The service design inspiration 005: Digitally managing that cash :p

Published in

Think Service

8 min readJun 30, 2020

Money is becoming more of a concept than a material. Unlike the coins and notes, the numbers are earned and spent everyday on various things. Increases in the digital payment methods, makes it challenging to grasp the transactions well. Services which can transform the financial behaviour to digestible steps are redefining the personal finance management.

Hello, we are two enthusiastic service designers who love to dive into the world of products and services. We are here to share with you our service design explorations and inspirations which we think could be helpful for all of us to develop and innovate.

After researching various services which are giving new meanings to the finance management beyond just categorising the expenses, we found many creative approaches toward funds. Following are five finance services with different takes on money management, we thought worth sharing.

Let’s go and take a look at some interesting services about personal financial management!

N26

The mobile bank on the go for all of your financials

What problem are they solving?

N26 is a well known online bank. While making banking easy, N26 has a great personal finance management approach. It not only categorises all the expenditures to have an overview and control on your funds but also offers a feature called “spaces”. With spaces you can open sub-accounts for various purposes ex. Rents, holiday funds, etc.

Who is it for?

For anyone who needs a smooth banking experience as well as shared savings and spendings.

2 things we liked!

The spaces feature for creating goal oriented shared sub-accounts.
A bank which takes care of everything instead of a service which takes care of your banking needs.

We wish…

the sub-accounts feature provided a proactive approach to work on your common goals.

Service Design Inspiration.

N26 has shown us how behaviours such as, saving together, paying for shared apartments, splitting the costs, etc. could be structured as an offering to make the lives of people easier. This is not a common feature of a bank but certainly everyone does these transactions by themselves anyway.

Context jam

(where we take a concept from the service and place it in a different context)

ABC is a company which provides holiday homes at a beautiful seaside. Instead of selling these houses to one person, the company decided to make it a shared/co-owned house project. With ABC’s platform, the co-owners of a property book the dates for the visits so that they can all use it when required, instead of buying it whole and not using it 80% of the time.

Prism

All your bills at a glance

What problem are they solving?

With subscription models becoming the favourite of a lot of service providers, the amount bills paid every month are increasing, and one might find themselves losing track of payments. Paying for the services without knowing, renewing unwanted plans, getting overcharged or even paying way too much than required are some of the key challenges. Prism helps you monitor all your bills and payments for the services in one place.

Who is it for?

For the people who have many subscription based services and need to track them.

2 things we liked!

Instant reporting of unusual bills to check with the service providers.
Same space to monitor all the bills for all of your bank accounts.

We wish…

Prism also provided a way to reduce costs by showing new cheaper plans available for the services. Also, if there was a way to monitor the usage vs. expenses to make better choices for the users.

Service Design Inspiration.

Prism is a great example of giving service to one particular aspect of finance; paying bills. This way, instead of becoming a bank or a holistic personal finance management solution, they just centralise all the bills and subscriptions, becoming a bill management system.

Context jam

(where we take a concept from the service and place it in a different context)

ABC is a content curation platform. Depending on the taste and preferences of the user, it creates the coherent gallery to choose from. This way ABC provides all the shows and movies from all the leading platforms like Netflix, Amazon prime, Apple tv, etc. under one umbrella.

Acorns

Making small savings at every purchase

What problem are they solving?

Building good financial habits requires time and dedication. Planning to save money at a later time does not hold good results for most people. Acorns rounds up each expense and invests the difference in a way that is coherent with the user’s financial goals.

Who is it for?

People who want to save easily without adding extra steps in their routine.

2 things we liked!

Saving becomes an involuntary and recurring activity.
The availability of the range of different ways to invest the saved money.

We wish…

the service helped the users to evaluate their spending habits rather than only providing education on the topic.

Service Design Inspiration.

Acorns integrates the primary action of saving change, with its purpose of long term savings and investments. This way the user can more easily create greater impact with a smaller action.

Context jam

(where we take a concept from the service and place it in a different context)

ABC is a company that produces a variety of lawn mowers. With the intention of giving a tangible benefit to the users for their efforts, ABC provides a compost station for disposing of the waste. The station is compatible with ABC products to make the disposal easy.

YNAB

Financial independence starts with you

What problem are they solving?

Financial independence achieved only through relying on an external system does not give the best results for most of the people. YNAB tries to educate people in spending smarter and managing their finances while giving them a toolset to do so. YNAB gives the user a spreadsheet 2.0 that not only informs about spending habits, but also helps them make decisions and plan for the future.

Who is it for?

People who want to get out of debt or who struggle making changes in handling their finances.

2 things we liked!

The service is a tool to support a method that helps the user change behaviour.
A clear communication explaining the required contribution of the user to be successful.

We wish…

the service provided a holistic roadmap on the use of the different tools it provides in their relationship with the budgeting.

Service Design Inspiration.

YNAB puts the need for the user contribution to financial management on the forefront of their communication explaining why it is required to succeed in going out of debt. This way the user can get the most personalised service possible without losing the advantages of automation.

Context jam

(where we take a concept from the service and place it in a different context)

ABC is a company that provides supplements for people with deficiencies due to various conditions. ABC makes the user contribution a part of the service, advising how to complement the supplements with diets and exercise to have results beyond just the medication.

Planto

Plan for your future house

What problem are they solving?

Buying a house is a major financial endeavour that often spans over multiple years, Planto allows you to plan for a particular property in Hong Kong. The service creates a plan for you, linking your savings accounts to stay on track with your goal, while connecting you to potential properties in your budget.

Who is it for?

People who plan to buy a house in the coming future, while managing the personal finances.

2 things we liked!

Helps to find what you can realistically afford in an expensive market.
Creates a plan based on your age, linking your progress with your savings account.

We wish…

the functionalities related to financial tracking and managing were as specific as the ones to buy a house, facilitating the user to know in which scenario their offering is the best.

Service Design Inspiration.

Planto integrates the entire decision making journey in their system, the experience of planning a house becomes specific and seamless. This way the user gets advice and action in the same place.

Context jam

(where we take a concept from the service and place it in a different context)

ABC is a company that helps working students buy computers. By creating a plan based on the user’s goals in buying a device, their age and work, ABC is able to suggest the best device for the user, while providing advice on instalments and return of investment for their purchase with ABC.

Our big takeaway

Banks were the institutional destination for money management. From transactions to savings to loans, banks managed the infrastructural part of it. But since the digitisation era has been evolving, the meaning of finance is completely changing.

With this came the personal finance management of the new times. Why one saves money becomes the focus, hence we are starting to see services which provide goal oriented savings. How people interact with money was studied hence personal easy transactions started to emerge. Also, because of the rise in digital spendings, services which offer guidance to spend better and save more started to shine.

The summary of it all is, behaviour of people around money is important and becomes more meaningful which makes money no longer the primary focus of personal finance management.

What project is about

We as service designers have always loved to get inspired from various products & services. We have found that every service can give us at least one learning or insight which we can use in various other contexts. We started to breakdown services in various domains and began to mention the actionable insights which anyone/everyone can use in creative ways. This project for us is the output of that hunt and a growing resource which will keep unwrapping in front of us.