No Debt Today
A mobile app designed to help people deal with their student loans
TIME PERIOD
Fall Semester, 2019
RESPONSIBILITIES
User Research, Surveys, Ideation, Competitive Analysis, User Personas, User Flow, Wireframes, Visual Design, Illustrations, User Testing
TOOLS USED
Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Axure
Overview
THE PROBLEM
One thing I've struggled with is student loans. In college, I knew that this would be a challenge I'd have to take on, and it scared me. This inspired me to take on the task of creating a digital product that would help other people in similar situations.
THE GOAL
Because the assignment was to create a product that focuses on a social issue, I wanted to make something that helps people to navigate their student loans and how to get rid of them.
Researching + Defining
TALKING WITH THE PEOPLE
Whereas I personally could understand the stress and confusion associated with having student loans, I needed to get more input from others. That's why I created a survey to see how other people were dealing with their student loans, and what I could focus on in the.
Here are some notable statistics I found:
24%
of people have a plan drafted out on how they're going to pay off their student loans
35%
said that they would find an app that shows them how to relieve debt the most helpful
69%
said they aren't well-educated in terms of options they have for student debt relief
DIFFERENT USERS, DIFFERENT NEEDS
Based on the survey results, as well as through reading the stories of people who posted about their experiences with student loans online, I defined two target group profiles.
Students need guidance on how to tackle their student loan problem in a digestible, easy to understand way. They would benefit from a service that leads them step-by-step through the process.
Former students need a space to vent about their problems with others in similar situations. They also need information about student loan forgiveness, defaulting on student loans, etc.- all in a place they could access.
STRATEGY
OPPORTUNITIES
Here is a summary of what I learned from the above planning phases. (To see the mind map, click here)
1. Survey
Students who have student loans don’t know where to start when it comes to paying them off.
Participants by and large find an app that helps with student loans to be helpful.
2. Mind Map
Functions should be centered around specifically student loan debt relief (don’t try to do too much).
People want a community-centered approach to budgeting and advice about student loans.
A budgeting option would be helpful to people, too.
3. Competitive Analysis
Going through student loans websites is anxiety inducing! The amount of information about your debt is overwhelming. It’ now enjoyable to scroll through these sites.
People want advice from other people on the app. They want to interact with each other.
4. Personas + Empathy Maps
With the development of the user personas and the associated empathy maps, I was able to further clarify and understand the end user.
Having “ideal users” defined in my head helped me empathize with what they would desire out of “No Debt Today”.
HOW MIGHT I MAKE A BETTER PRODUCT?
From there, I came up with a few guiding statements that will help me along my designing journey:
How might I give users the guidance to know how to tackle their student debt problem?
How might I give users a platform on which they can discuss with others in similar situations?
How might users obtain information they need without being overwhelmed?
After much brainstorming, I finally narrowed down the five functions No Debt Today would have:
student loan calculators
student loan quizzes
discussion board
discussion board profile
student loan encyclopedia
Designing the Structure
MAPPING FROM A TO B
I used user flows to best encapsulate how the user would move through No Debt Today in order to reach and complete its various tasks and functions, such as:
viewing and editing their profile,
completing a student loan quiz,
read articles on student loans,
use the student loan calculator, and
participate in the discussion board.
I also created an application map to help out with my design process, which can be found here.
LO-FI WIREFRAMES
I created sketches of each of the app's general functions, based off the user flows I outlined above. For each of these functions (i.e. student loan quizzes, encyclopedia, etc.), I first wrote down tasks that users could complete based off the application map.
Visual Design
For the colors, I chose varying shades green because green is associated with money in the United States. I also included blue and yellow because blue, green, and yellow are analogous colors. As for fonts, I chose Muli because it's a rounded typeface, which fits the rest of No Debt Today's vibe: cute and comforting.
In order to help my app be more inviting and accessible to users, I made illustrations that are both cute and encouraging so that users would feel good using No Debt Today.
Final Prototype
ONBOARDING
Right from the bat, I wanted users to see the cute and inviting illustrations so that they would associate using this app with a pleasing experience.
CALCULATOR
To use the calculator, the user would only need to partake in four steps: finding the calculator they wish to use, and inputting the information in two steps.
QUIZZES
I created a function wherein they can see what programs they can be qualified for, such as student loan forgiveness, in order to best get rid of their debt.
DISCUSSION BOARD
In order to foster feelings of camaraderie, I created a discussion board so not only could people receive advice from others, but also to know they aren't alone.
USER PROFILE
For the discussion board function to work properly, it would be best for the user to have some sort of profile so that others know who they're interacting with.
ENCYCLOPEDIA
This app would not be complete without articles on the complex matter of student loan debt, so I made an "encyclopedia" where users could choose topics that they would like to learn more about.
Customer Reviews
I tested out the app with potential users, asking them to complete a series of tasks under my supervision.
After testing out No Debt Today, I asked users to rate a series of statements on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "strongly disagree" and 5 being "strongly agree." It turned out that the majority of them had little to no problem navigating the app.
Conclusion & Reflection
While No Debt Today is one of the heftiest projects I've ever done and has been incredibly time consuming - especially with regards to the illustrations - I'm still glad I was able to complete it. In the future, I would like to incorporate more user testing so as to be able to polish the experience more, and one day ideally be able to team up with a developer who could bring this project to life and actually help people.
