Interventions for financial literacy on Robinhood
This study investigates the factors that make it difficult for young adults to begin and maintain financial investments. I consider some of the major contributing factors and causes of this problem. I was able to identify a number of critical opportunity areas through a focused literature study, user interviews, and a detailed competitive analysis. These changes can be made to all the popular democratized investment platforms. For an example of the intervention strategy, these changes were made to Robinhood, the most popular financial app among young adults.
This project's goal was to provide a framework for Robinhood and equip them with appropriate tools so that their users could feel more at ease when making investments.
UX & UI Design
UX Research
Product Strategy
Instructor
Dr. Sonia Tiwari
My roles
Researcher
UX & UI Designer
My primary responsibility for this project was acting as the UX researcher throughout the entire project's journey. I was also able to develop UI interventions based on Robinhood's current existent patterns and design systems.
Why this project
I didn't want to rely on my parents to support me during my undergraduate years in college. I want financial independence and self-sufficiency. I began freelancing to generate spending money for myself in order to do this. I soon got enough money to cover my expenses and then some. I wanted to use my money to generate additional income, not just let it sit in my bank account (I'd just finished reading Rich Dad Poor Dad).
Without a background in finance, I wasted a lot of time being afraid to take risks. Even after making the first investment, I was still unsure about what to do next. This is what led me to take on financial education for young adults as my research topic for this course.
Problem statement
How can we provide young adults the necessary financial skills to allow them invest sustainably after the startup phase?
Why Robinhood?
The majority of democratized investment platforms adhere to a similar user journey. These platforms include Webull, Plynk, Stash, Personal Capital, among others. But among young adults in the US, Robinhood is by far the most widely used investment site.
A systematic intervention into this platform would provide give the proposed strategy relevance and legitimacy in while highlighting the functionality.
Proposed intervention
Robinhood and other investment platforms might implement a four-step strategy to make users feel more secure and confident.
Interventions created using Robinhood's style guide
Minimal interruption without breaking the user's flow
Easy goal setting to track the user progress
Process overview
Literature review
After deciding on a topic, the first step was to conduct a thorough literature review of previous research on the topic or similar projects in the past. This aided me in defining a more specific project goal.
Analysis & insights
A thorough analysis was carried out based on my research. This led to a discussion of what the next steps should be. Creating a customer journey map, for example, to detail touch points and areas of intervention.
UXR methods
Next, I concentrated on what UXR methods would be required to provide me with the most relevant insights into the problem and to understand potential opportunity areas.
Prototype
Finally, a solution was prototyped, supported by research and relevant data. Mockups of the same were created to represent usage in various contexts.
Literature review patterns
Financial education is crucial for teens and young adults. Studies show its positive impact on investment practices. Economic education has stagnated despite personal finance courses being mandatory in some states. Parents and peers influence financial decision-making, while using the internet as a financial information source leads to higher financial literacy. Simplifying financial information reduces barriers to entry for early investing, but data visualization biases may affect this.
UXR methods
Detailed interviews
Understanding young adults and their financial needs was essential for this topic. It was also critical to understand their point of view on the subject. In order to obtain the most accurate results, detailed interviews with the target user groups were required.
Competitor analysis
Recognizing the problems and shortcomings with the current platforms they use would help uncover deeper pain points and provide more precise points of intervention, helping people stay in tune with things they are familiar with and are exposed to.
Themes had been created based on the interviews. These informational buckets include parental backgrounds, educational backgrounds, previous investing history, and experience as well as their internal and external motivators.
Key insights
The use of complicated financial jargon and terminology is one of the most difficult challenges that young adults face. As a result, they avoid it.
Peers and social media are two of the main reasons why young adults experiment with investing through platforms like Robinhood.
At the moment, most people learn about finances informally through family, friends, and personal research.
Despite the intimidation and anxiety caused by financial terminology, young adults understand the importance of self-education and financial responsibility.
Competitor analysis
Six competitors were chosen based on their popularity, their relevance, and their USP. Plynk, Personal Capital, Stash, Edward Jones, and Webull were analysed.
Opportunities
With this matrix created, similarities and opportunity areas among democratised financial platforms were identifies.
Recognised areas
Currently, education is offered as a course in just one area of the platform and not actively and readily available.
After the initiation, there is little to no guidance on what a user should do after the first step.
Importance given to adding more users is harder than keeping existing users interested.
Real-time news snippets can be offered on relevant topics to make users feel more confident in taking their next steps.
Arriving at the solution
Based on the research I conducted and the insights I gathered, I proposed a potential solution. I discussed this solution multiple times and made tweaks along the way until I arrived at the final version.
Personal Goals
We provide consumers the chance to set their targets and goals. These serve as checkpoints that the consumers would be working towards. This gives the users a purpose, and an objective that they would be working towards.
Motivation
Users can see how their investments bring them closer to their goals once they have set their targets. This is updated in real-time and accessible from the goals section.
Education
To make the investment process even easier, we provide quick definitions and bite-sized explainers for complicated financial jargon that appears on the Robinhood platform.
What's next?
Once an investment or financial product is made, Robinhood will provide them with a plan for what to do next. This would manifest as personalized suggestions and recommendations.
Learnings
Over the entire UXR research process, I learned a lot. The importance of empathy in any design process' UX research comes first and foremost. It enables you to develop strong justifications for each design choice you make, always keeping the user in mind. Second, when obtaining information, the value of dialogue and learning through conversation cannot be overstated. And finally, design solutions don't constantly entail developing a brand-new product or making a significant change; on occasion, making minor adjustments to already-in place systems can be the most effective course of action.
What worked and
what didn't
The most fruitful aspect of this project was the development of an intervention into Robinhood, the most popular democratized financial investment platform. This would guarantee that the suggested approach reaches the right audiences while minimizing the learning curve. The fact that these instructional inputs are being developed in manageable increments keeps the content accessible and interesting without detracting from the platform's actual user experience.
What could be made better is setting up an area where the users could monitor and review their progress promptly. Additionally, speaking to additional user groups in other demographic dividends of emerging markets would create a holistic view point for Robinhood and other democratized investment platforms as a whole.
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