DURATION
6 months
TEAM
Cory Cruser
Alex Paine
Zeynep Mance
Vimmi Sveinsson
Josh Grazier
Timothy Stewart
Alex Paine
Zeynep Mance
Vimmi Sveinsson
Josh Grazier
Timothy Stewart
ROLE
Research
Brand Exploration
Logo Design
Design System
Animation
Brand Exploration
Logo Design
Design System
Animation
CONTEXT
UAE migrants leave their families and everything they know in the hope of creating a better future for themselves and their loved ones. Some achieve this dream but many become outliers due to the challenges from traditional financial systems. Working with a team of venture builders, we set out to build a new financial solution for the UAE’s unserved and underserved population.
OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the financial struggles of the immigrant and migrant working class
2. Create a solution that challenges the efficacy of bank competitors
3. Encourage new customer behaviors to interact with money
2. Create a solution that challenges the efficacy of bank competitors
3. Encourage new customer behaviors to interact with money
OUR SOLUTION
A bank that puts your dream at the heart of every money decision.
Huru is a bank that is built around your dream. By putting the customer's dream at the center of the banking experience, every money decision is framed into a personally motivated investment.
01
Reach your dreams faster
We help you set up your dream and save money for it every month. We make saving for your dream so effortless that you don't even know it's happening with automatic monthly saving, weekly nudges, and instant round-ups.
02
Sort your salary automatically
We help you organize your money, so the essentials are covered and you never run out. With automatic salary distribution to lockable pots and affordable deals, we help you make the most of your money so you can focus on your dream.
03
Putting you in control of your money
We connect you with your friends, allowing you to share savings across the group for free, with confidence, so you can help each other during tough times. We give you instant access to cash when you need it most.
OUR PROCESS
Transforming human-led insights into a vision
We conducted a series of research methods to empathize with our target audience and the challenge we are designing for. We organized 3 sprints to ideate concepts and narrow them down into a final vision to carry into visual design.
UAE's population consist of a majority of workers who are underserved by banks.
FInANCIAL STATUS DISPARITY
60% of workers in the UAE are unbanked
A 2019 study signaled that a majority of workers are unbanked largely because they earn less than the bank’s minimum salary requirements.
ENDEMIC DISTRUST OF THE BANKING SYSTEM
65% of underbanked workers prefer cash over card
Workers' low financial literacy creates a significant barrier to digital bank adoption. Existing digital banks face low engagement rates and high cash withdrawal rates.
The underserved target audience is composed of UAE's working (im)migrant population earning less than AED 10K.
INCOME GAP
78% of the population earn < AED 10K in salary
A majority of the population earns less than AED 10K with almost half of the population earning less than AED 2.5K.
CUSTOMER BASE
89% of the population consists of immigrants
Many immigrants come to the UAE to earn a living and send money back to their home country to support their families.
Understanding customer struggles through our jobs-to-be-done research.
WHAT IS A JOB?
The progress a person tries to make in a situation and the struggles that prevent it.
WHY JOBS-TO-BE-DONE?
This method allows us to learn from people who are breaking systems to find solutions to struggles to give us the functional, social, and emotional criteria necessary to build a solution they will "hire" while "firing" other alternatives.
Defining primary jobs to solve under 2 territories:
1. Improve the quality of life for myself and my family
Provide for myself and my family
With family needs changing during the cost-of-living crisis, participants want to deal with unexpected demands and expenses with high visibility of money management while reserving a portion of their income to chase their aspirations.
2. EARN MORE MONEY
Make my money grow
Participants want to feel secure with their money foundations to see their money's growth potential without risk. We found that people tend to trust solutions that are recommended by their network. Participants expressed difficulty in setting up banking and investing if they have tight expenses or need to access their money for emergencies.
KEY HUMAN INSIGHTS
1. Everyone comes to the UAE with a dream, but many eventually lose their motivation and get stuck into a cycle of just getting by.
2. Everyone wants to save more but accessible money on hand gets spent easily.
3. Everyone knows they should be doing more with their money, but will only trust something new if it’s recommended by their network.
Unlocking opportunity with competitive insight
We conducted competitive audit research of existing banking competitors in the UAE and global markets to gain inspiration on how we differentiate our service from visual, product, and interaction standpoints.
Product pROFILe - features
Purpose/Vision, Differentiators, Offerings
branding - LOOK & FEEL
Content strategy, Color, Logo Design, Website, Marketing
PROPOSITION - BANKING SERVICES
Budgeting, Remittance, Borrowing, Investing, Community
Sprint 1: Exploring 6 value proposition concepts
Our team ideated six proposition concepts in response to the two primary struggles we identified from our JTBD research. Each concept is illustrated with key screens and features to illustrate the vision and idea.
