ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
Sept - Dec 2025
TEAM
Full stack engineer
Personal finance management tools should simplify money management, not complicate it—but most apps assume prior knowledge, leaving finance novices behind.
“My biggest challenge has always been not knowing what I need to know about managing money…”
of users felt that this tool makes money management feel more approachable
“It's the financial advisor that I need, but can't afford right now.”
We utilized the Gemini API to develop an intelligent financial advisor chatbot capable of responding to a wide range of finance-related inquiries while dynamically updating the user's account and dashboard in real time.
To maintain a human-centered experience, the financial advisor chatbot consistently offers users the option to connect with a human advisor, ensuring accessibility to personalized support when needed.
Budget & spending tracking & forecasting
Portfolio management where we invest on the user’s behalf
Personalised dashboard with priority customization
Finance tips based on spending behavior
Learning Center with videos and articles to learn more
Tooltips under words provide definitions of finance terms
After auditing the onboarding flows of competing money management apps, we found that most failed to gather sufficient user context upfront, leading to fragmented experiences later. In response, we designed a comprehensive onboarding process that encourages users to provide detailed information once—enabling a more personalized and seamless experience from that point forward.
“It feels a lot less scary to use an app that you know will teach you everything and handle the rest.”
“A desktop app makes it easier to view multiple details and features on the same screen with minimal scrolling.”
We conducted user research with a variety of users to understand their primary needs.
Most personal finance apps like Mint, Vanguard, and Copilot Money assume a baseline level of financial knowledge, which alienates beginners. Mint overwhelms users with dense dashboards and limited educational context for actions like budgeting or goal setting. Vanguard focuses heavily on investment management but lacks beginner-friendly explanations or guided setup for users new to investing. Copilot Money offers clean categorization and tracking, but still expects users to interpret financial insights on their own, with little in-app education or proactive guidance. There is a lack of intuitive onboarding, simplified goal-based navigation, and real-time, personalized education, leaving users without prior knowledge feeling confused, unsupported, and intimidated.
In a first step wireframes were created to test and agree on general directions and to clarify content blocks and fix the structure of the web app. These were then used for user testing.
We conducted A/B testing using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Users preferred a clearer setup process and easier navigation. They appreciated the AI assistant, the question-based onboarding, and the learning center’s mix of videos and articles. However, they felt both prototypes were too text-heavy and recommended incorporating more charts and visual summaries. Users also wanted a more detailed budget tracker with subcategories, and a projections feature to simulate future finances.
Hourglass follows a dark theme palette that adheres to WCAG AA standards.
We conducted a second round of A/B testing to evaluate features, test component positioning and overall user experience.
Users valued clear categorization of spending and quick access to key functions. They wanted less clutter, a more customizable dashboard, and personalized experiences based on onboarding data.
