InvestMate
Fintech & AI-driven
I led redesign of the investment experience launch on iOS and Android. I refined the information architecture to enhance user comprehension and navigation, and implemented a comprehensive UI redesign by applying established design system.
INTRODUCTION
InvestMate is a financial robo-advisory service for novice users within Tencent Finance, a comprehensive financial services platform. This project focuses on rearchitecting the investment experience of InvestMate to better meet the needs and pain points of novice users, providing them with personalized investment guidance, education, and tools to enhance their investment experience and returns.
Skip to final deliverablesMy role
I led the end-to-end redesign of InvestMate, creating iterations of the investment experience and interactive prototypes. I collaborated closely with the development team to create a design system documentation.
team
1 Project Lead
1 UX Designer
timeline
May 2022 - Sep 2022
design process
NDA⚠️
In compliance with the non-disclosure agreement I signed, I have omitted sensitive data and obfuscated figures. All information in this case study is my own and does not reflect the views of Tencent & frog. I'm happy to share more details verbally during the interview :)
overview
About InvestMate
Robo-advisory module within Tencent Finance App
InvestMate provides personalized investment guidance and advice for novice users, helping them achieve their financial goals with ease. In addition, InvestMate offers a range of financial literacy resources, including educational materials, community forums, and risk management tools.
Finding Problems
Tencent team conducted a survey, 6 usability tests, 12 interviews to understand what issues were
Why are these problems worth solving?
The existing services have led to the formation of these two personas
In conclusion, InvestMate needs to optimize and improve its services to address the needs and pain points of these two personas, in order to enhance the investment experience and returns for novice users.
Therefore, we proposed a question:
Our focus
How Might We provide more suitable investment advice and services to novice users that align with their investment goals and risk tolerance, in order to improve their investment experience and returns?
Design Principles
What change in the new generation?
Individualized, Diverse Success
Change: GenZ parents have a strong sense of their unique identity. Recognizing what makes a person unique is an important factor in defining success, which conflicts with society's traditional definition of success.
Courage to explore
Change: GenZ parents is committed to meeting their changing identities by constantly exploring new and diverse experiences. "Experience" is becoming more and more important, while ownership of the product is not as important.
High-quality life
Change: GenZ parents is becoming more sophisticated in the breadth and depth of consumption, by using their own uniqueness and accumulated experience, while using a combination of elements to highlight their own tastes.
Virtual social
Change: The social lives of GenZ parents are fully integrated with digital tools and the digital world. They expect the convenience, precision and flexibility that the virtual world brings to real-world socializing as well.
To answer this question, I set three design principles that we want to enhance the investment experience. During the design process, these principles should be prioritized and followed to create standardized design concepts and system documentation.
Usability
Targetedness
Reliability
An intuitive interface and content improve efficiency and reduce learning costs
Personalized investment services can meet the needs of different users
Reliable and accurate trading and data enhance user trust and satisfaction
01 IMMERSION
Make your home the best learning environment for both learning and fun
02 COMMUNITY
Be part of a creative community that expands the parent-child life experience
03 RESILIENCE
Let children explore and develop their interests with less effort
04 CREATION
Let children develop independent problem-solving skills and fun in parent-child interaction
BREAKDOWN OF THE PROBLEM
各个产品间的分离感
Toys, picture books and videos are currently viewed as separate commodities that cannot be effectively integrated into a systematic learning experience.
定制化需求无法被满足
The current commodity subscription model cannot meet the differentiated content needs of parents and children.
家长的低参与度
Inadequate parental involvement, lack of understanding of curriculum concepts and parenting learning skills.
Rethinking educational philosophy in the new age
Follow the rules vs. Make mistakes
Fixed development vs. Personality
Fully immerse vs. Parent's own consciousness
More flexible use of time and a sense of interaction
From DVDS to live classes on mobile phones
The use of fragmented time
Screen addiction anxiety
Learning with the Chinese characteristics
Forward deployment
No more emphasis on subjects
Ideate
Challenge 1: How to improve understanding and engagement?
Users should easily navigate the app and access the information they need will enhance their overall experience and encourage them to engage more with the app's features.
❌ 1. Overwhelming Introduction Module on Homepage
The homepage of the app starts with a large and extensive introduction module, which can be overwhelming for users. This information-heavy section may deter users from exploring further or engaging with the app.
❌ 2. Difficulty in Identifying Personalized Financial Planning Feature
As an AI-driven wealth management module, personalization and customization are key features. However, the entrance to personalized financial planning is not easily noticeable. This diminishes the value proposition of the app and might lead to user frustration.
❌ 3. Complex Investment Categories Create User Confusion
The app's educational approach promotes a "Four- Pocket Money Management" concept, dividing funds into essential living expenses, education expenses, retirement expenses, and discretionary spending. However, the complexity of these categories may be confusing for users and hinder their ability to make informed decisions.
Design Iteration
✅ Improvement 1: Condensing Introduction Module into a Video
To address the issue of the overwhelming introduction module, it has been condensed into a video format and placed at the bottom of the homepage, rather than at the beginning. This change reduces information overload and allows users to quickly access the core functionalities of the app.
✅ Improvement 2: Highlighting Personalized Financial Planning
The personalized financial planning feature has been transformed into a card-style format and placed at the beginning of the homepage. This design choice exposes more information on the primary interface, making it easier for users to immediately understand the core purpose of the product.
