Designing climate sustainability financial investment platform

PROJECT OVERVIEW

My team worked with Goldman Sachs, our sponsor, to create a way for Millennials and GenZ generation to invest in social issues they are passionate about.

MY ROLE

· Led the creation of low-fidelity wireframes and developed high-fidelity designs based on user testing results
· Conducted competitor analysis, users interview and journey map
· Set responsibilities of team members and led the team’s direction of design-decision making
· Created overall interactive prototyping

CLIENT

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

ADVISOR

Roger Mader, Criswell Lappin, Olivia Greco, Bowen Shen, Liz Wang, Rafael Wagner Poloni

Timeline

Sep ~ Dec 2022 (15 weeks)

Tool

Figma, Miro, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Aftereffect, Illustrator
Design challenge from Goldman Sachs
How might we create a path for Millennials and GenZ individuals
to invest in social issues that they are passionate about?

Problem & situation

Gen Zs and Millennials are deeply concerned about the state of the world, and actively trying to balance the challenges

GenZ and Millennials populations have experienced so many life-changing events in a short span of time. The world has reached pivot al inflection points on issues such as racial justice, inequality, and the environment.
Discover

Research

First of all, in order to identify our target users and narrow down the project scope, we conducted research by examining the numerous characteristics of the Millennials and Gen Z generation.

User Interview

We conducted 15 qualitative user interviews to discover their interest in social issues and to understand their investment experience and challenges.
Q&A Interview
We tried to go deeper into the users’ experiences and thinking by providing more time for follow-up questions.
Card Sorting
We conducted a card sorting activity to determine the current social issue that users prioritized the most.
Color Coding
After the interviews, we color-coded the interview transcriptions to organize them into categories and refine insights.

Interview highlights

Through the card sorting activity, we asked interviewees which of the 9 social issues they were most interested in. As a result, 33.3% of interviewees answered that climate change is the most interesting issue.
Define

SYNTHESIS

After researching, we synthesize the information by doing some affinity diagramming. I and our team found 8 useful insights and decided to focus on the top 3 for the scope of the design.

Insights

01

Sustainability

Being willing to invest in social issues related to sustainability in long-term
02

Validation

To have a feeling that they actually helped others/the community through investing
03

Transparency

Wants to know where their money is invested, especially in a social issue
04

Willingness

Being generally not hesitant or unwilling to help communities
Revised Design Challenge Prompt
How might we create an accessible financial platform for
Millennials and GenZ who wish to invest in climate sustainability?

Persona

We defined our persona to determine who we primarily designed for and fully comprehend our focus.
Click on the image to enlarge

Competitor Analysis

To understand the current market and users' needs, we analyzed four relevant products with different characteristics. Additionally, we analyzed our final product to create the best possible way for the user.

During analysis, I noticed that many socially responsible investment platforms lack focus on specific climate change issues and do not provide sufficient explanations. This presents an opportunity to create a dedicated space for stocks related to climate sustainability.
Ideate

Design concept

We created four design concepts to serve as the core values of our solution. From these insights, we derived four design concepts that would set the direction and scope of design solution.

User flow

Before beginning the design process, we created a user flow to optimize the flow. This allowed us to identify problem areas, eliminate unnecessary steps, and pinpoint which screens require the most attention during the design phase.
Click on the image to enlarge
Design

Wireframe

With the insights and design concepts in mind, we started sketching some ideas for the mobile app. To generate a wide variety of solutions to our challenge, we conducted Crazy 8 core design sprint method.

User test

One of the most important aspects of the design process for me is to constantly testing the design and iterate based on the feedback. So we tested low fidelity mockup to see if the user journey flow and interactions made sense before spending time moving them into higher fidelity.

Giving the user a task, I asked people to walk through the app to give me their general impressions of the structure and content.

After testing, iterating, and considering different color palettes and typography, I moved onto higher fidelity. Below is the finished product - showing the evolution from sketch, to low-fidelity, to high-fidelity.
Deliver

Key features

Investment in Green market

Providing stock list that is customized for the user

It shows the most relatable stock lists in the green industry based on users’ preferences. After the investment, users can check their Green temperature scale, which reflects the user’s investment as a direct impact.
Detailed ESG information

Exploring ESG information in each stock

Users can easily check ESG information including sustainability reports about each company. Various information can help the user identify each company’s potential and refer it to investment.
Learning resource

Learning resources for beginners to get started

It is packed with ample learning resources for beginners to get started investing. Users can tap and scroll to learn about companies and investments.
Green donation

Supporting non-profit organizations through donation

The user can support the climate non-profit organizations in the green industry. Users who donate can receive a tax benefit, encouraging them to keep a long-term interest in climate issues.
Personalized information

Providing specific questions for personal stock recommendation

At the onboarding stage, it provides specific questions, including environmental issues interested in. Through collected personal data, this app suggests personalized stock lists depending on the user's selection of topics.
Reflect

Finance & Market size

We have estimated our setup costs to be $225K. It includes app development, app design, quality assurance, licensing, project management, intellectual property, business analysis, hosting cloud, and running cost of the cloud. Also, we can imagine the scale of our market of 140.8 Million which is the Millennials and Gen Z generation in the US.
Setup cost
Millennials & GenZ resident population in the US

Next step

To introduce an incentives system focusing on local green industry
When the users invest or donate to green stocks and institutions related to their region, Valance provides additional incentives.
Involving sectors of hunger poverty, women empowerment, LGBTQ, and other social causes
In the future, we will diversify into other social issues that the Millennials and Gen Z generation have interested in.

What I learned

The design process was an iterative and dynamic journey
During this project, we cycled through the five stages of the design process: Discover, Define, Ideate, Design, and Reflect.

User testing provided us with valuable, yet unexpected feedback. After user testing, we decided to revisited earlier stages to reanalyze our target user and research results. This was a challenge, as I was concerned about meeting the set timeline, but it ultimately allowed us to develop innovative solutions and prototypes. The end result was a final solution that was user-centered and focused on fulfilling the needs of our target users.

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Jinhee Jung© 2024 All Rights Reserved