Actionable Insights for
Inclusive Product Design
Inclusive product design can be a key lever for improving financial security and opportunity for people traditionally left out of the financial system. Below we share important product insights from our 20+ years of research, design, and testing.
Commonwealth’s approach to the research and design of inclusive financial products aims to center the needs, wants, and aspirations of people to make financial products work for Americans living on low to moderate incomes (LMI)—particularly Black, Latinx, and women-led households that disproportionately experience financial insecurity due to longstanding, systemic racism and gender discrimination.
While having access to great products doesn’t replace access to financial resources, particularly for historically excluded groups, our research and real world field testing shows that there is an opportunity for product designers to provide positive experiences for underserved customers and increase engagement through human-centered, inclusive design. Product designers can provide these experiences by:
- Intentionally designing for system change not just individual behavior change
- Designing products that meet the needs, wants, and aspirations of people living on low and moderate incomes
- Giving people agency and control over their financial lives
Rather than putting the responsibility for change on the individual, designers can have a much greater impact by focusing on changing the products and distribution channels that have been historically discriminatory. By applying the insights below—framing financial security as a journey, supporting community connections and knowledge-sharing, highlighting the role of aspirations and values, and ensuring dignity and respect in your product design—more people can be engaged in and welcomed into the financial system. Sign up for updates as this toolkit continues to develop.
We are actively looking for designers to collaborate with us to put these principles in practice. Email Gosia Tomaszewska, Director of Innovation Lab, to see how we can work together to create an inclusive financial system.
Implement these insights using our checklist for inclusive product design!
Watch a recording of our recent webinar, Human-Centered Design: How to Prioritize Equity and Inclusion in the Design of Financial Products
Frame Financial Security as a Journey
Support the path to financial security by incorporating key elements of a journey: a starting point or opportune moment to engage; a vision of taking steps along a path; and an affirmation of personal agency.
Support at Important Moments
The journey to financial security may begin at a pivotal moment that disrupts habitual behavior and creates opportunity for change. Significant or opportune moments may be social—the start of a new year or a new decade; personal—having children, getting married, the death of a spouse; or financial—getting a raise or a new job, paying off a significant debt, taking on medical debt, or losing a job. At well-timed moments to shift behavior, give people easy ways to engage and act. Forward-looking designers can even help people to anticipate a possible upcoming “rock bottom” moment, such as credit card default or falling behind on rent or mortgage payments; provide assistance to avoid this outcome; and translate the new realization into a moment to undertake a positive path.
Build Steps
Those on the path to financial security want to see and take small, gradual steps toward improving their financial situation, and be able to utilize or adapt existing strategies or processes. When designing for financial security, create bite-sized, attainable steps along the path. Have systems in place to help users manage challenges and continue progressing towards their goals when disruptions arise, building confidence. Consider design elements to enhance choice, create benchmarks of actionable and attainable goals (with the steps in between highlighted), and recognize and reward small victories.
Foster Agency
Center the user as the hero of their financial journey. Due to systemic inequities, underserved customers can feel like they, and their communities, have no real control over their options. A product that gives people a sense of control and capability can empower them to continue to take control over their financial lives. For example, someone may start saving and then feel ready to tackle their debt. By supporting agency and an internal locus of control, users will be more engaged and invested in the actions surrounding their financial situation, and see themselves as the hero of their own stories.
Example
Commonwealth’s emergency savings fund demo takes the user down the road to financial security
Commonwealth created a sample signup flow for an employer-sponsored emergency savings product for low- to moderate-income employees. This demo is informed by research and user testing, and showcases design best practices including use of journey language and imagery, breaking the goal into steps, and putting the customer in control.
Connect to Community and Resources
Community networks can be sources of inspiration, support, and shared knowledge. On the journey to financial security, access to community networks and to key resources and tools—at the right time, from trusted sources—is critical.
Leverage Community Networks to Inspire
Design systems and experiences that support building community and forming connections between people at different stages of their financial journey. Commonwealth’s research shows that when one knows others who they see as financially secure, there is an increased belief that they, too, can attain financial security. Those who do not know anyone who they consider financially secure may lack access to resources that could help them on their journey.
