PennyPlus

Increasing trust and delight 🤑 — rejuvenating a personal finance website and creating a new mobile app to drive reader satisfaction and reverse business declines

Clearlink’s flagship brand — The Penny Hoarder, one of the country’s largest personal finance websites — was losing market share, sponsors, views, and conversions.

As part of an ambitious initiative to rejuvenate The Penny Hoarder brand, I helped lead design and content teams to:

• Envision new branding

• Rethink our content strategy and design to newsletters

• Redesign the website for mobile and desktop and

• Create a new mobile app to encourage a younger readership

Results 🎉

• Reader satisfaction with the proposed design more than doubled

• New app and website created 3X the average conversion opportunities for organic, affiliate, and cross-brand content

Solutions 📱

Just want to see the final designs?

App 📱

Web 💻

Brand 📢

Project Specs

Project Timeline 📅

January 2023 – July 2023

• Research/discovery: 1 month

• Ideation, prototyping, testing, iterating design: 5 months

Project Roles 👷👩‍🚒👩‍🍳

Product Designer, UX Researcher, Content Designer

I co-lead a team of designers, editors, copywriters, SEO/monetization analysts, and engineers. As part of this project, I also worked as a visual designer, brand designer, interaction designer, and UX writer.

Project Stack ⚒️

Figma (design, prototyping)

FigJam (design workshops, ideation)

Whimsical (user flow, wireframes)

Typeform (surveys)

Notion (user persona, competitive analysis)

Maze (user-testing)

Problems to Solve 💥

The Penny Hoarder (TPH), one of the largest personal finance websites in the United States that provides news and advice to more than 1 million readers, was facing significant issues:

⬇️ Steady quarterly decline in visits, conversions, and affiliates/sponsors

☹️ Low reader satisfaction — 37%

🔺 Increased competition — sites like FinanceBuzz, apps like Super.com

🎣 Undesirable content — many surveyed readers called it “clickbait”

🖼️ Visually dated site — brand lacked vibrancy

📱 Lack of an app presence — a continuing missed opportunity to connect with GenZ who prefer to use apps that “offer a user-friendly experience with a strong emphasis on aesthetics and usability.”

Change is Needed💡

Feedback from staff and readers alike strongly suggested a new vision for The Penny Hoarder brand was needed — brand research showed the word hoarder was strongly linked with negative associations. When leadership changed in early 2023, an opportunity presented itself to create a more positive brand narrative and experience.

As part of an ambitious plan to reimagine and rebrand the personal finance site for a new, younger audience, I led a content and product design team that proposed creating a more positive experience — called PennyPlus — to better address unmet reader needs and reverse the business’s slide.

Project Goals 🏆

Reader Goals

• Increase trust 🛡️ — focus on the needs of readers struggling with finances

• Provide help 🛟 — provide practical, helpful financial information

• Reward readers 😊 — give them a consistently satisfying experience

Business Goals

• Increase audience 📈 — attract return visitors through a more compelling user experience

• Grow sponsors 📢 — provide affiliates a showcase and advertisers reasons to sponsor

• Discover new revenue opportunities 💎 — discover new products and services for PennyPlus/Clearlink

• Drive competitive advantage 🏃‍♀️ — better differentiate PennyPlus from competitors

Research Insights ✍️

To identify problems with the existing website, I created a survey with questions to discover readers’ satisfaction.

We adapted a survey we had first used as part of a newsletter redesign we were working on at the same time. I then followed up the survey by interviewing about a dozen respondents as well.

After surveying a total of 3,673 people and analyzing their responses, I discovered three main reasons for low satisfaction:

• Trust — content considered too advertorial 📢

  93% said they want an open, honest, transparent relationship about advertisers

• Practicality — Not enough helpful content 🛟

  88% cited "helpful information" as the most important reason for visiting the website

• Dated look — overuse of stock photos 🎨

  36% said the website seemed “confusing”

App Concept & Creation 📱

Creating a simple daily experience to help young people navigate their finances

Rather than redesigning the website and creating a new app in tandem, our team decided to we decided to focus on creating a mobile prototype to test with the younger audience we sought to attract.

