Sketchin

Better payments, better being

Flowe helps you achieve your personal well-being and future goals by teaching you how to manage your resources in a sustainable way.

Flowe App and Flowe Card

Flowe helps you achieve your personal well-being and future goals by teaching you how to manage your resources in a sustainable way.

Industry

Fintech & Insurtech

Year

2020

Client

Banca Mediolanum

Sustainable well-being beyond banking

To address generational transition, Banca Mediolanum decided to create a NewCo from the Bank aiming to approach Millennials and Generation Z target. To achieve this, it focused on aspects that are important to young people: eco-sustainability, personal finances management, social connections and having everything at hand.

iF Design Award 2022 Service Design, ADI Design Index 2022
iF Design Award 2022 Service Design, ADI Design Index 2022

Outcome

As a result, a Benefit Corporation was created: Flowe. Through new technologies and taking advantage of the new PSD2 regulation it is able to provide new services beyond banking and new experiences starting from people’s needs; a lifestyle companion that, knowing its users, accompanies them in their daily lives and in their path of personal growth.

active users in 7 days
16K
app store rating
4.7/5
minutes on-boarding
eight

Built around people’s needs

After a series of analysis, we came to the conclusion that more than a matter of demographics, it was necessary to focus the design on people that were currently living under economic dependence or subsistence, a situation strongly characterized by uncertainty on the future and financial insecurity. Flowe has therefore become a "companion app" that allows people to plan for their future and learn how to reach short and long term goals; these needs were found during the research phase and allowed us to build the minimum subset of functionalities (MVP).

Interface view of your savings on Flowe App

Innovation is value + experience

Starting from the definition of the target and Flowe’s value proposition, we supported the company to create a product that stood out from the market in terms of visual appearance and language ( creating a unique vocabulary and a distinctive identity for the app’s chatbot), all ensuring the compliance with PSD2 rules.

Many of the choices that led us to the app's first release were guided by combining value for the business (e.g. acquisition of new customers), value for people and development complexity.

  • Fast onboarding for children under 18
    Account subscription through the least number of steps, remaining compliant with current PSD2 regulations.
  • Easy management and consciousness of your money
    Fast payments, shared expenses and common funds management in a simple guided way while maintaining a high level of security.
  • Behavioural analysis for savings education
    Increasing Awareness of one’s own consumption to reduce their environmental impact, with targeted suggestions to improve savings habits.
  • Rewards to encourage virtuous user behavior
    A gamification system (badges, points, levels, gems) to encourage positive behavior (pro safety, eco, well-being).
  • Expenses planning and shared savings objectives
    Creation of personal or shared savings wallets to achieve a personal or common goal by planning your future expenses.
  • Contents and tips to improve well-being
    Interactive videos and courses to develop your personal well-being and challenges to motivate people to have less impact on the planet.
In-app representation of fast payment sections, management of shared expenses and creation of common coffers
Visualisation of savings portfolio in app to reach a personal goal

👏 Thanks to our friends at Illo who designed more than 200 assets building up the entire illustration system around the theme of sustainability.

Continuous improvement through user feedback

During the project we managed a design backlog with about 540 user stories, designing flows, wireframes, mockups and design systems of over 200 elements to optimize development times.

We collaborated closely with the Development team and created over 30 interactive prototypes that we tested with 70 users in iterative Agile Test cycles in order to increase the usability of the product and exceed people's expectations.

Agile Iterative testing of prototypes of functionalities realised in the project phase
Overview main mobile interfaces of the Flowe App

Design grows within

By closely collaborating with the client’s team through Participatory Design techniques, we supported Flowe to build a design unit in four months (including Hiring), to internalize the skills (6 people overall) necessary to autonomously manage the next product evolution.

We co-created the hiring model by reducing the risk of temporary or insecure hiring, trained the internal team on Agile practices, methods and tools and defined a scalable workflow from design to development to reduce waste and optimize investments.

Sketchin team activities with Flowe's internal team through participatory design techniques

Design-driven complexity management

To create an economically sustainable ecosystem, we have supported the company to define the partner integration model in line with their business objectives and their new value proposition.

We have also accelerated decision-making processes by collaborating with over 20 external partners and suppliers to anticipate possible risks and constraints related to product design and to avoid reworking the final design with consequent additional costs.

Graphical representation of the Flowe ecosystem with external partners and suppliers

Flowe advocates for the idea that a different and sustainable way of banking and is possible when people and their aspirations are at the very center of the project. The challenge of generational transition was turned into an educational path for younger virtuous people who need a daily companion.

Project Numbers

weekly iterations
53
designers of Sketchin team
10
stakeholders involved
200+
wireframes
1600
visual mockups
750+

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