At the same time, representation matters for historically excluded groups to visualize a financially secure future. Such connections can be formed in a variety of ways—for example, through user-driven, shared-interest discussion groups on platforms or by providers hosting live conversations with relatable and relevant content and opportunities for people to ask questions and share experiences. Tap into the opportunities on your platform(s) and leverage trusted role models and multi-generational networks for dissemination of information.
Connect with Resources and Knowledge
Make resources easy to find and access at the moment the individual is ready to take the next step. In the user decision-making process, once the individual has decided to take action, they have often already made a choice between alternatives. Anticipate the needs of your customer based on data and/or past experience and make their next step easy, with relevant information available, so that the process is not set back or restarted. For example, potential investing users may want to confirm the difference between mutual funds and ETFs before purchasing, and if this information is too difficult to find, they may lose momentum and delay action or disengage: provide nuggets of just-in-time educational content contextually in the experience.
Example
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS TO INVESTING FOR WOMEN OF COLOR
This blog post describes Commonwealth’s work with Public.com focused on addressing barriers to investing for women of color and studying the impact of providing timely actionable knowledge to new investors through discussion groups, mentorship, and resources on the platform.
Tap into Positive Aspirations and Values
Users are intrinsically motivated to reach financial security and build wealth. Aspirations and values—fulfillment of emotional needs rather than material desires—are strong motivators on the path to financial security.
Center Goals Around Values
Everybody has deeply held values and aspirations that motivate and sustain their goals and actions. Anchor customers’ motivation toward goals in fulfillment of emotional needs rather than material desires. Savings, for example, is more than a number on a bank statement—it could be the down payment on a home, tuition payment for a child, freedom to leave an unsafe situation, or money shared with family members in a time of need. Center goals around values, through personalization and relevant imagery, to foster a sense of joint commitment between the provider and the user.
Individualize the Experience
Each path to financial security may vary, and users will tap into different sources of motivation and utilize customized processes to succeed. Designing for flexibility allows the user to shape the experience to best support their journey. Allowing the user to personalize the experience, such as by naming their goals or easily selecting and adjusting contribution amounts, can help to motivate engagement and growth.
Example
POSITION LONG-TERM SAVINGS AROUND SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S OUTCOMES
This report highlights Commonwealth’s work harnessing families’ values for their children’s education as motivation for short-term savings.
Ensure Dignity and Respect in Product Design
Research shows feelings of dignity can be closely tied to one’s economic context: families living on low and moderate incomes have unfortunately often come to expect and internalize blame when interacting with the U.S. financial system. Methods for ensuring dignity and respect in your product’s design include engaging the target audience in the design process, using positive encouragement, and practicing trust.
Design With Your Target Audience
Explore opportunities for participatory design in your process: engage the target audience in design and testing, and welcome feedback to check against potential assumptions, learn from their lived experiences, and understand their ideas. Checking assumptions is key to inclusive design: designers cannot assume people’s information or product needs based on their financial situations alone. One common misconception about people encountering financial challenges, for example, is that they need to learn how to budget. In fact, they have often developed their own tracking systems to give themselves an extremely detailed and up-to-date view of their finances. Designers can also make it easy for users to personalize their experience and self-identify their needs by designing for choice within products and processes.
Positively Encourage
Use inclusive, positive language and visuals throughout the entire user experience. Users should be able to recognize themselves in the language and visuals used in your email, website, or application. Language that is strengths-based, rather than deficit-based, and imagery that reflects happiness and contentment, as opposed to stress and anguish, can inspire confidence. In design, focus on what can be accomplished, not on what needs to be prevented. For example, the statement “I want to buy a house” is more positive and accomplishment-based than “I don’t want to be homeless.”
Convey and Demonstrate Trust
Consider ways to express and show trust in your customer, and design this into the experience. If approval is necessary to access your product/service, pare the application down to the minimum requirements and explain why information is needed and how it will be used. Consider which approval metrics may put historically marginalized groups at a disadvantage and explore alternatives—for example, looking at recent transaction history rather than credit score to approve a small loan. “We believe in you” and “we trust you” can be powerful motivating messages for groups who have been excluded from and/or felt unwelcome in participating in the financial system in the past.
Example
Through the Workers Strength Fund, Commonwealth and The Workers Lab partnered to distribute emergency cash grants to gig workers; the program design conveyed trust in applicants and funds had a positive psychological effect on recipients.
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