Envelopes
Using UX to help people set aside money and save for goals.
The Story
BECU has over $30.2 billion in assets and over 1.3 million members as of December 2021 and is the fourth-largest credit union in the United States.
Members struggling with unexpected expenses accounted for the most significant negative impact on their financial health. BECU Envelopes was born as a way to mitigate this problem.
Envelopes were modeled after a traditional saving method to set aside cash into paper envelopes as a way to organize money.
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My Role
I joined the Envelopes team as a Senior UX Designer in partnership with a fellow senior UX Designer. About halfway through the project, I took the lead as a full-stack, Senior UX designer until Envelopes shipped.
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BECU Marketing video introducing Envelopes to our entire membership
Project Goals
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Help people save for emergencies or other goals
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Use technology to replace existing ad hock savings processes
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Contribute to BECU's organizational goal of improving the financial health of it's membership
UX Methods
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Moderated interviews
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Story mapping sessions
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UI Ideation workshops
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Wireframe creation
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Heuristic evaluation
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Usability testing
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Alignment to the BECU design system
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Alpha and Beta product releases
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In-app feedback submission form
Meeting User Needs
By facilitating and synthesizing multiple research methods ranging from customer interviews to usability testing, I surfaced the resulting key insights and used them to inform product features.
Key insight No. 1
Users need a way to segment their existing savings account, then name and track the progress in each container.
Resulting feature
Envelopes act as a layer on top of an existing account that categorizes money into nameable, trackable containers (Envelopes).
Key insight No. 2
Users need a way to visualize their progress toward saving for a goal.
Resulting feature
A progress bar UI + target pattern that communicates the level of goal savings per envelope.
Key insight No. 3
Users need a way to automatically fund their envelopes.
Resulting feature
A feature called automatic allocation allows users to set an amount, time, and frequency for deposits into their envelopes.
Key insight No. 5
Users need a way to understand the activity of money in their envelopes.
Resulting feature
A history feature was created that allowed users to view money moving in and out of their envelopes over time.
Success Metrics Met
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As of 7/10/2022, BECU members have moved 17 million dollars in Envelopes
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Envelopes have been launched to full membership and have recorded the best engagement for any product launched by BECU to date
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Calls to BECU seeking assistance for using Envelopes currently represent only 0.9%, which is considered exceptional by BECU standards
High Fidelity Wireframes
Adding a savings target feature
Creating a target that acts as a trainer to help users save for goals.
Add Envelope feature
Allowing users to subdivide their existing accounts by creating an envelope and giving it a name.
Automatic allocation feature
Allowing users to automatically fund their individual envelopes.
Research Processes
