I created a simple platform that teaches people how to invest in the stock market with low-fee index funds, in order to build long term wealth.
Investing feels complicated for many people. They see thousands of different stocks and bonds available. They don’t know which one to pick. They don’t even know how to pick them. What account do you use? What’s a 401k? They see the news stories about the stock market crashing. They remember the 2008 crash. Investing feels risky and not worth it.
Many people opt not to invest due to fear, lack of knowledge, and lack of quality, unbiased resources.
That’s bad. Investing in the stock market is the main way many people can build long-term wealth and reach financial independence. Let’s go through some examples of how waiting to invest can be massively detrimental to a person.
This is a side project I worked on myself.
Investing feels complicated for many people because the financial industry purposes makes it that way. “Financial advisors”, who are usually just salespeople hiding under the cloak of the advisor title, make investing seem as if it is this big, scary thing. Something so complicated and high-level that regular people can’t do.
They offer a solution. Let them handle it. They are the experts. They have a degree or certificate or something hanging up their wall. They’re a family friend that your dad recommended. They are experts who will do all the work while you’re able to relax and be hands off.
It sounds awesome and straightforward, right? Not so much.
These “financial advisors” are usually salespeople who work on commission. They put you in high-fee funds they get a commission from. They have front load fees, maintenance fees, and more. Despite their claims of optimism, they often do not beat the market.
To start the user research, I went through several popular Reddit financial forums and Facebook groups. Forums and groups where people would ask personal finance questions and talk about their habits. I sorted through the top trending questions and identified the most commonly asked questions. These were usually questions about: how to choose investments, what to do with a windfall of money, how to build long term wealth, and what types of money accounts to open.
Repository is a website for teaching you about investing in the stock market via low-fee index funds to help you build long-term wealth. There are also additional recommendations for budgeting, saving, credit cards, and other personal finance topics.
A project brief with objectives, future outlook, and revenue plans can be found here.
I created a website using a no-code website builder called Framer. Getting started inside Framer was simple and the learning curve wasn't too massive. The user interface of the builder was similar to the design application Figma, which I use to create initial designs. So navigating around it was simple.
Images of real people (sourced from Unsplash) were used for better relatability to the user. Rather than using illustrations. Navigating to the lessons page, you will see a 6-card layout of different topics. These are all topics that user survey participants indicated they needed help in.
This project was very interesting because it last lived in a different form before. I used to run a personal finance website that had a free five-day investing email course people could enroll in. People liked it. It’s what made me want to do this project to see it in a mobile app format. This project was a big testament to the power and necessity of iterations.
The initial user interviews, building the user persona, creating a storyboard of a user completing a goal, and the user testing of the prototype. All of it made me take a step back and constantly reassess how best to present the subject matter: investing for building long-term wealth.
Challenges
Insights
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