Sav Money

Sav Money is a mobile app designed to make saving and financial management simple, automated, and accessible for young adults. It helps users build consistent saving habits and achieve their financial goals by addressing common pain points like complexity and low motivation found in traditional banking.

The Challenge

Early data revealed users dropping off during onboarding and not activating savings automation. Another major issue was that the previous version of Sav struggled with user retention and lacked the "fun" factor needed to keep young adults engaged.

The challenge was to redesign the core experience to reduce friction, improve the information architecture, and introduce a gamified layer without losing trust.

The Goals

I defined clear goals to measure our success, balancing the needs of the business with the needs of our users.

Business Goals

User Goals

Increase user acquisition and market penetration.

Give me a simple, clear view of my money.

Improve the conversion rate from download to first deposit.

Help me create & track savings goals I care about.

Achieve high user retention and daily engagement.

Make saving feel automated, easy, and even fun.

My Responsibilities

As a lead Product Designer on the team, I was responsible for the end-to-end design of the core user experience.

I ran multiple ideation sessions and workshops with team members
I conducted competitor analysis and user interviews to define initial product requirements.
I created the full information architecture, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes.
I built the Sav Design System from the ground up to ensure consistency and development efficiency.
I collaborated with the Product Manager to align on user stories and with engineers to ensure pixel-perfect handoff and implementation.

Discovery & Research

To understand why the initial design was underperforming, I benchmarked the existing design against market leaders. This highlighted exactly where Sav's experience was falling short.

Feature

Acorns

Qapital

Primary Value Prop

Micro-Investing: Invest your spare change.

Goal-Based Saving: Save money by automating your habits

Core User

The passive, hands-off person who wants to invest without thinking about it.

The visual, hands-on person who needs motivation and tangible goals to save.

Key Savings Feature

Round-Ups: Automatically invests the spare change from all your purchases.

Rules: Set up custom triggers (e.g., "Save $5 every time I buy coffee" or "Save 10% of my paycheck").

UI/UX Strength

Extremely simple. The "set it and forget it" model is its biggest strength. Great for beginners.

Highly visual & motivating. Uses images for goals, making them feel tangible and fun to save for.

UI/UX Weakness

Can be confusing where money is, what the fees are, and how investments are performing.

The "Rules" system is high friction and can be overwhelming for a new user to set up, leading to drop-off.

Monetization

Monthly subscription fee ($3 - $9/mo) based on tiers.

Monthly subscription fee ($3 - $12/mo) based on tiers.

Trust Factor

High. Well-established brand, seen as a safe "first step" into investing.

High. Feels secure, and the direct link between "Rules" and "Goals" feels transparent.

User Flow and Wireframe Development

I mapped user journeys to remove friction in key flows like onboarding, goal setup, and automation. Then, I created low-fidelity wireframes to test layouts, ensuring a clear and easy path for users.

Design Solutions

The final product consists of 100+ unique screens. For this case study, I'll showcase a few features that best demonstrate the core user experience.

Streamlining KYC & Onboarding

The Problem: The original app required a rigid, linear path that forced users through 5 tedious pages of forms before they could even see the dashboard. This caused significant drop-off.

The Solution: I restructured the flow into 3 bite-sized steps with clear progress indicators. I also introduced "Progressive Disclosure," allowing users to explore the app before requiring full KYC verification, which significantly improved conversion rates.

The "All-in-One" Dashboard

The Problem: The previous dashboard was cluttered and static. Critical actions like "Add Money" were hidden in sub-menus, forcing users to hunt for ways to fund their account.

The Solution: The home screen now prioritises accessibility and speed. The new design ensures that frequent user tasks like checking the balance, creating goals and adding money are more prominent.

I also removed the confusing side menu entirely. I restructured the navigation into a clear bottom bar, ensuring that all the key features are instantly accessible without any searching.

Send & Request Money

The Problem: In the previous design, "Send Money" and "Request Money" were treated as separate features on the app. This forced users to go back and forth just to pay a friend or ask for a split, making the process feel disjointed and slow.

The Solution: I redesigned this experience into a single, unified transfer hub.

Key Improvements:

Unified Action: I brought both "Send" and "Request" into one screen. Users can now easily switch between them using a simple tap, without leaving the flow.
Reduced Steps: By removing the need to navigate to different pages, I cut the number of taps required to start a transaction in half.

Card Management

The Problem: In the MVP, security settings were buried in the Profile menu. If a user lost their card, they had to navigate through multiple screens to freeze it, causing panic.

The Solution: I moved all card controls to a "Cards" tab. Now, users can manage all their card settings in one place with ease

Gamified Rewards

The Problem: Saving money requires "delayed gratification" it feels like losing money now to have it later. Because there is no immediate reward, users often lose motivation and stop contributing to their goals.

The Solution: I designed a rewards system centered around "Sav Coins" to give users an instant dopamine hit every time they save.

Key Features:

Earn as You Save: Users automatically earn Sav Coins whenever they fund their account or hit a savings milestone. This turns a boring financial task into a rewarding game.
Tangible Value: I designed a "Redeem" marketplace where users can swap their coins for real-life perks (like bill discounts or airtime), making the points feel valuable, not just cosmetic.
Celebratory Moments: I added fun animations (confetti, coin sounds) when a user earns coins to reinforce the positive habit.

Impact

Internal reports showed improvements in onboarding completions, automation activation and weekly saving streaks. Qualitative feedback also confirmed higher trust and ease of understanding.

Conclusion & Reflections

Bringing Sav from its initial MVP to the current improved version was a challenging but rewarding journey. The redesign successfully transformed the product from a basic functional tool into an engaging, gamified experience. By refining the core features, we solved the "motivation gap" and created a platform that not only holds money but actively encourages users to come back.

Lessons Learned

Simple is Hard: The biggest challenge was taking existing, complex financial features and simplifying them without breaking functionality. I learned that refining a feature often requires more discipline than building one from scratch.
Design Systems Scale Success: The MVP lacked visual consistency. Building a modular design system allowed us to standardize the UI across the new app and will let the team add future features much faster.

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