SAVINGS GOALS
SAVINGS GOALS
Reimagining savings goals and helping customers build sustainable savings habits with the new Westpac mobile banking app.
About the project
It’s August 2020, we just got out of our first COVID-19 lockdown and Australian saving behaviours have drastically changed. Westpac is currently re-building the Mobile banking app to become a native iOS app and the neo banks are gaining significant market share.
Westpac introduces the Spend & Save campaign; a transactions and savings account dual offer with a 3% interest rate p.a - the leader in the market at the time. The business wanted a way to pilot this in the new Westpac app to rival the neo banks and help customers build healthy savings habits.
Design team
Senior experience designer, senior researcher, experience designer graduate (me) & visual designer
Platform
Mobile iOS and Android
Tools
Miro, Sketch, InVision
Timeline
Aug 2020 - Feb 2021
My role
I worked on this project during one of my graduate rotations as an experience designer and researcher. I ran workshops, did wireframes, UI explores, created InVision prototypes, wrote research discussion guides, performed exploratory research and usability testing, synthesised research insights, wrote and presented research reports.
My process
Project kickoff Defining objectives, business goals, scope and timeline with stakeholders
Discovery Current state analysis, desktop research, stakeholder interviews
Explores, research and iterations Multiple how might we workshops, design jams, 9 rounds of research (exploratory and usability testing), a round of quant research
Final designs Collaboration with build team and PO, final UX documentation, developer handover
Launch Build support, QA and monitoring analytics post launch
Project outcome
We launched the savings habits and goals feature in Feb 2021 as part of the wider Westpac new app launch and saw a positive change in the way customers were saving in our mobile banking app. Here are some key metrics 3 months after release:
40 - 50k new savings goals were created each month
Up from 20-30k in Nov 2020
450k funds transferred into goals from payments flows
Up from 365k in Nov 2020
6,000 new recurring payments into goals
Up from 2,100 in Nov 2020
Looking at how people save and build habits
BJ Fogg’s behaviour model was a key piece of research to help us understand the psychology behind building sustainable habits. We used this as a basis to shape our research objectives and to design the savings goals experience in the mobile banking app.
We looked at customer research to identify key motivators
Through looking at existing customer research we identified core customer pain points when it came to savings and key jobs to be done, helping us map key pieces of research to the Fogg behaviour model.
Second to a great savings interest rate – our survey told us 39% want the ability to create multiple saving buckets with customer names and goals and 36% want visualised saving goals (such as a progress bar).
Pain points
Customers want to save but don’t have the time and/or discipline to set up and stick to a savings plan
Customers have a hard time getting into the saving mindset and lack motivation
Customers have less of a need to check their transactions on a savings account and in turn don’t often view progress of their savings goal
Jobs to be done
Help me separate my savings into meaningful goals
Make my money work hard for me and earn more interest/rewards
Help me achieve my savings goals and save more often
We analysed our current state savings goals in the Westpac live app. Unfortunately there was next to no analytical tagging in the flow to tell us what was and wasn’t working.
How might we enable customers to set up and cultivate a sustained savings habit?
Design iterations and research
We completed 9 rounds of 1:1 customer interviews and usability testing (n = 54 participants) and also performed 1 round quantitative research through an online survey (n = 195). Each time iterating the designs, flows and copy based on customer feedback. We conducted multiple how might we workshops, design jams and copywriting workshops with our internal design team and stakeholders. We also created comprehensive people profiles showcasing their spending and saving habits and understanding their underlying motivations and any hinders to their saving ability.
Design jam sketches
Design exploration for savings goals
Key insights from research:
Goal visualisation and celebration is an important aspect in helping customers increase and sustain motivation to complete their savings goals.
Post COVID-19 recurring theme that Australian’s wanted to save more for “just in case” “emergency funds” and have that safety net and security with their savings.
Everyone had different savings goals and levels of control they wanted with their savings and hence goal personalisation was a key aspect that needed to be incorporated into the feature.
$50 was seen as the goldilocks to prompt customers to save and made them feel like they had the ability to do so.
The donut tracker was seen as the most desirable and comprehensive design for customers to track amount and time against their savings goal.
Final designs & key screens
Our savings goal creation flow focused on:
Personlisation of the goal type, name, amount and date
Prompts and multiple entry points
Visualisations to aid goal tracking
Goal visualisation and celebration
Donut tracker for goal amount and time
Contextual prompts to help customers stay motivated with their goal
Quick actions to save into out transfer out of goal
Moment of delight for customers completing their savings goal
Challenges
What’s next for savings goals and habits?
Day 2: Support people to reach their goals and aspirations by saving more
Milestone Celebrations: Additional prompts to encourage customers to keep saving
Quick actions to fund goals: When motivation is high, customers want the ability to transfer money into their accounts quickly and seamlessly
Round-ups: Rounding up day-to-day expenses to the nearest dollar and adding spare change directly into savings
Lack of data from the existing savings goal creation flow
Working within the constraints of legacy systems and platforms
Managing expectations with stakeholders
Day 3: Commit to helping people create a savings habit and new behaviour
Contextual prompts using push and in-app messaging to encourage customers to keep saving
Pay cycle savings: prompt customers to save whenever they get paid into their account
Savings challenge: breaking down larger goals into smaller gamified increments
Learnings
Collaboration is key
Push the boundaries
Adapt and be flexible