Conducting market research on ProsperCard to find optimal new features
ProsperCard, is looking to introduce a new feature to encourage more people to join the bank and allow them to stand out from competitors.
Role
User Research
Product Strategy
Design thinking
Interaction Design
Tools
Figjam
Figma
Dovetail
Notion
Timeline
3 days
What is the problem that I need to solve?
ProsperCard, an online bank, seeks to launch an innovative new feature that will attract more customers and differentiate them from competitors.
What’s the solution?
There are multiple potential solutions ProsperCard could consider to stand out from competitors and attract new customers. Researching ProsperCard's business goals and customers more deeply will help determine the best potential features or offerings to help them stand out in a competitive landscape.
The outcome
Increased account openings and customer acquisition
Higher deposit and loan volumes
Improved customer satisfaction and retention
Enhanced competitive positioning
Valuable customer insights to inform future products
Cross-sell opportunities
Mobile App - Fictional company
ProsperCard
Online bank specialising in making finance accessible to everyone.
Steps taken
Usability review
To ensure that our solution effectively addressed the problem, I conducted 3 interviews and studied the user research to deeply understand needs and ideate solutions. The 3 interviewees had diverse demographics and financial knowledge. By reading these, I had to really understand what users want.
Additional information
In addition to the reports I did some research into the state of the UK population’s finances and here’s what I’ve found:
In the UK:
39% of adults (20.3 million) don’t feel confident managing their money
11.5 million have less than £100 in savings
Nearly 9 million of us are in serious debt, and only around a third receive help.
Ref. FinCap.gov.uk
How was the research report?
I looked closely at each interview to understand the users' experience.
While they had different money skills, ages and jobs, they had similar problems. This was exciting to see and it guided the solutions .
Mark Smith
Mark struggles with controlling impulsive spending, especially on social activities with friends. He finds it hard to balance enjoying experiences and staying within budget. He feels a personalised budgeting app could help improve his saving habits and work towards financial goals.
Lisa Turner
Lisa has a high disposable income but still finds saving challenging due to unexpected expenses, lifestyle inflation, and maintaining her standard of living. This requires discipline and prioritisation on her part. She sees value in budgeting apps for providing spending insights, helping set financial goals, and promoting discipline. An easy-to-use, feature-rich app can empower users.
Emma Royal
Saving is challenging for Emma due to rising costs of living and needing to save aggressively for retirement. She believes there is a strong need for an easy-to-use budgeting app that simplifies money management, provides financial education, and helps users like her make informed decisions for retirement.
User Report
User Needs
The key things users wanted were: simplicity and personalisation to their life stage; education to improve money skills; discipline; easy retirement planning and better tracking.
These needs showed me where the app should focus. Users wanted help reaching goals without confusing stuff.
User needs
- Simple and intuitive interfaces that are easy to use even for beginners-
Personalised guidance and recommendations
(tailored to their financial situation and goals)
- Customisation options to adapt the app to their individual preferences
- Educational content to improve financial literacy
- Seamless integration with bank accounts and investment platforms
- Motivational features to encourage positive financial habits
User challenges
- It's hard to say no to buying things you want but don't need.
- Friends or society may pressure you to spend more than you should.
- Finance apps and terms seem confusing.
- It's tough to follow a budget plan consistently.
- Choosing the best way to invest savings for retirement is tricky.
- Prices keep going up on things like food and gas, making it hard to save.
- When you earn more, it's tempting to spend more instead of saving.
Research Report
Competitive Analysis
Prospercard's competitors lack holistic personal finance apps with retirement planning, investment guidance and easy-to-use budgeting and expense tracking.
Competitive Analysis from some of the apps mentioned in the interview:
- Mint: Provides tracking and budgets but lacks investing features and retirement planning.
- YNAB: Powerful budgeting but complex interface with steep learning curve.
Strong Direct Competitor:
Revolut
Streamlined, user-friendly interface
Easy to navigate, intuitive flows, clean layouts. Support seamless mobile experience.
Innovative pricing model
Free tier plus premium subscriptions. Lowers barrier to trial and retention.
Strong branding and visual identity
Bold colours, playful graphics. Communicates friendly, accessible service.
Robust features beyond basic banking
Trading, cryptocurrency, travel perks, insurance, etc. Appealing to digitally-savvy users.
Next stage
Ideation
Brainstorming ideas: Based on the insights gathered from the research, I brainstormed several ideas and solutions to address the problem. During the ideation phase, I used mind mapping to write down moments that needed improvement and features that needed to be added, based on initial research. The Crazy 8's technique promoted more creativity, which led to more diverse ideas.
Name
1234 5678 1234
Bank 1
Name
1234 5678 1234
Bank 2
Bill!!!!
Projects
Carolina Furlan
Product Designer
London based / Remote
Contact
uxcfurlan@icloud.com
+44 7828 950 497
Let’s work Together
Thanks for reading!
For more projects please send me an email.
To wrap up
Three key learnings
The design thinking method is not a rigid, linear path, but rather a flexible and adaptive approach where revisiting previous steps to make adjustments is common practice.
Early and consistent collaboration with the team is essential, requiring clear communication and a willingness to consider diverse ideas.
The testing phase is essential as it ensures that the app will function properly and provide a good user experience for its users."
Then after the adjustments this is what I got
The outcome of the test was that we should improve the login page and make it clearer on how to sync contacts. We should also make the 'Skip' button more visible for users who want to explore the app before creating an account. Additionally, we should add more clickable buttons/images that take users to reviews, so they can experience smoother usability by reducing the number of clicks needed to achieve their goals. In summary, following users made the process of checking reviews from followers very clear, but adjustments were needed to make it easier to access reviews and apply filters.
