Designing Financial Support for the Everyday Consumer

The Challenge

The project was born as an offshoot of the broader MoneyPlus product ecosystem. The CEO envisioned a customer-facing mobile app—Stash—that would help millions of existing users manage everyday financial decisions like switching energy tariffs, renewing insurance, or securing better loan options.

The aim: to empower users with tailored financial advice and reminders at the right time, simplifying decision-making and improving their financial wellbeing.

The challenge was to build an approachable, scalable, and trustworthy experience—without overwhelming users with information or complexity. It also needed to reflect the tone of support, clarity, and actionability, avoiding the cold, impersonal feeling common in financial products.

Goals & Constraints

Goals:

• Concept and design a mobile app that gives proactive, timely financial advice

• Simplify complex financial options (energy, loans, insurance) into digestible UI

• Build trust through transparency, education, and clarity

• Create a modular system that could be scaled across MoneyPlus product lines

Constraints:

• Legal and compliance complexity in multiple financial verticals

• Varied user understanding of topics like switching providers or consolidating debt

• Tight startup-style timeline and evolving product definition

• Ultimately, the project was paused due to budget limitations and technical complexity

Research & Discovery

We built on existing customer insights from MoneyPlus users and layered in new findings through:

• Internal stakeholder interviews across energy, insurance, and finance teams

• Personas mapping: “unconfident switchers”, “budget jugglers”, and “savers-in-waiting”

• Competitor review of switching apps (e.g., Look After My Bills, Compare the Market)

• Concept testing with early sketches to validate tone, usability, and trust signals

Ideation & Concepting

The initial idea was to build a “proactive financial coach” that lived in your pocket. I led the concepting and prototyping of:

• A personalised dashboard showing upcoming renewal or switch opportunities

• A timeline of nudges and advice, prioritised by urgency and impact

• A switching flow for things like energy or insurance, broken into bite-sized steps

• Educational cards that explained savings opportunities in plain English

Design Process

The design process was all housed within a 6-week sprint.

• Created a flexible design system in Figma built around cards, alerts, and smart actions

• Designed for mobile-first, prioritising thumb-friendly layouts and accessibility

• Worked with the engineering team on feasibility mapping across APIs and data sources

• Developed motion studies and prototyped key flows to help stakeholders visualise value quickly

Final Solution

While the app was never launched publicly, the finished prototype demonstrated:

• A complete, mobile-friendly interface for savings insights and smart switching

• Modular components for cards, alerts, and product switching

• Tone of voice aligned to human, no-nonsense guidance (“Here’s how much you could save”)

• The groundwork for integrating data feeds from finance and utility providers

Potential Impact (Had It Launched)

Based on projections and early testing:

• Up to 30% savings opportunities flagged per user annually through smarter switching

• +40% uplift in switching intent during concept testing vs traditional web flows

• High trust indicators from users citing tone, simplicity, and clear value upfront

  
  

Reflection

Even though Stash never reached public release, it remains one of the most strategically rich projects I’ve worked on. It taught me how to balance long-term product vision with short-term delivery realities. Most importantly, it reinforced the power of design in making finance feel approachable, personal, and actionable—especially for people who need it most.