suttondj87@gmail.com | charlotte, nc
ROUND UPS BOOSTER
Along with buckets, one of the main features of Ally's Savings Tool Kit is savings boosters. Basically, a booster is tool you can opt into that will help you save money faster. I was tasked with creating the third booster that can be activated in a savings account called Round Ups. When someone signs up for a Round Up booster, they are agreeing to track a spending account, and when they make a charge, we round it up to the nearest dollar and capture the difference between the rounded up number and the original charge. When the differences that have been accumulating hit $5.00, a transfer from the tracked account is made to the account where the Round Up was created.
There were many aspects to this project that made it one of the more enjoyable projects I've worked on at Ally. Simply understanding the ins and outs of how this works and all of the edge cases that had to be accounted for truly made me feel like an SME for this feature, so when design work started, I felt like I had the knowledge to execute the requested work quickly and accurately. The team I was on also had the chance to think about this project holistically, including what kinds of notifications are sent when a transfer happens, how we introduce this new feature to existing customers and what kinds of features and visuals should be shown in and introductory video that's shown when you tap into the Round Ups area from your account.
Bucket distribution is handled through the "distribute" link at the top of the table.
Creating an obvious yet visually appealing entry point into an experience can be a challenge, but in this case, I worked with my content strategist to ensure the the content fit the required space so that it doesn't look too cramped in production. I also took this chance to work with my Android developers to tweak the design of this entry element inside of the Ally Android app. At some point, the icons that were incorporated on the account page in the Android App got swapped out for a much larger version of the same icon resulting in designs that were out of balance and text that became cramped and hard to read. By raising my hand and volunteering to work the Android team, we got the issue resolved quickly as a part of this project and the Android savings account page looks much better.
Creating the simplest sign up process for this new savings booster was essential, so gathering the least amount of information as we could from a user was paramount to make sure people didn't back out without completing the flow. Also, sprinkling in reminders about how this booster works throughout the experience helps ensure the user doesn't feel confused and fully understands what they're signing up for. Clarity for the user about what they're doing is especially important when dealing with money, so that's something that I try and do in all of the projects I work on.
Tracking the progress of your active Round Ups was another important part of this project. A table like this, while full of lots of valuable information, was designed in such a way that it doesn't feel overwhelming. By pairing this information with the Round Up history in their account in one cohesive layout, the user gets a comprehensive view of how this booster is helping them save money without any modification to their existing behavior.