Let's C\o/nnect!
Wondering how I can contribute to your business? We can have a chat about that.
Let's C\o/nnect!
Wondering how I can contribute to your business? We can have a chat about that.
THERESA RAJ JOSE
BRAND
Rebrand Hektor to Balo
MY ROLE
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
Design Brand Assets
SUMMARY
The goal was to build on brand recognition, loyalty and trust. Balo was positioned to be a habit building tool, backed by behavioural science.
We developed a golden ratio for micro-saving with automation and hunted saving methods.
This was an opportunity to improve on ease of setup and use to increase conversions and improve app retention.
Problem Statement
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How might we reduce anxiety and negative associations with savings and make it a more effortless and enjoyable experience.
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How might we provide guidance and support to stick to their goal and achieve it.
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How might we keep the user motivated to save for long term goals and make them feel achievable.
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How might we educate the users along the savings journey to help them make informed decisions.
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How might we make the $25 transfer limit from the users card to the Balo wallet (operational limitation) into a positive saving experience for the user.
Project goals
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To create a whole new habit of micro savings, which dollar by dollar can make a big difference.
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To replace the word "save" (which can be negatively associated with effort) with a gamified action of "Balo It" to create a new habit of active daily savings.
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To break down the users life goals into smaller achievable $25 targets to keep them motivated and feel like a winner all along. This converts an operational glitch into a winning solution.
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To provide insights through content and comfort in knowing how people like me are doing to help users make better savings decisions.
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To provide guidance and support with the Balo champions (characters) to keep the users motivated to slowly build a savings habit with Balo It.
Research Method
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Targetted surveys to understand existing saving and spending behaviours.
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One on one interviews.
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Market research analysis
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Persona
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Customer Journey
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Information architecture
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Prototype testing
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Design workshop - Crazy 8's
Personas
Meet Mike Hong, 29+
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Attached, living with family.
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Anxious, not in control of his money.
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Biggest goals right now is to save to buy his own place and prepare for marriage. Interested to grow finances, he even tried to start his own gig on the side in his younger days, but the cost of maintenance forced him to opt for the more stable path.
Meet Yvonne Lim, 29+
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Married, 1 child, owns HDB, unstable income.
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Worry for future. How much is ok?
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Wants to provide the best education for her child. Not started saving up for university as its too ahead in the future, is just trying to manage the more recents demands of covering tuition, extra classes and developing skill sets.
Meet Natalie Chen, 25+
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Engaged, living with parents, waiting to move out, working.
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Saving for the wedding day. Hoping to get the application through on the first chance, get ROM done, renovate the house and move in.
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Wants guidance and more ways to save, actively looking for deals.
Meet Sean Tan, 25+
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Single, living with parents, junior at work.
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He is right now not thinking of actively saving, but spends frugally and what's left at the end of the month is savings. He loves to travel and loves his weekly catchup with friends.
Core Customer Needs
Starting a family -
"I worry about liabilities because when you have a certain income and you subscribe for credit cards and luxury stuff. What I fear most is living in debt."
Travel & experiences - "Now that I starting earning, I want to travel more and experience new things."
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13 of 26 (20-25yr olds) listed lack of money to take care of their family as their biggest fear in their future.
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5 out of 9 (25-29yr olds) Worries about their ability to provide for their family (or the general health and safety of their family).
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4 out of 9 (30-32yr olds) are looking for guidance and/ or approval in their financial decision making.
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8 out of 8 (25-29yr olds) find it hard to monitor their spending
We identified that young people in Singapore who are entering a new milestone in their life are thinking about savings and are extremely anxious about they financial security blanket. .
Starting a new job -
"I feel anxious about my savings because i now stop getting support from my family."
Getting married -
"I am afraid that I would not be able to afford to get my own place, support my family which includes my parents and any potential children."
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Following our research and user interviews, we were able to evaluate our findings to start ideating and sketching out possible solutions. Each screen wireframe and the app sitemap was laid out to understand the shortest and most efficient navigation flow.
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Feature Releases
BALO V1.0,
LAUNCHED 4TH JANUARY
Introduced the savings routine.
Set up Account / Visual KYC (Onfido) / Source of funds.
S$5 Sign up reward.
Share & Earn (Referral) Programme
Education through content on dashboard.
P2P transfers
Withdraw to bank
Engagement and motivation through Balo characters as virtual pets with health meter.
Unique tone of voice for the 4 Balo character launched.
13% conversion rate
20% retention -10 days
KEY TAKEAWAYS
No clear onboarding journey, though optimised to be quick, the dashboard left the user confused on what action to be followed next.
CTA's not clear enough, experience lacked guidance.
Once on-boarded, lacked engagement.
Guidance and motivation to stay on track.
BALO V2.0,
LAUNCHED 14TH JANUARY
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Introduced hot streak calendar.
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Improvements to savings routine setup.
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Made health meter to happiness meter.
15% conversion rate
50% retention -10 days
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Users did not want to take care of their savings, but on the contrary wanted the account to take on an advisory position to help them make better money decisions.
Users wanted to feel in control of their savings routine setup.
BALO V2.1,
LAUNCHED 18TH FEBRUARY
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Balo card modified- happiness meter removed.
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Onboarding process updated: Level of chill introduced.
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Removed referral program.
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Removed hot streaks.
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Added Insights.
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Push notifications.
11.11% conversion rate
44.87% retention -10 days
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The app and setup lacked personalisation.
Not thinking of saving for short term goals as that is already covered. Anxiety faced while saving for bigger life events and unexpected circumstances.
Target audience identified to be focused on more mature savings needs and looking for guidance.
BALO V 2.2,
LAUNCHED 21ST MARCH
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Trial version up to $25 savings has been implemented.
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Process for ID verification has been simplified.
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Modify savings routine (including goal) feature has been added.
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Improvements to the goal progress bar.
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Introduced countdowns for money pulls.
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$25 mini savings target added.
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Financial card has been improved with more details on savings behavior.
19.09% conversion rate
54.29% retention -10 days
KEY TAKEAWAYS
No clear understanding on the functionality - $25 transfer limit from user's account to Balo wallet.
Felt less in control of how the money moves from their bank account to their Balo wallet.
BALO V 2.3,
LAUNCHED 8TH APRIL
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New goal journey created.
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Name your goal feature.
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Sample dashboard before setting up goal.
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Saving calculator using monthly income in onboarding.
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Onboarding emails activated on drip( April 15th).
21.43% conversion rate
47.62% retention -10 days
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Don't see the full potential of the Balo characters.
More benefits from using the app.
Simplify dashboard to show only essential information.
More guidance on the daily activities.
Average goal amount increase from 600 SGD to 1,000 SGD.
User's like the everyday Balo It feature.
Over 50% of active users believe Balo can help them achieve their savings goal with their savings routine.