The Year in Review (YIR) is a personalized campaign launched annually in December, inspired by Spotify Wrapped. It provides users with a retrospective of their financial progress throughout the year, with the goal of increasing engagement and reinforcing ClearScore’s value proposition before the new year.
For 2024, I sought to enhance personalization, incorporate Credit Health insights, and refine segment-based messaging while leveraging a new storyline component to create a seamless, interactive experience across platforms.
Role
Product Designer
Industry
Finance
Team
Michael MacVicar, Studio Director. Jordan Boyle, Content Designer. Hannah Coomer, CRM. Bartosz Kisielewicz, Frontend. Alex Pallister, Android. Xia Tran, iOS. Kieren Hughes, Engr Manager.
Tldr: What problem did we solve?
While the 2023 Year in Review campaign successfully engaged users, it had limitations:
❌ Users received generic insights rather than tailored financial progress reports. That year’s approach lacked interactivity, leading to drop-offs due to static experience.
❌ With limited tracking & optimization, there was no better data on user behavior to refine future iterations.
With designs created for the 2024 product experience, a record of 85% engagement and 16% final actions taken by users was achieved from the campaign.
Research and strategy
I started with an in-depth analysis of 2023's performance, user behaviors, and competitor benchmarks (e.g., Spotify’s annual wrapped, Duolingo yearly streaks). With these insights, a structure was created for the 2024 YIR around key credit behaviors, milestones, and personalized recommendations.
Users wanted more personalised credit score insights.
They enjoyed progress tracking but found it lacking depth.
Engagement spiked when ClearScore provided financial tips and milestones.
Ideations and more ideations
Using Miro for product mapping, I outlined a direction with the marketing, content design and product team:
🎯 A Swipeable Story Experience
Personalized greeting with the user’s name, key moments from their 2024 credit journey, visual timeline of changes throughout the year, engagement milestones such as checking reports, securing new credit cards, and on-time payments, and next steps CTA.
🎯 Segment-Based Messaging
New Users → “Start your financial journey with confidence.”
Financially Struggling Users → “Here’s how you can rebuild your credit.”
High Credit Score Users → “You’re on track! Keep up the momentum.”
🎯 Multi-Platform Implementation
Ensured a seamless experience across iOS, Android, and Web. Server-Driven UI (SDUI) was used for real-time content updates for the in-app experience.
Competitor Analysis
Design solutions
Leveraging ClearScore’s design system, we created bold, interactive cards highlighting key financial milestones. Smooth micro interactions and swipeable transitions for a frictionless journey. I also designed a progressive, logical flow encouraging users to complete the experience. The ClearScore beloved mascot, "Moose the dog" was introduced into the flow for a fun engagement.
I worked alongside the content designer to create different messaging tailored to each user segment. For users whose scores went low, it was important to communicate the change with empathy and motivation.
Introducing the web designs
The web designs I created in Figma utilised a large storyline component which the users could swipe through to see all the slides. Their financial information was shown slide after slide and at the end, a call-to-action was displayed depending on their segment.
Designing the happy path
One of the key knowledge I have learned in my role as a product designer is that designing for credit and financial well-being requires being able to communicate clearly to the users.
The ClearScore users fall into three segments for this campaign - the positive, negative and average segments. The happy user path follows the flow of a user whose credit score went up or their insights are on-track. The messaging for this segment is celebratory and commendable.
Designing the unhappy path
For the unhappy user path, users whose credit score dropped, some of their credit insights are off-track or they have missed a payment in that year are shown an encouraging journey. The messaging for this flow communicates the improvement users can make and reassures them of the support they can get.
Results and impact
As the campaign went live, we watched the first wave of users enter their Year in Review stories. 126,663 users stepped into their personalised financial story, swiping through their 2024 credit journey. Right away, we saw engagement.
85% of users (108,751) completed the first screen, hooked by their own progress.
But then came the real test: Would they complete the journey?
By the final screen, 16% (20,224 users) ended up clicking a CTA. Either checking their credit report, exploring offers, or linking accounts for deeper insights. Real engagement. Real impact.
Takeaways and learnings
This Year in Review proved one thing: people engage with their financial story when it feels personal. It was a big step forward, but it also showed where we can do better.
• Personalisation works: Users stayed because the experience felt tailored. We’ll double down on that.
• A strong start is key: 85% engagement on the first screen tells us the hook is working. Now, we need to keep that momentum.
• Drop-offs reveal opportunity: With only 16% completing the journey till the end, we need to refine the mid-to-end flow with more relevant data or interactions to keep users engaged.