THE NEURODIVERSE PERSON'S
EXPERIENCE OF FINANCE
A young fintech product-led startup designing an app to attend the needs of neurodiverse people.
CONTEXT
Product/UX/UI Designer & Researcher
MY ROLE
PART-TIME, SEPTEMBER 2020 TO MAY 2021
By neurodiverse people, I mean those who have autism, Aspergers, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and learning disabilities.
Secondary research has shown that they have more trouble managing money due to emotional disregulation and cognitive differences.
Each of these aspects inform a different aspect of the product.
When I joined, the startup had a partially developed concept and an assumption.
I created a concept out of this assumption, in order to start initial concept
evaluation research.
In just a few days, I had a very basic, yet fully developed prototype ready to be tested through remote moderated sessions.
I was responsible for the whole UX Research process, from defining the hypothesis, objectives and goals, writing the consent forms, and conducting them with some people from our community of neurodivergents who have signed up as early adopters.
After running the sessions, I made coded transcripts of the audio files and brought the whole team together to analyse the findings and derive actionable results through an Affinity Mapping workshop.
In the meantime, I designed and led a public community workshop, to engage with our community, providing them with a safe space to express themselves, and get familiar with the concept of co-design.
Then I designed a new prototype that reflected the findings form the first round of sessions. I came up with two different interactions for the same concept to do more moderated remote testing sessions.
In the meantime, it had come the right moment for me to express my view that the product was missing a clear value proposition. So I came up with an internal remotely moderated team workshop so we could define this, and more easily visualise the best strategy to move forward towards the MVP.
At the same time, I studied the “Hook" model to find out how could we create a digital environment that would be compelling enough for people to want to come back, but because it feels exciting, not because they are addicted to it.
So I proposed a gamified system for mindful finance management by mixing active elements of mindfulness with finance. The ideas for the activities came from me and my experience as a certified yoga and meditation instructor.
I have studied many competitor finance management apps, and found that they are all very unapealing, because it is clear that the relationship between them and the user is one-sided. With us, that ought to be different. Both the app and the person evolve together.