Grove Bank is a safe place for people to grow their finances while helping the planet.
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UX Research
Competitive Analysis
Chase Bank
Chase is the world’s largest bank by market capitalization as of 2023, with over four trillion dollars in assets. I hoped their marketing website might reveal a “universal” approach that I could either imitate or reject as I designed the Grove Bank marketing site.
Overall, the Chase website could have been more visually consistent. Unique navigations, layouts, colors, and type treatments made me feel like I had experienced numerous partner brands, likely reducing general brand recognition. I chose to reject imitating the visual treatment, though I did reference their information architecture and copywriting.
What Works
Buttons are large and contain strong calls to action
Persuasive copy clearly outlines product benefits
What Could Be Improved
Consistency of navigation bar
Typography and typographic hierarchy
Uniformity of brand colors
Wealthfront
Wealthfront is an automated investment service with 470,000 accounts as of 2022. As an online-only fintech company, their site offers a clean and visually attractive approach to financial services marketing.
Overall, the Wealthfront website was clear, compelling, and visually engaging. The copy was well written and used a playful voice, a refreshing change from traditional bank websites. The illustrations were informative and consistent, and prevented monotonous text blocks. I chose to emulate various elements of the Wealthfront site in the Grove Bank design.
What Works
Copy is understandable for average users
Visuals are unique and appealing
What Could Be Improved
Serif typeface occasionally creates legibility issues
Personas
In place of using actual data to develop user personas, I outlined Grove Bank’s target audience and utilized ChatGPT 3.5 to generate plausible clients. I heavily edited the output.
Site Map
After analyzing various comparable services, I developed the information architecture of the Grove Bank marketing site and secure application. I considered the expectations of my two personas, including only the necessary information. I finished with 15 essential pages.
UI Research
UI Moodboard
I began my UI research by collecting various images from Dribbble that would resonate with Grove Bank’s target customers. I focused on climate tech and fintech applications.
Color
Green is the dominant color in plant leaves and American paper currency. I chose a warm green as Grove Bank’s primary color to invoke feelings of calm and safety.
Typography
I initially began with 14 options for Grove Bank’s primary typeface. After some deliberation, I decided on Satoshi, designed by Deni Anggara for the Indian Type Foundry.
Hi-fi Mockups
After finishing my UX and UI research, I constructed a series of mid-fidelity wireframes and then further refined the screens into the final hi-fi design.
After that, I linked all the pages to create an interactive prototype. I also connected some of the action buttons to additional screens.
