The challenge

Step #1 - Planning

We started the design sprint with some old fashioned planning. We set the goals for each week to be achieved and what we should do step by step.

The planning  was on a shared miro board, which made it possible for everyone involved to stay updated for eventual changes in the plans and priority changes.

Step #2 - Research

We did research about similar financial apps and other related apps to see what works, and what not.

We conducted expert interviews and also got numbers and data from Dreams.

We had to get familiar with the Dreams application and to do research on financial and savings behaviour in general. Which made it easier for us to identify problems that we could solve. 

Step #3 - Interviews and insights.

We also recruited users, ex-users and non-users of financial applications to conduct qualitative user-research to get insights and understanding about the general behavior behind our questions.

What makes people use it or not? How could we reach a broader market? Why has people left and why are people still using it? Why does some people totally reject apps like this? What makes an app preferable? and so on.

All these questions had the purpose to identify a problem or several. We collected the data and identified the common pattern from the interviews according to the answers and our insights.

Step #4 - Identifying problems and ideate solutions

When we saw the common pattern of what was good and what caused problems for users, ex-users and also from non-users.

We were able to identify what problems that could be solved to face this challenge.

We compiled the wants and needs and our own insights that we got from our interviews and saw what could be done.

We brainstormed solutions to write on the board.

Thereafter did we  sort out the solutions with biggest potential.

We researched on the internet about the suggested solutions and at the same time preparing user-tests and building prototypes to see how our solutions worked in real life.

Step #5 - Iteriation, user-test and deliver.

We tried our prototypes during our user-tests with our solutions toward this challenge. We did some design changes accordingly the tests and iterated the process.

The feedback was good and in fact did we not only come up with one solution but three in total! 

Solution #1 - Personalize the UI

This solution is so simple but yet brings an really personal touch for your experience while using the application.

We introduced light/darkmode so that the users is able to change how the app looks for them.

We also introduced "friendly mode" which makes fontsizes bigger for anyone with vision impairments.

There were several users during the qualitative user-research who mentioned  the colors scheme and felt like it was annoying or would like a less wearing color scheme and that's why we saw this solution as a must!

Solution #2 - Brand recognition and profit boosting.

Mascot marketing has been used successfully by many huge companies around the world to boost profits, improve brand recognition and drive sales.

The main purpose of mascot marketing is to strengthen the brand identity.

The mascot will help Dreams to create and strengthen Dreams brand story, leaving a lasting memory with the users.

By creating a story and a character that the users can identify with, the users will feel a part of Dreams, and, as a result, will be far more likely to purchase their product or service. Thats why we created the Dreams mascot "Spargrisen". ("Piggybank")

Solution #3 - Easy hands-on tutorial

Another problem that was an insight and mentioned through several interviews, were, that many people who wasn't that familiar with dreams had not  seen all of the feautures that users who was familiar with dreams,  loved and used frequently.

These features was in the shadows and we understood that with an easy tutorial which explores all the aspects of the application and its features, would highlight the benefits of the app, and would make users and non-users to understand the true value of what Dreams can do for your financial well-being.