✦ CAPIWISE
Designing Confidence Before Capital - Investing App
Capiwise is a fintech learning platform designed to help beginner investors move from curiosity to confidence. Instead of focusing on trading tools, the project explored how education, validation, and safe practice could reduce the fear that prevents many people from starting. The goal was not to simplify investing, but to design an experience that makes users feel ready to invest.
team
Nouran Mansour, Marta Valdes, Rodrigo Orozco
duration
2 weeks
role
Product Designer (UX/UI, Research, Strategy)
industry
Fintech / Education
tools
Figma, FigJam, Chatgpt
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT
Some people want to start investing, but many never do. Not because they lack interest — but because the first step feels confusing, risky, and overwhelming.
Scroll through Reddit, TikTok, or YouTube for five minutes and you'll find thousands of people asking the same question: "I want to invest, but I don't know where to start." That line kept coming up in our research, over and over, almost word for word. It became the anchor for everything we designed.
The challenge wasn't to build better trading tools. It was to close the gap between interest and confidence.
ACCESS IS EASY,STARTING IS NOT.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
I also looked at where Capiwise could sit in the market. Competitors like Robinhood, eToro, and Betterment all offer investing platforms, but almost none offer structured education first. Most assume you already know what you're doing. That gap was the opportunity.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
We started where our users already were — social media. And what we found wasn't surprising, but it was telling.
Financial advice is everywhere online, but it's fragmented, contradictory, and often designed to entertain rather than educate. According to Motley Fool research, 91% of millennials and 100% of Gen Z turn to social media as a primary source for investment information — more than financial advisors or traditional media combined. The information exists. The problem is knowing what to trust.
USER INTERVIEWS
We ran interviews and surveys to dig deeper into the emotional barriers, not just the practical ones. Three patterns emerged clearly:
70% of survey respondents said not understanding how investing works was their biggest barrier to starting — not lack of money, not lack of interest.
5 out of 6 interviewees said they were curious about investing but blocked by fear of making mistakes with real money.
84K likes on a single TikTok promoting contradictory financial advice — viral reach without any credibility filter.
WRONG PROBLEM. RIGHT PIVOT.
If beginners don't lack motivation but lack confidence, then the product shouldn't start with trading tools. It should start with learning.
This reframe changed how I approached the entire solution. I wasn't designing an investment app with an education section bolted on. I was designing an education-first experience that could eventually grow into investing — once users felt ready.
TESTED. BROKE. FIXED. REPEAT.
We ran concept and usability testing with mid-fidelity prototypes to validate both the idea and the execution. The feedback was honest and useful:
Users loved the quizzes after each lesson — but expected more varied learning formats. The simulation worked well in principle, but beginners weren't sure what to do once they arrived there. The Reality Check credibility score landed well, but the explanation felt too long.
Each piece of feedback pointed to the same underlying issue: clarity of next step. I had solved the emotional problem (fear, confusion, distrust) but left some gaps in the navigational logic — what do I do now?
In response, I simplified the simulation entry experience and added guided prompts that suggest a first action and trimmed the Reality Check explanation and introduced a collapsible detail section for users who wanted more. I also added an AI co-pilot throughout the Learning Hub to answer follow-up questions in context — so users could ask "but what does that actually mean?" without leaving the lesson.
LEARN IT. CHECK IT. PRACTICE IT.
Thus we structured the MVP around three core pillars, each addressing a specific barrier we found in research:
| LEARNING HUB — A short, structured modules that explain investing basics in plain language. Users progress through concepts like risk, diversification, and portfolio building before ever touching a real trade. Because 70% of people don't start because they don't understand — we made understanding the first product.
| REALITY CHECK — A tool that lets users paste any financial claim they've seen online , a TikTok tip, a Reddit post, a YouTube prediction, and get an evidence-based credibility score back. The insight here was direct: users encounter financial advice at the moment of consumption, not later on a separate platform. Reality Check meets them there. Instead of telling people not to trust social media, I gave them a way to verify it themselves.
| SIMULATION SANDBOX — A safe environment to practice investing with virtual money before touching real funds. This directly addressed the fear of making mistakes that 5 out of 6 interviewees described. You can't build confidence without practice, and practice shouldn't cost you anything.
BUILT FOR THE one WHO SAID "NOT YET."
The final prototype was designed around one idea: confidence grows through practice.
Users move through structured lessons, earn XP by completing quizzes, and turn those rewards into virtual money that can be used inside the Simulation Sandbox.This allows beginners to experiment, make mistakes, and learn without real financial risk.
A Reality Check tool stays available across the product to help users verify information before acting.
The visual style is dark and confident, intentionally different from typical fintech, because this product is built for people who never felt comfortable with investing.
REFLECTION
Capiwise shifted my thinking from designing features to shaping product strategy. The core challenge wasn’t usability, but market readiness—helping beginners move from interest to confident action. This led to an education-first model that aligns with both user needs and a scalable GTM approach, where trust and learning become the entry point rather than transactions.
Designing for both US and GCC contexts also highlighted the importance of flexibility across different levels of financial literacy and expectations. It reinforced that strong products are not just usable, but adaptable—balancing user confidence, business viability, and market positioning from the start.