Inspiration 💡 — mobile app versions of media sites like Axios and The Atlantic provided the essence of each publication while keeping things simple

User Personas 👩🏾👵🏻

To better understand how to design for younger users with lower financial literacy we created a primary user persona. Our newsletter team was already conducting user research as part of a newsletter redesign, so we piggy-backed their efforts focused on some of the younger respondents, and interviewed them, especially app behavior.

Primary App Persona

Jasmine is a 27-year-old who lives in Atlanta, works several jobs, and is looking for practical ways to save money (thanks to the student debt crisis). Jasmine was used to understand a user who would care more about issues facing people her age, checking an app daily.

User Persona — Jasmine

Demographics

• Age: 27

• Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia

• Occupation: Customer Service Representative

• Education: Bachelor's Degree in Communications

• Annual Salary: $32,000

• FICO Score: 650

Use Case

Jasmine is a young black woman who recently graduated from college and is struggling with managing her student loans. She uses the Penny Plus app to find practical tips and resources for budgeting, saving, and managing debt. Jasmine appreciates the app's easy-to-understand guides and product reviews tailored to her financial situation. She regularly checks the app to stay informed about new financial strategies and tools that can help her improve her financial literacy and stability.

Needs & Goals

Motivations: Jasmine's primary motivation for using the app is to gain a better understanding of personal finance and improve her financial situation. She wants practical advice and tools that are relevant to her life as a young woman dealing with student loan debt and lower-paying job opportunities.

Frustrations: Jasmine is frustrated by the lack of financial resources tailored to her specific needs as a young black woman. She often feels overwhelmed by complex financial terminology and struggles to find actionable advice that aligns with her income level and lifestyle.

Early Iterations / Sketches ✏️

The original goal of the PennyPlus app was a sort of condensed version of the website, with simple ways for readers to access practical information.

We focused on information architecture and navigation, deciding on several initial key categories:

• Home — a mix of articles, video, interactive graphics with no more than 10 items (and no infinite scrolling)

• Latest articles

• Reviews — staff reviews of financial products and services

• Guides — financial literacy articles and practical How-tos

• Calculators — this was later abandoned for simplicity

User Flows 🏄‍♀️

The main point of constructing this user flow was to walk through the process of how our primary user, Jasmine, might typically use PennyPlus to find practical, helpful information and what opportunities she would encounter.

We created a several flows. Here’s a key one — Jasmine wants to find information about student loans:

1. She opens the app and sees a lead article on the HOME PAGE, plus the option to see the LATEST articles, REVIEWS, GUIDES or articles she’s SAVED.

2. Jasmine scrolls down the HOME page and sees

   • Lead article about grocery apps

   • Secondary article about student loans

   • GUIDE/how-to on budgeting

   • REVIEW of online banks

   • Sponsored article about building credit

   • FEATURED VIDEO on financial literacy

   • FEATURED CHART about inflation

3. Jasmine clicks on the STUDENT LOAN article

   Jasmine reads:

   • Helpful, practical advice

   Jasmine can choose:

   • More Stories after article

   • Related REVIEWS (student loans)

   • Related GUIDES (how-to about loans, debt)

   • Self-promo for PODCAST

   • Cross-brand promotions to other Clearlink brands on related topics

4. Jasmine clicks SAVE on student loan article to come back to

   Jasmine sees:

   • SAVE icon turn solid

5. Jasmine is curious about more info; she clicks on GUIDES nav

Jasmine sees:

• GUIDES landing page

• How-to topics divided into categories (BASIC and INTERMEDIATE first visible)

Jasmine can choose

• Category to see more how-to articles

Wireframes 🛠️

The original goal of the PennyPlus app was a sort of condensed version of the website — just a few, simple ways for readers to access practical information.

