Independent consulting engagement
Luma Financial App
42% of Gen Z have already left a bank over a bad mobile experience.
A next-gen financial app built for a seamless, intuitive, and empowering experience for Gen Z and young millennials.
Overview
Luma Financial App is a modern mobile app designed to simplify money management for Gen Z. By focusing on usability, personalization, and financial empowerment, the app integrates AI-driven insights, seamless navigation, and interactive financial education. The goal is an intuitive, user-friendly banking experience that adapts to individual needs.
The Problem
Most banking apps hand users a balance and a transaction list, then leave them to calculate what's actually safe to spend.
For a generation living paycheck-to-paycheck, that gap is what drives them to leave. 25% of Gen Z are more likely to switch their primary bank than older generations — and the switch is rarely about loyalty. It’s about clarity nobody gave them.
The Brief
Understand why younger account holders were leaving — backed by evidence, not assumption.
The client had watched churn accelerate among younger account holders and wanted to know what a credible alternative could look like if they were designing for that audience from scratch. The brief was intentionally exploratory: a strategic direction the client could react to and use to inform their own roadmap, not a spec to build against.
Role & Skills
Prove that design is a business lever.
- 01
Research & Strategy
Defined the research approach, identified which behavioral and market data mattered most, and used it to support the reasoning behind every design decision.
- 02
Product Direction
Recommended anchoring the product around one differentiated capability (Safe-to-Spend) instead of a standard feature-parity dashboard, based on what the research indicated mattered most to the target audience.
- 03
Visual & Systems Design
Designed the interface and the supporting design system — typography, color, component structure — with scalability in mind, not a one-off screen.
- 04
Business Case & Stakeholder Communication
Translated design decisions into retention, CAC, and LTV modeling, and presented that reasoning directly to the client's leadership team.
The role required working across research, design, and business strategy, and communicating design decisions in terms that supported an internal investment decision.
Research
Why "old-school" interfaces fail
14%
of Gen Z trust traditional banks “a lot” — compared with nearly 30% of Millennials, and far higher for Boomers.
- 25%
- of Gen Z customers are more likely to switch their primary bank than older cohorts.
- 42%
- have already abandoned a primary banking relationship specifically due to poor mobile app UX.
Why they need "money assertiveness"
A common misconception among older investors is that young people don’t save because they’re irresponsible. The data proves the opposite: young adults are hyper-aware of money, but feel disempowered by systemic economic shifts.
- 44%
- rely on social channels for financial advice.
- 39%
- use AI tools to manage their budget.
- 42%
- live paycheck-to-paycheck.
- 42%
- practice "loud budgeting" — publicly setting financial boundaries with peers.
The Direction
Three pillars that define the product
01Intuitive & Customizable Dashboard
Real-time balance, spending insights, and quick access to essential functions. Users personalize the home screen with widgets — savings goals, recent transactions, budgeting tools.
02Smart Budgeting & Expense Tracking
AI-driven analytics categorize transactions and surface spending reports. Automated alerts for budget limits, upcoming bills, and unusual activity. A Safe-to-Spend view shows real discretionary money after savings and fixed costs.
03Seamless Money Transfers & Payments
Instant peer-to-peer transfers with notes and reactions. Bill-splitting with auto-reminders. Recurring payment automation and scheduled transactions to avoid missed bills.
Design System
One typeface, one accent, four surfaces — a deliberately narrow system so a small team can extend it without re-deciding anything.
Typography
Color
- Pink#E62565Accent — actions and emphasis only
- Grey#1B1B1DElevated surfaces and cards
- Dark Grey#141414Base background
- White#FFFFFFPrimary text and key figures
The accent is capped at roughly five percent of any screen, which keeps a single pink element unambiguous as the primary action. Card themes are user-selectable, so the palette allows custom accents while the neutral surfaces stay fixed.
Projected Impact (Modeled)
- 15% → 42%
- Projected D30 retention lift
- 30–40%
- Projected CAC reduction
- 2.5×
- Projected LTV increase
Modeled from industry benchmark research on fintech onboarding and engagement. Presented to the client as the reasoning behind the direction, not measured results.
Deliverables
Research findings · IA / user flow · Design system · Hi-fi prototype · Business case presentation
Tools — Figma, Photoshop
01 — Hi-fi prototype
Minimalist user interface
The UI merges modern minimalism with playful personality — soft gradients, rounded elements, and a calming palette to reduce financial anxiety. Icons are bold and intuitive, typography is clean and readable, and data visualizations are informative without being intimidating.
The main menu keeps the account balance one glance away, alongside fast actions like send money, request money, and smart financial insights.
02 — Feature design
Smart Financial Insights
Traditional banking apps present data without context, leaving users to interpret their own financial health. Smart Financial Insights closes that gap — turning raw banking data into clear, personalized guidance.
Delivered in a friendly, visual format, it becomes a daily companion for financial wellness: helping users stay on track, avoid surprises, and make informed decisions without being financial experts.
A persistent home / send / chat bar means the user can check a balance and jump straight to a transfer in one move.
03 — Key screens
Instead of manual input, the system reads spending habits, categorizes transactions, predicts upcoming expenses, and suggests smarter ways to save or adjust budgets in real time.
Upcoming payments
Recent transactions
Smart financial insights
Reflection
The most valuable part of this project was translating a UX decision into terms a business could evaluate — what it costs to acquire a user, what it takes to retain them, and what that’s worth over time. Grounding that reasoning in real industry data, rather than treating it as a guarantee, is what made the case usable in an actual leadership conversation.
Final Thoughts
The old financial model relied on customer inertia to keep deposits. The new model requires daily utility to earn trust — not an app they check once a year for taxes, but the tool they use every day to control their financial life.
The market reality
Gen Z and Millennials aren't abandoning traditional institutions because they dislike banking — they abandon them because legacy friction conflicts with modern economic realities.
The strategic pivot
Shifting product strategy from passive wealth tracking to active financial agency trades opaque processes for immediate utility.
The bottom line
This is a direct intervention on unit economics: lower CAC through higher onboarding completion, compounding LTV through daily active retention.
