.

• Editable Budgets: Provided pre-set budgets that users could edit later, reducing initial setup time.

Learning: Automating the income reading and offering interactive, pre-set budgets significantly reduced the onboarding time and increased user satisfaction.

Problem Defined: With the reduced friction and improved engagement, the focus shifted to ensuring the accuracy of automated income readings and continuously refining the interactive budgeting experience.

Results

The final iteration significantly improved the onboarding experience:

• Reduced Onboarding Time: By automating income reading and offering pre-set budgets, users could quickly move past the setup process.

• Enhanced User Experience: The gamified and interactive approach made budgeting more engaging.

• Cleaner UI: The improved interface contributed to a more pleasant user experience.

Conclusion

Through iterative design and user feedback, we transformed the budget setup process in Lune from a cumbersome task to a streamlined and engaging experience. This project highlights the importance of reducing friction in user journeys and the impact of thoughtful design on user satisfaction and engagement.