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Koa User Research
Project Overview
Koa, a Fintech savings app in Kenya, was recently launched in 2021. Our UX team was brought on to conduct user research to understand why users are falling off during the onboarding process, how they interact within the app, and come up with design solutions based on our findings.
Team
Role
Scope
Kacie Hoy
Brittany Nichols
Urvashi Joneja
UX Researcher, Interaction Designer,
Content Strategist
3 week Project
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Koa is the only digital savings companion for Kenyan Millennials that makes it easy to start saving instantly—and stick with it—through personalized, goal-based targets that put users on a clear and visible path toward financial freedom. They are dedicated to helping young people take back control of their financial future and realize their money goals.
Project Summary
Our goal for this project was to take a deep dive into finding out how Kenyans interact with financial banking apps and learn their wants and frustrations. We first needed to grasp the ins and outs of Kenya’s financial market to fully understand how it operated. We quickly learned that there is a great deal of tedious paperwork for Kenyans that needs to be done at large banks that are not accessible to get to. This leads many young individuals to choose not to bank their money. Knowing this and Koa's mission, we were able to pinpoint the questions we wanted to find out from our user interviews.
We listened to Koa users on where the app needed improvement and came up with design solutions based on our research. Based on our findings we were able
My Contributions
I was responsible for the UX Research and Interface Design for this project. This included sitting in on user interviews to observe and transcribe the user’s body language and key insights then synthesizing that data to highlight areas where users were frustrated within the app.
I helped deliver research findings, style guides, and proposed design solutions to the Koa design team to take over.
Methods used
Challenges & Constraints
Some constraints for this project were apparent right away, while others transpired over the course of this project. The biggest challenges were access to users to interview and maneuvering the eight-hour time difference. Ultimately, our team ended up with very insightful interviews facilitated by the client.
Research • User Interviews • Personas Storyboarding • Wireframes • Prototyping
Initial Research: Survey and Telegram Findings
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Finding users required some new avenues considering we live on different continents. We opted for survey placement on various social media platforms, Koa’s social media, and word of mouth. The survey was used to understand what motivates users financially to save and also what their expectations are from finance apps.
While awaiting survey responses, our team also dove into Koa’s community of Telegram users. The telegram channel is one of the avenues that users come to clarify, complain or seek more information. This led to some interesting insights and starting points to begin our research on areas for improvement within Koa. We learned the most problems were regarding withdrawal and transfer timelines, earning referral bonuses, and interest rates.
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From the survey, we learned the three most important factors affecting users' trust in a finance app were transparency, security, and credibility.
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Further Research: User interviews
Out of our interviewees, the majority were active Koa users, some who had the app but deleted it, and even a few who had it but never used it. Upon studying the data gathered, there were very clear trends being expressed. This included communication, goal setting, trust-building, and referrals.
Users stressed they wanted transparent communication when it comes to their banking apps. With Koa, users were frustrated with many of the communication errors not explained properly in the app. This was apparent especially when it came to earning referral bonuses.
Referral Bonuses
One way users can interact with the Koa app is to refer friends and family to the app and earn 500 Kenyan Shillings, which is equivalent to about five US Dollars. This is a huge incentive for Koa users who want to earn and save extra money. However, we learned that many customers would give out their referral code but never receive their bonus. Koa's communication error here was they excluded disclosing that the referee has to save their first 500 Kenyan Shillings to receive the bonus. So, users were contacting customer service immediately after their friend had signed, asking why they have not received the bonus. The referral program is a feature we certainly wanted to focus on during our design solution. The storyboard below shows the current user journey on how the referral program is navigated.
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Synthesizing the Research
Our team created a SWOT analysis to further synthesize our research based on the interviews conducted. We found that users found Koa very useful and liked that they also educate users on the importance of saving.
We noticed that minor copy updates and interface changes will help users gain trust and confidence when using the app. This helped us come up with some design solutions for the company.
After creating a SWOT analysis, we came up with a persona to help wrap up the information found and shared it with the stakeholders along with the problem statement and how we wanted to go about solving the issues that were found.
Overall, this process led us to the design process, where the solutions were put to the test to see if this would help users trust Koa better.
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Persona Development
Defining the problem
Anchor 3
Koa users want to understand how each feature within the app works so that they can make informed decisions about saving money towards their goal while staying motivated to keep saving. They want to ultimately build trust and confidence knowing their money is safe when using the Koa app.
How might we build trust and improve communication between Koa and their users to create a positive experience while using the app?
Design Solutions
The designs solutions we came up with involved a series of going back to our research and focusing on where users had the most trouble. Some of our solutions were just about editing the copy to further explain what specific features on the app do and the timelines users can expect.
Other design solutions involved adding new pages to keep the user active in Koa.
Anchor 5
Onboarding Carousel
When downloading Koa, the user is met with an onboarding carousel to describe what Koa is and what it can do for the user
Koa is backed by a number of trusted partners and is a credible app, but without letting the users know that, the user is left not knowing if they can trust Koa even before they get to the onboarding process.
We created an additional slide to their already in use carousel talking briefly about the trusted partners so that the user can move through onboarding at ease.
Anchor 6
Savings Goal
The main goal of Koa is to save money toward specific goals. When you go to create a goal you are taken through a 6 step process.
To make the steps a little more transparent we updated some of the verbiage shown on each step to guide the user through the steps a little better.
We made the page a bit more interactive with toggle switches that let users choose if they wanted to opt-in for notifications and added a calendar feature for those who would like to set a due date.
The last thing we did on this page was let the user choose a photo from their own camera roll to set as the default picture of the goal. Currently, Koa has a set photo gallery that users can choose from however we learned in one of our user interviews that a woman was saving for a trip to London and when she got to the step to set a picture, there were none that accurately represented her destination. She ended up using a photo of the beach but was disappointed because it was not accurate.
User Savings Journey
The user saving journey was a page we came up with to help motivate users after they finish a goal to keep being an active user with Koa. This feature allows users to take a look at their savings goal from a big picture perspective within Koa. This would also hopefully encourage users to continue saving and create new goals.
The Referral Program
This feature helped address frequently asked questions from users and give them the big picture of the process. Instead of the users getting frustrated and looking for information from customer care or FAQ’s, we synthesized the main points of information into a scroll and brought it to that specific action. We completed the same style format for explaining withdrawal timelines and saving for goals. This is the referral program screen. Users will find a clickable link that explains the step by step process and timeline for earning a referral bonus.
Additional Design Solutions
Our team went one step further to think of ways to keep users active in Koa, even after they saved for a goal. We created notifications to let users know that their friend signed up for Koa and to encourage their friend to save their first KSh 500 in order to receive the referral bonus.
Another solution we came up with is a monthly financial journey. Users will get notified when their journey is posted for the month on the app and see how much they have save to date, how much interest they have earned, and how much money they have received from referral bonuses all with Koa.
Findings & next steps
We presented the design solutions to the product design team at Koa and they were thrilled with the results. We wanted the team to see these examples and see how it will affect their users. We gave over the prototypes created with task instructions on how to conduct usability testing with users and we are excited to see where the process leads them. This project was more research-heavy which is what the client was looking for. Because Koa is a new app the product design team had not interacted with users to find out what they could be doing better, so sitting in on our user interviews and learning how we synthesized data to create a solution was one of the most helpful aspects of this project.
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