When I did the first test this is the result I had.
When I did the first test this is the result I had. Then I listened to the feedbacks, studied the data and started the adjustment.
Least but not last
Usability Testing
For this case study, I used Maze.co to conduct usability testing in order to gather valuable insights on the latest feature and pinpoint any potential problems or areas that require enhancement.
Steps taken
Competitor Benchmarking
To ensure that our solution was competitive in the industry, I conducted a competitor review to understand the strengths and weaknesses of both our direct competitor (Resy) and indirect competitor (TripAdvisor). I searched for opportunities to improve upon their pain points and moments of delight to create a new interface that met industry standards.
Steps taken
Usability review
To ensure that our solution effectively addressed the problem, I conducted a usability audit of the existing interface. This allowed me to identify key areas for improvement and understand the users' needs, moments of delight, and pain points. My findings helped inform my problem-solving strategies and ensured that I met the users' needs.
What’s the solution?
From a business perspective, the solution is to make it easy for returning users to connect with their friends and view their restaurant reviews. This will increase the conversion of bookings by integrating a social networking feature within the app.
How did it start?
The OpenTable app doesn't have an option for existing users to connect with friends and check their latest restaurant reviews. For this case study, my teammate and I helped OpenTable make it possible for users to see the restaurant reviews of their friends.
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KellyA
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Second time visiting and decided to suggest it to our friends. Everyone was very impressed, the food os great, best pizza I’ve had in a long time.
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KellyA
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CarolinaF
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“Nobody said being vegan is easy; so I’m here to help and share good vibes.”
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CarolinaF
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Serves meat, vegan options available. Ask for the vegan menu which includes vegan dessert. Absolutely recommend this place!
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Mobile App
OpenTable
Case Study for a booking restaurant app
Note: for this case study I was given the problem already.
For research focus the case study SofarSounds /website
shows the steps taken from this phase.
About me
Product Designer with a passion for creating intuitive and aesthetically pleasing user experiences.Strong foundation in user-centred design principles, as well as a keen eye for visual design.
My coursework included hands-on design projects, user research and prototyping, giving me a strong foundation in the principles of effective design.
As a designer, I utilise a design thinking approach and modern tools in my work such as:
🎨 VISUAL DESIGN: Figma, Figjam, Loom.
🔎 RESEARCH: Figjam, Notion, Maze, Dovetail, Typeform.
💬 COMMUNICATION: Notion, Loom, Slack
Product Designer based in London
Specialised in creating innovative and user-friendly products that meet the needs of both customers and businesses.
Think outside the box
Let curiosity guide you!
‘Don't just read the obvious books or sources directly related to the subject. Read around your field.
This can spark new ideas about how the world works.’ - Morgan Hounsel
As someone who uses Structured myself, I find it really helpful to plan out my day ahead of time and stay organised. I think adding a daily planner feature to a bank app could also help people who struggle with routines manage their finances better.
Revolut inspired me about incorporating educational quizzes into a bank app. Having quizzes in a bank app can really help users learn about finances in a simple, fun way.
Peer community
Financial tips:
Feed / Notifications
Financial tips
Financial tips
Create Savings Goals
Next Stage
Wireframing
Wireframing was used to create a user profile with features such as verification badges, photos, synced contacts, the ability to follow other users, and the ability to apply filters. These features help users find the information they need to book a table smoothly.
Bill tracker
Customisable Goals
Cash back
Retirement Planner Tool
Click here for Figma File
And finally....
High Fidelity Prototype
The high-fidelity prototype addressed user issues and met budget and time constraints. The prototype included new pages and components that showcased an easy way to Input and update users budget limits, receive notifications or reminders, visualisation or chart of data and more...
Retirement Planner
Set retirement goals, calculate needed savings and access personal forecasts to successfully plan your financial future.
Financial Tips
Boosts money skills and smart spending.
Cash Back Rewards
Earn money on everyday spending through bank app debit and credit cards.
Create a Saving goal
Savings goals create focused, purposeful saving for future needs.
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Saving Goals
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Spending Goals
Available balance
£1,589
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Budget for July
£2,500
63.5%
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Pottery Course
£10
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Hawaii Trip
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New glasses
£75
Saved
£64 to save
54%
Restaurants
£278,83
92% of your goal
Transport
£37,99
41% of your goal
Shopping
£378,90
70% of your goal
Outcome
Here are some potential positive outcomes ProsperCard could see after successfully implementing my project suggestion to stand out from competitors:
- Increased new account openings and customer acquisition numbers as the unique offering attracts new customers.
- Higher deposit balances and loan volumes if the new feature incentivises customers to bring more business to ProsperCard.
- Improved customer satisfaction and retention rates thanks to differentiated value proposition.
- Better competitive positioning relative to other fintech challenger banks or national banks.
- Data and insights on customer behaviours and feature usage to inform future product development.
- Opportunity to cross-sell additional products once customers are acquired through the new offering.
Of course, the specific metrics and results would depend on the unique solution ProsperCard pursues and how effective its execution is. But generally, successful differentiation should translate to direct business growth and broader competitive advantages. Tracking outcomes can help quantify the impact of any new initiative.
Thanks for reading!
To wrap up
Three key learnings
The design thinking method is not a rigid, linear path, but rather a flexible and adaptive approach where revisiting previous steps to make adjustments is common practice.
Early and consistent collaboration with the team is essential, requiring clear communication and a willingness to consider diverse ideas.
The research phase is essential as it ensures that we understand the users’ need properly and provide a good user experience.