Kikoff

What is Kikoff?

Kikoff is a financial app designed to help users build and improve their credit through simple, low-cost plans and tools like Credit Builder Loans, Rent Reporting, and Dispute Resolution.

Kikoff wanted to expand its market to university students who are new to credit building. Our goal was to identify any pain points and suggest improvements to boost user retention.

Methods

Process

Conducted usability tests with 7 target users (students 18–24). We wanted feedback from a diverse group of students — undergrad, grad, international, local, and various majors.
Observed task completion around onboarding, plan selection, and feature discovery.
Collected qualitative feedback through interviews and post-test surveys.

Test Execution

Format: In-person, moderated testing (30–40′ per session).
Devices Used: Mobile phone with the Kikoff Figma prototype.
Facilitation: One team member led the session, while another took notes.
Participants were encouraged to think out loud, sharing what felt easy, confusing, or unexpected.

Research Questions

01

How easy is the sign-up and plan selection process?

02

Do users understand how Kikoff's features work and find the tools helpful?

03

What influences user trust and willingness to continue using Kikoff long-term?

Analyzing Data

After collecting data, we organized findings in a FigJam board, categorizing and ranking issues by severity to prioritize key usability and trust concerns.

Severity Level

L1: Unusable — prevents completion of a task
L2: Severe — creates significant delay & frustration
L3: Moderate — has a minor effect on usability
L4: Irritant — minor issue, suggests future improvement

Findings

Many students felt the onboarding process was too long and unnecessary.
The educational content felt lengthy and unengaging, causing drop-off before reaching the core features.
However, once they reached the main features, they were able to complete tasks quickly and find them very useful.

Key Highlights

Student's Financial Goals Align with Kikoff

6 of the 7 participants' financial goals were to build their credit score in preparation for a future house or car loan. Kikoff aligns with college students' financial goals, making it a potential market with business opportunities.

Onboarding is Overwhelming

Onboarding is long and unclear; users find it frustrating and just skip it. However, when they get to the 3 main features, 100% of tasks were successful. Simplify onboarding and enhance educational content with engaging visuals like videos and images.

Price Is Not The Main Factor — Trust Is

After completing all tasks, many participants said they enjoyed the experience. 4 out of 7 were willing to choose a higher plan once they understood the benefits. Clearly explain features and build trust before plan selection.

Great Features, But Hard to Find

Users' top two favorite features are Dispute and Rent Reporting (time-saving and straightforward), but they only noticed them after we asked them to test. Make these features more prominent during onboarding and plan selection.

Need To Expand Participant Diversity

Participants willing to reveal their credit score generally had high scores: 4/7 students had scores above 740, while others mentioned being financially stable. Conduct tests at diverse schools, including community colleges and private universities, for broader insights.

Reflection

We successfully tested with diverse UW students, but future tests should include community college and private university students for broader insights.
Participants needed more time to understand Kikoff's flow and features, suggesting fewer and clearer scenarios would improve testing clarity.
Some navigation issues were caused by the Figma prototype; testing with the live app next time would yield more accurate results.

Want the full story? Check out the Presentation Deck! ↗

Process

Test Execution

Severity Level

Student's Financial Goals Align with Kikoff

Onboarding is Overwhelming

Price Is Not The Main Factor — Trust Is

Great Features, But Hard to Find

Need To Expand Participant Diversity

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