Research
Understanding the Region
Daily Challenges:
Millennials in the MENA region struggle with managing daily expenses, with 94% experiencing financial stress and 78% finding it hard to track expenditures. This highlights the need for tools that simplify daily financial management.
Monthly Struggles:
Managing monthly budgets is also difficult, as 34% have increased borrowing and millennials are 1.23 times more likely to feel less control over their bank accounts compared to those over 45. Solutions for better monthly budgeting are necessary to reduce borrowing.
Long-term Savings Issues:
Long-term financial planning is problematic, with only one-third having institutional savings and 61% lacking long-term saving plans. There's a clear need for tools that support long-term financial goals.
These challenges show the urgent need for effective financial management tools for millennials in the MENA region. Lune aims to address these by improving daily expense tracking, monthly budgeting, and long-term savings.
(Source: YouGov, Standard Chartered)
Value Proposition
There’s no easy way for MENA residents to manage their spending.
User Research
Conducting user research was a crucial step in the product design process, enabling me to pinpoint the specific pain points and needs of millennials in the UAE.
The Speedy Spender
Financial Behavior
She tends to spend impulsively, particularly on dining out and shopping. By the end of the month, she often finds herself with little to no savings and regrets her spending habits.
Goals
To gain control over her spending, avoid end-of-month financial stress, and start saving for future goals such as travel or buying a car.
Pain Points
Impulsive spending leading to financial stress.
Difficulty tracking expenses in real-time.
Needs
A real-time expense tracking tool.
Spending alerts to avoid overspending.
Monthly spending summaries to identify areas for improvement.
The Poor Planner
Financial Behavior
Marc struggles with planning his finances and often finds himself confused about where his money has gone. He wants to save for significant goals but lacks a systematic approach to budgeting.
Goals
To save for a family holiday, build an emergency fund, and gain a clear understanding of his financial situation.
Pain Points
Lack of visibility into spending patterns.
Inconsistent savings due to poor planning.
Needs
A clear budgeting tool to plan monthly expenses.
Insights into spending categories.
Savings goals tracker.
The Blind Budgeter
Financial Behavior
Abdulla enjoys going out and socializing, but this often leads to unplanned spending. He wants to optimize his spending without sacrificing his social life.
Goals
To maintain a balanced budget that allows for social activities while saving for future investments such as further education or a new gadget.
Pain Points
Unplanned spending on social activities.
Difficulty balancing fun and savings.
Needs
A budgeting tool that accounts for social spending.
Tips on cost-effective social activities.
Notifications when nearing spending limits.
Design
Following extensive research to prioritize key features, hence designing comprehensive budgeting app to streamline financial management with precision and ease.
Onboarding and seamlessly linking bank accounts for effortless integration of real-time financial data.
Customizable budget setting across categories like groceries, travel, and entertainment.
Detailed spend analysis by category (e.g., groceries, travel) and vendor to track expenditure patterns.
Streamlined management of upcoming payments including subscriptions and bills, ensuring timely payments and financial discipline.
User flow
Creating a user flow chart to accurately reflect the integration and functionality of essential features within the budgeting app.
Onboarding
The app's onboarding process involves:
Logging in (verifying phone number via OTP).
Connecting a bank account, guiding users through validating the account, fetching balances, and retrieving transactions to ensure transparency in data collection.
Choosing a budget type, allowing users to select the level of budgeting strictness.
Setting a budget, providing recommendations based on income from bank statements and the chosen budget type to facilitate effective financial planning.
Home
The home page provides:
Comprehensive insights into personal finance, including essential information.
Quick access to view account balances and current budget status.
Overview of upcoming and recent transactions, ensuring up-to-date financial awareness.
Budgeting
The budget analytics section of the app includes:
Overview of monthly spending and breakdown across categories like groceries, shopping, entertainment, etc..
Tracking to determine if the user is meeting their budget goals, with recommendations to adjust spending if necessary.
Detailed view of transactions categorized by type, providing insights into expenditure patterns and enabling informed financial decisions.
Other pages
Other pages of the app include:
Smart and dynamic notifications for personalized financial updates.
Settings page for managing linked accounts and preferences.
Option to manually add transactions for precise financial tracking.
Activity page providing a detailed view of upcoming and recent transactions for enhanced financial management.
Learnings
Our development approach was shaped by these insights, emphasizing empathy, extensive research, and ongoing refinement to craft a dependable tool for personal finance management.
Avoiding Bias in Design
When building features for a personal finance app, it's important not to rely solely on personal assumptions. Initially, I based budget recommendations on my own spending habits, assuming they'd work universally. However, I realized that everyone's financial situation is different—affected by income, location, and lifestyle. To make sure the app's budgeting feature would be helpful to a wide range of users, I did thorough research. This included looking at cost of living data, exploring different budgeting methods like the 50/30/20 rule or zero-based budgeting, and listening to user feedback. By staying objective and doing this research, the app's budgeting advice became more relevant and useful.
Respecting Privacy and Addressing Concerns
Managing personal finances is private and can be sensitive. During app development, we faced challenges with user trust, especially when it came to linking bank accounts. Many users were hesitant about sharing financial info. This feedback made us rethink and redesign the app's flow to prioritize transparency and user control. We improved the onboarding process by explaining clearly how we'd use and protect bank data. We also added features for easy account unlinking and robust privacy settings. We learned to balance the app's role in suggesting financial actions with respecting user preferences. This approach not only boosted trust but also improved overall user experience, making users more confident in managing their finances with our app.
