FinOS
Turning financial anxiety into confidence through explainable, human-centered money management.
- Role
- Lead Product Designer
- Timeline
- 12 weeks · 2024
- Team
- 1 PM, 2 Engineers, 1 Designer
- Platform
- iOS & Android
- Tools
- Figma, Maze, Dovetail, Principle
Project overview
FinOS is a personal finance app that helps everyday people understand where their money goes and why. Most budgeting tools show numbers without context, leaving users overwhelmed. We set out to design an experience that explains financial decisions in plain language and builds long-term trust through transparency.
People want to be better with money, but existing tools bury them in charts and jargon instead of helping them understand what to actually do next.
73% of surveyed users said budgeting apps made them feel more anxious, not less.
Users couldn't explain why the app categorized their spending a certain way, eroding trust.
Actionable guidance was hidden behind dense dashboards and premium paywalls.
What we set out to achieve
- 01Reduce the cognitive load of understanding personal finances.
- 02Make every AI-driven insight explainable and traceable.
- 03Drive weekly engagement through timely, relevant nudges.
User & market research
I ran a mixed-methods research phase to understand how people relate to their money emotionally and behaviorally — combining qualitative interviews with a broad quantitative survey and a teardown of competing products.
User Interviews
12 in-depth interviews with people aged 24–40 across income brackets to map emotional friction points around money.
Market Analysis
Competitive teardown of 8 leading finance apps to identify gaps in explainability and onboarding.
Survey
A 210-respondent survey validating pain points and prioritizing the features users actually wanted.
felt more anxious using budgeting apps
distrusted automatic categorization
wanted plain-language explanations
Maya Chen
28 · Marketing Coordinator
“I know I should budget, but every app just shows me I'm doing badly without telling me how to fix it.”
- +Understand where money goes each month without spreadsheets
- +Build savings without feeling deprived
- +Trust that the app's advice is actually in her interest
- −Overwhelmed by dashboards full of charts
- −Doesn't trust opaque, automatic categorization
- −Generic advice that ignores her real situation
Information architecture & user flow
I restructured the information architecture around a single question users kept asking — 'Am I okay?' — surfacing a clear status first, then progressive detail on demand.
Low-fidelity wireframes
I started with rapid low-fidelity sketches to test the core hierarchy: a reassuring status at the top, an insight feed in the middle, and drill-downs on demand. Testing paper and grayscale flows early let me validate structure before investing in visuals.
High-fidelity designs
High-fidelity designs introduced a soft, approachable visual language — rounded modular cards, a calm palette, and generous typography — to counteract the anxiety users associated with finance tools. Every insight card pairs a number with a plain-language 'why'.
The final solution
The final product leads with clarity and explains itself at every step, so users always know what's happening and what to do next.
Financial Health Score
A single, glanceable status that answers 'Am I okay?' before showing any detail.
Explainable Insights
Every insight is written in plain language and can be expanded to show exactly how it was calculated.
Guided Actions
Contextual nudges turn insights into one-tap actions like moving money or adjusting a goal.
Outcomes & impact
weekly active retention
average beta rating
support tickets about categorization
What I learned
Designing for trust meant slowing down and making the product explain itself rather than just look smart. If I revisited this, I'd invest earlier in the language system — the words on each insight card mattered as much as the visual design.