Decoding UX and expectations from a Cashback-based Gold Investment App

This exploratory research project focuses on a Cashback-based Gold Investment App. The primary goal of this research is to delve into users' comprehension of the app, gain insights into their requirements, preferences, satisfactions, dissatisfactions, drivers, frustrations, and anticipations regarding the app. The overall aim is to use these findings in order to enhance the application, its features, and the overall user experience.

Some information is removed or modified due to confidentiality.

Background and Goals

The stakeholders initiated this research post a round of competitors analysis in order to gain deeper insights into understand the user experience and expectations from the application. The primary objectives were as follows:

1. Understanding User Needs and Preferences: Gaining insights into user needs and preferences for informed decision-making.

2. Conduct an In-Depth Analysis of User Motivations and Frustrations: To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the motivating and inhibiting factors.

3. Identifying Opportunities for Enhancing App Functionality: Examining ways to improve and expand the features of the application.

Method

To achieve these goals, a qualitative approach was adopted to collect attitudinal and behavioral data from the target users. For which remote in-depth user interviews and usability testing were conducted with 12 users had made 3 or more transactions on the app to understand their behavior, app engagement patterns, and preferences.

Research Contributions

This study sought to bridge the gaps concerning user expectations of the app and whether it aligns with the app's intended performance. It uncovered user app feature preferences that had not been previously explored, providing valuable insights to enhance the overall platform experience and potential improvements.

Crucial Insights

1. Users understanding of Financial Tools & Terminologies

Users avoid budget tracking due to time constraints, sporadically review spending, lack financial knowledge (including digital gold and investments), and find manual voucher retrieval time-consuming with disappointing cashback amounts.

2. Users' Exploration of the App

Users prioritize cashback offers, overlooking other features. Retrieving gold transaction history involves inconvenient downloads due to potential storage limitations. Recurring transaction errors frustrate users, and the "favorite list" doesn't update regularly. Some stores lack manual gift card price entry, and redeeming vouchers requires time-consuming manual copying and pasting between apps.

3. Users' App Usability Experience

Users seek sponsor info for reassurance. The absence of gold price history affects rate understanding, and unclear filters cause confusion in transaction history access.
Users easily located the gift card in the offers section but faced confusion in the redemption process due to unclear instructions. Over half mentioned limited gift card price suggestions, affecting their choices.
Users efficiently redeemed gift cards via copy-pasting voucher details. Though deemed simple by most, some found it time-consuming with app-switching. Not all users were aware of the automation process.

Utilizing the insights derived from our research, we delivered a set of UX/UI recommendations to our clients, which were then seamlessly incorporated into the design processes, resulting in a significantly improved user experience.

My Contributions and Learnings

Some significant contributions I made during this research include:

1. Leadership in Research: I took on a leadership role in the entire research project, overseeing the process from initial discovery to the presentation of data. My responsibility encompassed ensuring the overall success of the project.