Aspire Budgeting App

UX / UI
Client / Advisor
Shankar Narayan & Jenny Hwang
Project Type
UX / UI
TIME FRAME
2021
Tags
Gamify, SaaS, Personal Finance

How can we help people plan for life's next great adventure?

Beyond the bank statement, Aspire seeks to make financial planning visual and rewarding. Track your savings feel confident moving toward what is important in life.

View Clickable Prototype
View site
View Project

Research

At Pilot, we move fast with data, to ensure what we're building meets the needs of real people.

During my time at Pilot I conducted 25+ user interviews as well as various public surveys to validate and challenge our assumptions.

Quick Start

After validating demand in various user interviews, I led the design for an AI powered itinerary builder called Quick Start. We are proud that the majority of trips built on Pilot now begin with Quick Start, and that it increased our activation rate by nearly 50%.

We designed and built the feature in just over 2 weeks to launch at Tech Crunch's 2023 Disrupt Conference.

Marketing

I designed the following assets for communicate the fun and functionality of Pilot! This is part of a continuous process of A/B tests and optimization we run to ensure people have an awesome experience, start to finish.

Visit marketing site

Mobile

In addition to making continuous updates to our mobile web app, I have been given the lead on designing our mobile app for the Google Play and App Store. I am finding the balance between innovating new solutions and adopting familiar patterns from our web app and from similar maps based apps.

I am restricted in my ability to show recent work but my designs will be in production shortly.

Booking

Throughout our journey at Pilot we've been proud to have created a product that is totally free to use. To that end, we developed a tool to help people discover, decide on and book stays in our app. My contributions have been instrumental in designing a "marketplace that doesn't feel like a marketplace".

In under 6 months the team and I released a version of this available under our "Pilot Labs" feature flag, all while continuously testing with users and iterating on the next design.

Impact

Through our relentless focus on user feedback and data-driven iteration, we've transformed the way people explore the world together with Pilot.

In the last year, Pilot has been featured in Tech Crunch, listed as one of Forbes’ top Canadian Startup Employers and chosen as one of C100's 22 Innovative Startups.

What's more than that is we've built an all-in-one trip planning platform that people love. Give it a try yourself!

Try the app

Insight

Financial planning can be intimidating, especially when you're just starting out. Yet, it is important to make informed decisions.

Idea

A mobile app for financial planning that is visual and rewarding. The app would empower people to make major life decisions with confidence.

Impact

Live with freedom while working towards your goals!

Are you interested in moving downtown? Transitioning careers?  Aspire helps you make a plan and stick to it!

View Full Project Document

Insight

Key insights for this project came from personal experience, combined with professional advice. For a few weeks last summer, I visited my Grandma and supported my family’s efforts to take care of her as she recently developed dementia. We developed a strategy with an occupational therapist who suggested that we use paper to write her reminder notes. I used to sit with my sketchbook and write her notes. For example writing, “Robbie is outside in the garden, he will be in before supper” helped her break negative cycles of thinking and feel more grounded.

Research

Power  Dynamics

How can design technology to help people uncover more information about the world around them?

Transparency leverages the smart phone camera to empower consumers with information about product sustainability. The app seeks to address an imbalance of power between consumer and producer.

Runway ML

These screen grabs shows how the computer has learned to decode images. For example, the software has identified the blue object as a book with 77 degrees of accuracy. Experimenting with this software informed our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of the technology.

Insight

The app opens in camera mode, encouraging the user to scan what they see.

Quantify Data

Once the app has identified the product in question, the app displays metrics that are relevant to the products sustainability. A score is given based on metrics like water consumption, material sustainability rating and supply chain distance travelled.

Humanizing Data

After identifying the object in question, the app displays data about the products sustainability. Arranged in color-coded graphs and maps, the data is formatted in visual language.

Idea

Through my work, I am imagining a future where people like my Grandma, use technology to communicate, to function day-to-day and to live more grounded and fulfilled lives.

I have designed three features to accomplish this. I designed an interface that displays the time in relation to a routine event like weather, meals or sleep habits. The feature uses Google's existing text-to-speech software to display a live transcription of on-going conversation. The third feature is called idle animation. The system sketches automatically generating content that stimulates a connection with that moment in time. On a daily basis these custom features could promote greater independence and break negative cycles of rumination.

Impact

Potentially, this platform could help people access memories and habits that maintain a high quality of life. I believe that augmenting the brain function via personal computing will lead to a more fulfilling life for people living with dementia. With this consideration, the new watch face archetype will be more human than ever before.

Idea

We want users to engage with the environmental data. It can be difficult to imagine, how far a product may have travelled to reach you.

Gamify - Walk it off!

The app encourages users to engage with the product's supply chain footprint.  A built-in incentive program gives users cash-back discounts after they have “walked off” a distance proportional to that of their purchase.

Human Terms

Once people understand the data in physical terms they are more informed to make a a positive choice. This tool helps consumers to make purchases on their own terms. It opens a line of dialogue between producers and consumers.

The app creates a responsive marketplace where consumers can request the information the need to make an informed decision.

Elena's VR Experience

Elena tries VR with her family and is able to recall her time as a gymnast in Russia dancing in the red square parades (a factoid her granddaughter was surprised to learn).

After the experience, Elena asks for help to stand up out of her bed, something she generally is reluctant to attempt, although recommended by her physiotherapist.

Other Projects:

UX / UI
Google Pixel Watch
UX / UI
Pilot Plans
Web Design
Prescribing VR

Let's talk design!

Or send an email:
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.