We conducted a qualitative assessment with 9 participants divided into 3 focus groups by each target audience within the unbanked and underbanked spectrum of customers from different countries. Reviewing each concept, participants identified which ideas and features resonated with them.
Empathizing with personas
We created a persona profile inspired by our JTBD participants for each proposition concept for our focus groups to empathize and understand the struggles of diverse migrant workers and their respective situations. In each sprint session, we shared a persona scenario for contextualization to introduce the concept.
1. My circle
A stress-free way to move to the UAE in finding your community and unlocking deals
2. P2P lending
The smart way to borrow from your network with flexible repayments and low-interest rates
3. Everyone, everywhere
The easiest way to manage your family's money with visibility of balance and payment-tracking
4. Follow my path
The community of dream builders with automated savings and goal-setting
5. Pay Day everyday
The app that makes your money work for you to access early salary or emergency cash
6. Flight club
The app that helps you fly home with cost-spreading and finding the cheapest deals
Sprint 2: Testing two territories
Coming out of Sprint 1, we finalized 2 clear territories for further exploration. Onwards to Sprint 2, we hosted a qualitative data collection process featuring 3 focus groups. We showcased each territory with a splash page overview of the proposition, illustrated with 4-5 screens of core functionalities and features.
territory 1
Using the power of my community to make my money work better
KEY FEATURES
Saving together and protecting each other
Unlocking discounts
Investing together
Sending money back home
Growing your circle
Unlocking discounts
Investing together
Sending money back home
Growing your circle
key learnings
• Everyone already has a circle so there is little need for "find my circle" functionality
• Trust is the critical issue – people feel more comfortable lending and borrowing with friends and family.
• Circle model simplification is needed to realize the benefits of earning interest by saving within the circle
• Trust is the critical issue – people feel more comfortable lending and borrowing with friends and family.
• Circle model simplification is needed to realize the benefits of earning interest by saving within the circle
territory 2
Making today easy for you to focus on your bigger dreams tomorrow.
KEY FEATURES
Automatic budgeting, remittance, and savings
Easy access to emergency cash
Dream builder
Easy investing
Easy access to emergency cash
Dream builder
Easy investing
key learnings
• Dream is the main driver and most were unaware of their progress or how to get to their dream
• Strong desire to manage money better
• Strong desire to invest though understanding is very low
• The word "stash" was poorly understood among unbanked
• Strong desire to manage money better
• Strong desire to invest though understanding is very low
• The word "stash" was poorly understood among unbanked
Sprint 3: Refining our hero concept & features
Our new focus groups helped us test our chosen hero concept and refined signature features. We presented each idea in the following way:
1. Showing a splash page that displays the webpage of the proposition with 4-5 screens, diagrams, and features
• How would you describe this idea to a friend
• Which of the features would be most and least useful for you?
2. Showing each feature step by step
• How can you imagine this fitting into your life?
• What would you improve?
• How would you describe this idea to a friend
• Which of the features would be most and least useful for you?
2. Showing each feature step by step
• How can you imagine this fitting into your life?
• What would you improve?
Setting up pots
1. Get your essentials covered
Pots organized into savings and essentials
2. Start your saving habit
Saving for everyday and long term with a progress tracker
3. Automatically sort salary
Organize salary into essentials and savings pots
Start investing
1. find the right investment for you
Flexible investments with contributions and "no risk" interest
2. add friends & family to invest together
Saving within your circle to gain interest
Access emergency cash
1. withdraw from everyday savings pot
Flexibility in withdrawing instant cash from unlocked savings.
2. salary advance
Salary sacrifice spread out across the next salary payouts for emergency cash access
Saving with your circle
1. find your circle
Discover a circle to form your community while pursuing your dream
2. borrow within your circle
Salary sacrifice to lend money to circle members to help each other out during rough times
SPRINT 3 KEY PIVOT
We need to pivot the circle feature with a rewarding element and address emergencies
The circle feature to borrow within your community was controversial among our participants. There was a clear upside for unbanked participants because they can borrow freely for emergencies, but the benefit was unclear for underbanked participants. Underbanked participants who have access to credit were hesitant about the idea of socially asking for money without the reassurance to get it back.
