A Zen way to save.
Everyone deserves a place to call home.
Project Overview
9 Week project - Prototype, Report & Presentation Deliverables
Headstart Homes works to assist people who are in social housing save a deposit and move into their own home.
I came into this project after the research phase was largely complete and was tasked with creating an advanced prototype app designed to assist people with saving money and help them in their goal to get into their own home. The previous research and stakeholders recommended gamification systems and habit building services as examples of where to head.
Competitor Analysis
In order to understand the market that my concept would be competing with I looked at a variety of other apps and services that have similar goals.
Habit Building
Fitbit, Apple Fitness, Habitica. These apps included features such as Logging days, streaks, completing daily goals and providing the user with responsibilities.
Money Tracking
Pocketbook, EasyBudget, Fudget. I found these tools quite complex and seeming to be designed for people with a more intense interest in finances.
Banking
Westpac, Commbank, Volt, Up, 86 400. These apps are general-purpose for the most part with neo-banks such as Up and Volt providing new, more gamified experiences.
Sketches & Gamification
Exploring riffs on traditional gamification techniques as part of my design, leveraging my background in videogame design.
- Most gamification systems give you a daily goal to accomplish. I flipped this by starting the day at 100% and the goal was to keep it there.
- People are information overloaded these days and having another app to check in with every day could get caught in the noise.
- I iterated on this system as I worked through the wireframing and prototyping phrases.
- All the habit apps I looked into would break your streak if you had a bad day. That's a bad feeling and I wanted to find a solution around that.
Wireframes
My concept focused on:
- • Keeping things simple
- • Keeping stress down
- • Making saving enjoyable through gamification
Key Details:
- • Saving is already a stressful experience, creating an experience that adds stress is a failure.
- • I find more inspiration in higher fidelity wireframes as it helps me form a more holistic idea of the project.
- • For this project, I worked within Figma.
- • I utilised the rest of my team for design feedback during this stage.
Introducing Zen
Feedback & Iteration
Concerns about font size: Raising to 14pt minimum
Issues with readability: Adding a high contrast mode and adjusting buttons & adding background
Confusion about the dial rotation: Checked standard and polled Twitter. Reversed dials to fill clockwise.
Guidance and explanations needed: Added full tutorial & alternative setup experience
Confusion about wording: Adjusted tutorial copy for clarity
Streak demotivation: Almost 90% of those surveyed found breaking a streak was demotivating. Added TopUp functionality and Free-Weekends.
UI Design
My design for Zen centred around keeping things simple and clear. I went with a semi-neumorphic design with an emphasis on typography.
I intentionally obfuscated dollar amounts as I feel they act as a distraction from what the actual goal of the app is, which is to build good habits.
- My design incorporated elements of Apple's Human Interface Design with elements of Microsoft's Metro Design Language.
- Interaction elements are at the base of the screen for one-handed use.
- Each tab is siloed, requiring returning back to the "Home" screen, drawing focus back to the core goal.
Gamification System
There are 3 core aspects of Zen's gamification system:
Progress
Ensuring you're keeping to your budget each day.
Piggy Bank
Tracking your rewards from completing streaks.
Rewards
Spending your reward credits.
When a user finishes a full week (7 days but 5 is still safe) they gain a reward credit. This credit can then be used to repair a day that they may have fallen short on, or spent on rewards.
These rewards are randomised and include opportunities to treat yourself outside of the app as well us unlock features within the App.
My goal was to ensure people can use their previous hard work to continue their streaks and make up for days that might be harder.
I want to keep people going with their goals and to not get discouraged if they have a bad day, so the ability to recover has been baked into the system.
"Saving isn’t about money, it’s about habits"
Something I really enjoyed about this project was being able to explore solutions to the discouragement caused when users break streaks in gamified habit builders. Being able to flex some skills from my game design degree was appreciated and I really enjoyed working on a project that has a real potential to help people find their first Home.
My design didn't factor in accessibility as much as I would like, however due to time limitations I, unfortunately, had to relegate such research and changes. Accessibility is very important to me and working closer on such details is something I'd have liked to have been able to spend more time on.
"Overall a great concept and a great project which really resonated, well done!"
- Harness Project feedback