Bella PFM

Personal Finance Management research

Goals

With the rise of Open Finance in Brazil, the objective is to give people greater control over their financial lives—helping them plan, stay organized, and understand the impact of their financial habits. Bella aims to analyze user behavior and provide personalized suggestions to encourage smarter saving and spending decisions.

Problems

Brazil faces long-standing economic and socio-political challenges. After the pandemic, many people struggled to afford basic needs, let alone save money. Additional barriers include cultural taboos around discussing finances, a lack of financial education, and widespread poor habits—like consistently spending more than one earns.

Solution

To explore behavioral economics in depth, we interviewed users to better understand how they spend and save money. As a design team, we identified that behavioral design could be a powerful tool to influence people toward healthier financial habits. We realized that every Personal Finance Management (PFM) tool relies on behavior change—so we focused our efforts there to create meaningful impact.

My Contributions

This project lasted one and a half years, though it was eventually discontinued. All the research I contributed to is presented on this page. Our team consisted of 5 UX designers and researchers.

Desk research
User journeys for different personas
Benchmark analysis
Final research reports

Process

Deskresearch
Benchmark
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Our research began with three desk studies aimed at understanding Brazil’s key economic challenges and their impact on people’s lives. We explored user behaviors, attitudes toward money, and how Open Finance operates globally. We then conducted a benchmark study of the most effective PFM tools worldwide, as well as applications that use behavioral design as a core principle—such as Duolingo and Nike Training. This helped us identify market gaps and define the vision for our own solution.

Process

Personas
User journeys and their maturity level
‍

We created four distinct personas based on the user segments we aimed to support, each with unique goals and needs. For each persona, we mapped a user journey to identify how Bella could deliver value throughout their financial experience.To deepen our understanding, we also introduced a financial maturity scale. This allowed us to assess each persona’s level of financial knowledge, helping us align Bella’s features with their current context and long-term goals.

Bella PFM

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