OTHER LEARNINGS
• Get the basics right for essential banking services, e.g. onboarding, account, cards, transfers
• Cater the right language in-app like "pots" instead of "stash", "emergency cash" instead of "everyday savings"
• Nudge people from cash to digital through cashback and daily interest
• Design for low financial literacy to define their goals and dreams from a financial perspective
• Create the trust factor essential for fintech adoption, e.g. verification
• Highlight progress throughout and do not underestimate any amount of growth as small
• Cater the right language in-app like "pots" instead of "stash", "emergency cash" instead of "everyday savings"
• Nudge people from cash to digital through cashback and daily interest
• Design for low financial literacy to define their goals and dreams from a financial perspective
• Create the trust factor essential for fintech adoption, e.g. verification
• Highlight progress throughout and do not underestimate any amount of growth as small
RECOMMENDED FEATURES
• Invite friends and family to join the savings circle
• Contribute a fixed amount to the circle on a monthly basis
• Earn a monthly "saving bonus" towards their dream pot if the individual borrows from the pot
• Borrow from the circle for free, with automatic approval
• Contribute a fixed amount to the circle on a monthly basis
• Earn a monthly "saving bonus" towards their dream pot if the individual borrows from the pot
• Borrow from the circle for free, with automatic approval
OUR value proposition
Helping migrants rediscover and realize their dreams
We consistently heard the motivating power of a dream. Our experience starts with your dream, continuously nudging you to boost it and celebrating every step towards it.
Defining our personality and look & feel
Through our competitive audit, we identified a spectrum that existing digital banking solutions lie within to communicate their branding identity. We asked our clients to choose between a series of options to determine what they are looking for in their branded product solution.
Branching our creative territory with a brand exploration
After conducting a naming brainstorm, we continued to visually explore ways to express our brand idea through visual metaphors and logos. With our chosen directions, we expanded the look and feel to explore the brand's visual system
A distinctive brand identity that is human & relatable.
We chose and developed a distinctive identity communicating humanity, confidence, and positivity, standing out in the financial service UAE market. We crafted a name that was reflective of our brand's humanity, confidence, and positivity. The logo conveys the journey to achieving your dream and our symbol symbolizes our support for our customers.
Helping migrants achieve their dreams by making money work for them is intrinsic to our support towards our customers' dreams and empowering our customers as the heroes of Huru.
Our brand kit elements
Our brand consists of key visual elements designed to work together to create a spirited, positive, friendly, and consistent identity. The friendly, spirited, and diverse nature of our brand shines through our use of color.
The supergraphic is a build on our symbol. Replacing the U with our customer's customized image to uplift their dreams.
Developing brand principles to create a holistic experience
These high-level principles are created to curate our experience with the right usage of voice and visual guidelines. Huru is practical, friendly, positive, and spirited in the way we speak and represent ourselves to our customers.
Fleshing out core experience flows
Defining our branding guidelines, we applied all the high-level and visual principles to the experience to finesse our customer journey from beginning to end. This is how the visual system comes to life in the experience.
01
Create your dream to start saving up towards a goal
Begin the experience by creating your dream and setting a goal amount. Track your progress on savings over time.
02
Create pots for your essentials
Allocate your savings into your pot and lock it away to easily manage your essentials and avoid the temptation to spend it.
03
Transfer money within your circle
Send your money effortlessly to other recipients without fees and hassle, putting you in control of your own money.
A design system that is centered around your dreams
Our visual principles broadly translate into the components of our design system. Built with motivation and transparency in mind, we designed microinteractions like monthly saving streaks and celebratory milestones to encourage progress and achievements.
Motivating you every step of the way
Huru's design system is curated intentionally to put your dreams at the center of the experience. Dream widgets are designed with inviting colors and illustrations. With a dream card overview, it is easy to view your progress conveniently at a glance.
Detailing content strategy
We applied our principles to our notification content strategy to make our experience consistent throughout. Notifications are sent sparingly with a purpose such as:
• Prompting a time-sensitive action
• Celebrating a milestone
• Confirming a completed action
• Introducing new features
• Celebrating a milestone
• Confirming a completed action
• Introducing new features
TAKEAWAYS
1. globalization for a multicultural audience
With Huru's goal to expand to a global audience and immigrant communities, globalization is key in making this product accessible to everyone.
2. accessibility through education and usability
Accessibility is not only important in digital principles but should also be translated into approachability and guidance. It is important for the product to help onboard users to set up and educate them along the way to offer guidance to help their money grow, especially if users have lower financial literacy.
3. EMPHASIZING COMMUNITY in digital banking
There is an untapped opportunity to think about how a community can tie closely with the progress to dream, leveraging the novel idea of Huru's savings circle as the product develops.
4. DEVELOPING HURU
As Huru's MVP is gearing up for launch, we need to prepare for development and testing. Post-launch will be focused on bug-fixing, optimization, and incremental improvements to MLP. We are currently focused on defining the proposition and developing the experience for V2 features from our backlog in a concept and design sprint model, handing it off to a partnering agency to assist with detailed design and development.
