Simpler Investing
Problem
You received your first paycheck from your first job out of college. Your dad has been bothering you for weeks about setting up an IRA, a 401k, or any other eye-glazing three or four-letter acronym. He's right. But beginning your financial planning is difficult, and there are many confusing options.
What are the differences regarding the various types of accounts this company offers? Is this the best company with which to invest your money? How much should you invest? You are already so busy with work and friends: is this merely going to add one more time consuming obligation?
Research
Upon looking at the top investment firms' account creation interfaces, it's easy to see why this process is so intimidating for millennials. Presented with an unfamiliar landscape riddled with unexplained industry jargon, the simple necessity of planning and saving for retirement can become a daunting and often neglected task.
In addition to the well-known fact that these outdated portals give an insecure and untrustworthy feeling, they also miss the bigger issue. Former Harvard Business Professor, Theodore Levitt, is cited in Clayton Christensen's book Competing Against Luck as having said "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole." It is by this same principle that Turbotax aims to unburden the user by completing as much of their taxes as possible automatically.
Concept
It's no surprise why companies like Birchbox or Stitch Fix, who make things easy by conveniently delivering premium goods to your doorstep, are so successful: there is limited effort and time consumption on the behalf of the customer. InvesTORO is my concept for bringing premium equities and bonds to users' fingertips with a design consciously modeled after Nir Eyal's tips for creating habit-forming products mentioned in his book, Hooked.
The trigger would be receiving daily messages from your personal investor on the latest hot stocks they've acquired on your behalf. The action would be opening the app to learn more and check on your portfolio. The variable reward would be reviewing the constant positive fluctuations and upward trends of your portfolio value. Lastly, the investment would be the account creation/customization (which I wanted to focus on in this piece), capital you've put into your portfolio, the rapport you've built with your personal investor, and any personal attachment you've accrued toward the companies of which you've gained equity.
Prototype
Your device may be too small to adequately display this prototype in full. For a better experience, view on a large desktop screen if possible. If that's not possible, you can view the prototype on inVision for at least a slightly better experience.