We focused on information architecture and navigation, deciding on several initial key categories:

• Home — a mix of articles, video, interactive graphics with no more than 10 items (and no dark patterns of clickbait sites like infinite scrolling)

• Latest articles — an easy way for readers to come and get daily help

• Reviews — staff reviews of financial products and services

• Guides — financial literacy articles and practical how-tos, especially geared to personal finance newbies

• Calculators — readers can calculate loans, mortgages and other personal finance products

User-Testing 🧪

We tested a low-resolution prototype of the app with participants from our user research and verified:

• Readers preferred a limited number of articles on the home page

• Readers want to be able to quickly find reviews and guides

We also discovered:

• Readers did not see as much value in calculators as we anticipated

• Due to high effort to low ROI, we abandoned the idea of calculators on the app, at least for the first iteration

Website Redesign 💻

Increasing trust with readers

Rather than redesigning the website and creating a new app in tandem, our team decided to we decided to focus on creating a mobile prototype to test with the younger audience we sought to attract.

• Inspiration — mobile app versions of media sites like Axios and The Atlantic provided the essence of each publication while keeping things simple

User Personas 👵🏻👩🏾

To better understand how for existing users needing help with life in retirement, we surveyed and interviews current users. We created a survey and then interviewed both select respondents as well as members of the TPH Community personal finance forum.

Below is a brief version of Linda’s persona, a 58-year old who lives in Detroit, works two jobs, and is concerned about financial stability.

User Persona — Linda

Demographics

• Age: 58

• Hometown: Detroit, Michigan

• Occupation: Retail Sales Associate, UberEats Driver

• Education: High School Diploma

• Annual Salary: $28,000

• FICO Score: 620

Use Case

Linda is a white woman in her late 50s who is nearing retirement age and is concerned about her financial stability. She works multiple jobs to make ends meet and is on a fixed income. Linda uses the Penny Plus app to access easy-to-understand financial information and resources tailored to her situation. She relies on the app to find tips for managing her budget, maximizing her savings, and planning for retirement on a limited income.

Needs & Goals

Motivations: Linda's primary motivation for using the app is to gain practical advice and guidance on managing her finances effectively, especially as she approaches retirement age. She wants resources that address the unique challenges of living on a fixed income and help her make informed financial decisions.

Frustrations: Linda is frustrated by the lack of financial resources that cater to her demographic, particularly those focused on individuals with lower incomes and nearing retirement age. She often finds traditional financial advice inaccessible and irrelevant to her situation.

Early Iterations / Sketches ✏️

The original goal of the PennyPlus app was a sort of condensed version of the website, with simple ways for readers to access practical information.

We focused on information architecture and navigation, deciding on several initial key categories:

• Home — a mix of articles, video, interactive graphics with no more than 10 items (and no infinite scrolling)

• Latest articles

• Reviews — staff reviews of financial products and services

• Guides — financial literacy articles and practical How-tos

• Calculators — this was later abandoned for simplicity

User Flows 🏄‍♀️

The main point of constructing this user flow was to explore the average reading journey of users like Linda who use both phones and laptops. In this user flow, the first touch point Linda encounter is via social media on her phone. She accesses the website but decides to read the article later on her laptop. The new design allows Linda to easily save her article for later and then pick it up on a different device.

Navigation 📍

Exploring navigation methods for mobile web, we tested different versions of top nav. Without seeing a great deal of difference in usage, we decided to go with the simplest and most elegant solution — just a home logo and menu icon.

The menu page would contain:

• Search

• Newsletter signup

• Topics — with options to explore best of articles, reviews and guides

Navigation by topic — inspired by LinkedIn

As we set about looking at ways to help readers navigate by category, we came across a top nav for the home page that LinkedIn employed — a carousel with fun icons and text. This seemed like a great way to help desktop users.

Wireframes🛠️

The wireframes for the Express option of Take-Out indicated how multiple items could be quickly added to a user's cart. To also factor into how restaurants would handle having "Express Items," it was best to limit the user to only a few options that both the app and accompanying restaurant could rely on to have ready to deli ver quickly. Again, think Big Mac's or "Dollar Menu" items at McDonald's. These are the types of items that would be fastest to deliver, and subsequently, the most popular items the restaurant offers.

Wireframes for the home page outline all the major elements readers would find:

• Lead story

• Secondary stories

• Carousel of related stories

• Featured Review

• Featured Guide/How-To

• Featured Chart / Video

• Sponsored article

• Cross-branding promotion

• Self-promotion (podcast, newsletter)

User-Testing for mobile web 🧪

Like with the app, we tested low-resolution prototypes of the mobile with participants from our user research using Maze.