✅ Improvement 3: Simplifying Investment Categories
Instead of the confusing "Four-Pocket Money Management" concept, the investment categories have been revised to "Short-term Flexible Funds, Stable Appreciation Funds, and High-Yield Pursuing Funds." This simplification enables users to quickly grasp the purpose of each category and make informed decisions about their financial management.
Design Transformation
Before
After
Challenge 2: How to provide a targeted investment experience?
Users should feel that this module understands their unique financial situations and preferences and offers investment solutions that cater specifically to their needs.
❌ 1. Inadequate Utilization of Brand IP
The current design does not effectively incorporate the app's brand identity, which could contribute to a more engaging and cohesive user experience.
❌ 2. Lack of Personalized Recommendations
As an AI-driven wealth management module, personalized recommendations should be a key feature. However, the current page only offers a selection of curated products for each investment category, rather than tailoring recommendations to individual users.
❌ 3. Inaccurate Presentation of Decision-Making Information in Card-based Design
The existing card-style design fails to accurately display the essential information users need to make informed decisions. As a result, users are forced to spend extra time navigating to secondary pages for additional details.
Design Iteration
✅ Improvement 1: Implementing Conversatioal Design with Brand IP
Incorporating a conversational design that leverages the app's brand identity creates a more engaging user experience. This approach enables users to easily follow the content and interact with this module, enhancing their overall experience.
✅ Improvement 2: AI-Driven Customized Investment Solutions
As an AI-driven wealth management module, the new design offers personalized investment solutions through simple AI conversations. This feature allows users to obtain tailored investment recommendations, ensuring that their unique financial needs are addressed effectively.
✅ Improvement 3: Refining the Information for Decision-Making
To address the issue of insufficient decision-making information in the cards, the content has been adjusted to showcase the most relevant information for users. By prioritizing key data points, users can make informed decisions more efficiently and confidently.
Design Transformation
Before
After
Challenge 3: How to build a sense of credibility and reliability
Users should feel confident in the app's expertise will foster trust and encourage them to rely on the app for their wealth management needs.
❌ 1. Unclear Information Hierarchy
The current design of the financial product detail page lacks a clear information hierarchy, resulting in disorganized and confusing content.
❌ 2. Insufficient Exposure of Advisory Team Information
InvestMate does not provide enough information about the financial product advisory team, which can make the service appear less professional and trustworthy to users.
❌ 3. Lack of Decision-Support Information in Invest Button
The invest button does not provide sufficient decision-support information, which could increase users' confidence and sense of security when making an investment.
Design Iteration
✅ Improvement 1: Enhanced Information Hierarchy and Tag-Based Keywords
The information hierarchy has been restructured and streamlined, making it easier for users to comprehend. Keywords are now displayed using a tag-based format, enabling users to quickly grasp the most important aspects of the financial product.
✅ Improvement 2: Showcasing Advisory Team Profiles and Achievements
To build user trust and understanding, the new design highlights the advisory team's profiles, featuring team member photos and emphasizing their achievements. This increased visibility allows users to better assess the expertise and credibility of the team behind the financial product.
✅ Improvement 3: Improved Invest Button with Additional Features
The "Investment Button" has been enhanced with several new features to support users' decision-making process. A discussion area has been added for users to exchange opinions and experiences, and a watchlist button allows users to add products to their watchlist for later comparison. Additionally, the "subscription fee rate" and "advisory service fee rate" have been included, providing users with essential financial information to make well-informed investment decisions.
Design Transformation
Before
After
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
Beyond Investment
Rebuilding the information architecture
The original structure was overly complex, making navigation difficult for users. Therefore, I restructured the architecture to streamline navigation and prioritize key features.
Improving design system
Streamlining components and establishing consistency for improved navigation and usability
Throughout the course of this project, it became apparent that the existing components required updating. As a result, I developed a new design system, building upon the previous one, which includes aspects such as font size, component libraries, and spacing. This updated system provides engineers with a more consistent set of design elements and principles to refer to when rebuilding the product.
Design Critiques
Engaging stakeholders andgathering feedback through interactive demonstrations and usability testing
I organized a design critiques session, engaging fellow designers and key stakeholders in this project. At this meeting, I showcased an interactive demo, performed a concise usability test, and collected invaluable feedback from attendees.
Final concept
Streamlined Investment Categories
The redesigned module simplifies investment categorization by offering three distinct groups to help users clearly define their financial goals.
Customized Investments
An innovative AI conversational tool that interacts with users to understand their preferences and requirements, ultimately recommending tailored investment plans based on their unique needs.
Forum & Watchlist
We've improved the financial product detail page by adding a discussion module for user interaction and a watchlist feature, enabling users to compare and make informed decisions on potential investments.
Takeaways & Success
Takeaways
It is crucial for a product to be designed with a targeted approach, incorporating features that specifically cater to the needs and preferences of its target audience. By understanding and addressing the unique requirements of the intended users, we can create more engaging and effective solutions that drive user satisfaction and contribute to the overall success of the product.
Success
2 months after the end of the project, the new features I had designed were successfully launched!
In 3 month:
The module experienced a significant increase in user engagement, with a 27.1% rise in active users and a 31.2% growth in daily usage, while transaction rates climbed by 28%.