I was hired as a contract UI designer at Yodlee to produce an icon set for their financial management app. Icons representing various expense categories were needed to populate a their Budget app. One requirement was that they would need to be understood across global markets that used the app, a challenge especially for the financial icons.
One of the biggest challenges I solved was finding icons that most people would associate with a particular concept category. Some of the most difficult were finding icons for advertising, dues and subscriptions, insurance, loans, service charges, bills, and other expenses. By leveraging my digital illustration skills, combined with running a small association test, I successfully produced a set of over 40 icons for Yodlee's Budget app.
Approach
Some icons were selected for purchase, some were modified, and some were original illustrations which I could not find available to purchase. Leveraging the established style guide, I created or modified dozens of new icons for various categories to be represented. Using printed PDFs and online via SurveyMonkey, I informally tested a number of these throughout the Yodlee campus. Attempting to gain the most clarity of representation, I went through two rounds, testing the first group by free response for elimination, and then scoring by association. The highest scoring selections were then selected as finalists for the app.
Below are some responses to the icon-concept association test.
Working with the lead interaction designer for the app, I styled and incorporated the budget category icons into the prototype, for showcasing in InVision. SVG icons, style guides, and spec sheets were completed in Sketch and Adobe InDesign over several weeks, and a prototype showcased in InVision.
The Outcome
40+ icons were completed in a period of 3 weeks and incorporated into the Yodlee Budget mobile app.