• Readers’ satisfaction with the new design was nearly double that of the old TPH (83% to 45%)

• Readers found it much each to find the information they needed

• Readers said the design was “more delightful” than the old one

• Readers preferred the simple top navigation

Outcome 🎉

• Reader satisfaction with the proposed design more than doubled

• New app and website created 3X the average conversion opportunities for organic, affiliate, and cross-brand content

Branding 📢

As part of a brand refresh, I led a design team to create a fresh and exciting visual language for PennyPlus.

Name

The Penny Hoarder was a website started by Kyle Taylor in 2010 to document the different ways he was making money to supplement his income. The site grew exponentially and by 2015 had more than 10 million monthly unique visitors and a Facebook audience of 7 million. In December 2020, Clearlink acquired The Penny Hoarder for $102.5 million.

During that same time, though, the word hoarder had acquired significant negative associations, thanks in part to the success of the TV show Hoarders, which debuted in 2009. This documentary reality program on A&E portrayed the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding disorder, a mental illness. By 2021, Hoarders was in its twelfth season and The Penny Hoarder, perhaps not coincidentally, had begun a downward trend.

In late 2022, when I joined the company, we conducted interviews with readers about the website. When we asked about being a hoarder, we got some strong opinions — and many respondents cited the TV show:

“Nobody wants to be a hoarder.”

“Hoarders are sad and gross.”

“Those people live in garbage houses.”

— Actual quotes from survey respondents

Kind of a branding nightmare, to be frank — we needed to jettison the term hoarder.

When we asked about the word penny, though, we received a lot of positive feedback — expressions of nostalgia — but also some reactions, particularly from GenZ, that most people just don’t use coins anymore.

Keep “penny”, lose “hoarder”

While the obvious solution would appear to be to completely modernize the name, the SEO team felt keeping penny as part of the name was important.

Our compromise approach was to literally make the brand more positive — taking the lead from some streaming services like Disney+, we settled on PennyPlus, combining tradition with technology.

Icon/Logo

With a new name, we looked at the penny-based logo itself. The profile of Abraham Lincoln was recognizable, but we sought to modernize and stylize the look, in the same way that Pepsi and other brands have periodically updated their logos.

Colors

As we sought to refresh the brand rather than wholly reinvent it, we kept the overall color palette idea. However, the previous primary color had been a purple so dark to be nearly black, so we lightened up everything for a more youthful feel.

PennyPlum is the primary brand color. Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. It is associated with nobility, luxury, power, and ambition, and represents wealth, creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, mystery, independence, and magic.

PennyMint is our accent color. Mint has a soft but vibrant hue, rich versatility, and a fresh vibe. According to colorpsychology.org, mint represents “tranquility, health, and good luck.”

Typography

PennyPlus is friendlier and more inviting than its all-caps predecessor. We sought to replace the former font, Roboto — which many readers found “bland” and “anonymous” — with a friendlier font.

We opted to use two geometric sans serifs with wider x-heights — Comfortaa for display and Poppins for subtitles and body text.

Logo family

While we were rebranding TPH as PennyPlus, redesigning the website, and creating an app, other teams in the company were redesigning the newsletter experience, initiating a new podcast and updating our Discord-based community forum.
Inspired by the many versions of Eustace Tilley, the longstanding icon of The New Yorker, I created a series of Abraham Lincoln-based logos

• Daily — Abe reading a newsletter

• Weekend — Abe taking a nap under his newsletter

• Podcast — Abe listening on headphones

• Community — Abe as the conversation bubble

🔭 Retrospective

Things that went well, not so well, and that could have been improved.

What went well

🔑 Insights from data are key. I got some great insights from survey and interview research that made a big difference in the design. Definitely want to continue using data to drive decisions.

👷‍♂️ Different roles. I enjoyed being able to play multiple roles (UX Designer, UX researcher, UI designer, Brand designer) to reach a solution.

🧪 Early-stage testing allowed us to back up decisions with real data. We were more confident with the project's feasibility as a result of the test.

Could have been improved

• Some of the survey questions could have been structured better to reach better insights

Thanks for taking the time to read this case study.

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