←

Case Study: Planzy

Objective: Using Jake Knapp’s Design Sprint methodology, create an app prototype that responds to Spanish youths’ financial worries.

Presented for my Masters’ UI + UX module.

The brief

  • Answer the question: “What would an app that helps young people manage their money better look like?”

  • Use Jake Knapp’s Design Sprint techniques to guide the brainstorming process

  • Collaborate with your five team members in the research, brainstorming and wireframing process on Miro, paper and Whimsical

  • Develop a clear, but simple brand direction for the digital product

  • Design and prototype two key functionalities on Figma

“A sprint resembles that perfectly orchestrated heist.

You and your team put your talents, time, and energy to their best use, taking on an overwhelming challenge and using your wits (and a little trickery) to overcome every obstacle that crosses your path.

To pull it off, you need the right team. You shouldn’t need a pickpocket, but you will need a leader and a set of diverse skills.”

—Jake Knapp

Phase 1: Understand

To better understand the question "What would an app that helps young people manage their money better look like?”, my team and I did the following activities:

  • Lightning talks

  • How Might We

  • Affinity Mapping

  • User Journey Mapping

Phase 2: Define

After these steps, we concluded that there were many ways to approach the problem, but the most important thing for young people living with their parents was managing the money dedicated to leisure and the ability to create plans that work for people in different economic circumstances.

Therefore, we decided to create an app where young people can easily make plans with their friends and community, as well as share their plan and economic preferences anonymously.

Phase 3: Sketch


To further explore ways to create an app that plans activities among multiple people without friction over money or preferences, we carried out the following activities:

  • Gather inspiration

  • Create eight wireframes using the Crazy 8 technique

  • Design wireframes with Whimsical

  • Develop a storyboard with StoryTribe

Phase 4 + 5: Decide & Prototype

Using the dot method, the team decided on what functions worked best for the product. We collectively decided that our app needed: a map and list to browse plans, a selector screen for plan preferences, a calendar to decide a date and a screen to share the link to participate in a plan.

From then, we went on to create our own brands and prototypes. My brand was inspired by Monzo, Otta and Glovo.

Onboarding

Making a plan

Browsing community

Phase 6: Validate

Through Maze, a user research platform, I tested the app with 9 users in the “youth” demographic. This is what we learned from their click maps and comments:

  • The concept is attractive, and could be useful.

  • 'Creating your plan' is a flow that's too long and leads to doubts and unnecessary clicks. We could design a simpler interface.

  • The calendar of plans on the home screen confuses users. We could remove it from the home screen and relegate it to its own tab.

  • Most users made mistakes and felt lost. In the 'Create your plan' task flow, we should include arrows that allow users to go back to the previous screen.

  • The map route to 'create your plan' is not clear enough. We could use more obvious icons or create buttons or prompts to guide users.

  • The example event in Cercedilla on the first events page confuses test users. To achieve better results, we need to change this test case.

  • To address doubts, we could use overlays to explain how the app is used before starting.