I’m a frequent user of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, so suffice to say, I’ve had my share of conversations with drivers. Aside from common topics that come up during rides like the weather or how Philly sports teams are faring, the concept of having a “side hustle” or extra gig to make money is a common theme. Why are so many people participating in the gig economy?

Objective

Enable people who are closed out of the investment class to gain access and learn valuable habits to save for retirement years. Design a mobile userflow to seamlessly integrate services that provide supplemental income with an investment fund and gamify saving for retirement.


Who makes up the "gig economy"?

It's not who you think.Through my informal interviews and cursory-level research, the answer isn’t so simple. There’s a common misconception that Uber drivers are just millennials who couldn’t get a job out of college — quite the contrary actually. There are more Uber and Lyft drivers over the age of 50 than under the age of 30. Their motivation are varied, obviously many people are solely seeking extra money to live on, others are financially stable but have a side hustle to supplement their income for recreational or other reasons.

An untapped Demographic

Considering the drivers on ride-sharing apps and property rental services like Airbnb skew older, it got me thinking…

What does retirement look like for people in the "Gig Economy"?           

When, if ever, will they retire?

It’s no secret that the majority of Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement, the vast majority of people don’t even have a rainy day fund to cover themselves financially for a few months of unexpected hardship.

What if saving for retirement was gamified?

My hypothesis is that there’s a big opportunity to help a population of (mostly) 40-65-year-olds play catch up with their retirement goals.


RESEARCH & PERSONAS

The first step I always take when exploring the feasability of a project is the research phase. In this case, I wanted to move quickly to find data on the gig economy, and specifically, Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and Turo providers. Additionally, I conducted informal interviews with nine Lyft and Uber drivers over the course of ten days. From my (very quick and dirty) reearch, I created user personas that represented demographics, economic information gathered from research.

Research document screenshot
Research document screenshot

Typically, research and persona development is more thorough and based in a foundation of data-informed decisions from varied sources. This project is an experiment that will undoubtedly require further studying and testing.

SKETCHING

As I conducted research and competitive analysis of mobile investment apps, I sketched ideas throughout the process. Sometimes taking inspiration and tweaking interfaces I thought worked well, other times experimenting with unique flows, and others sticking with native OS patterns and interfaces.

I don't claim to be an artist, so my sketches are often just enough to communicate ideas to myself and others. Hell, my handwriting isn't the most legible, so often times I will jump to wireframes and medium-fidelity prototypes when sharing with stakeholders and testing with users. Aside from my sloppy handwriting, higher fidelity artifacts are useful for folks that are more visual and have trouble filling in the blank of what a representative experience would look like.

Sketch of Investment app interface

PROTOTYPE

Screenshot of login screen of app
Screenshot of login screen of app
Screenshot of login screen of app

Prototyping with Invision Studio (beta)

I used this experiment to learn a new tool, InVision Studio — the new prototype and UI design tool from Invision. these images to the left are screenshots from the clickable prototype I developed. They emulate the onboarding process for new users to the app and linking an external account from services like Uber, Lyft, and alike.

Try the Prototype

Work in Progress

I'm still building out screens of the app with the intention of testing with live users (yes, you guessed it, my Lyft drivers in the coming weeks). I'm excited to build out UI animations with the tools provided in Invision Studio to give the app a native and modern feel.