Sneha Karunanithi's Portfolio

GigFlow.

A financial companion for delivery workers

Overview

INDUSTRY
Fintech, Gig Economy, Financial Management

GUIDED BY
Dr. Mamata N Rao | Prof. Jagriti P Galphade | Prof. Athul Dinesh

TOOLS
Figma · Claude · Base44 · Premiere Pro

DURATION
6 weeks

PROJECT TYPE
Academic project-
Individual Project

ROLE
UX Research, Product Strategy, Interaction Design, UI/UX Design

Context

PROBLEM

Gig workers can track what they earn, but fluctuating income and fragmented earnings make it difficult to predict what's ahead and understand their financial security.

SOLUTION

Making financial clarity accessible to every gig worker.

Gig workers struggle to plan beyond today's earnings.

DEMO VIDEO

GigFlow Intro

GigFlow is a financial companion that helps gig workers understand their earnings, anticipate income fluctuations, and make more informed financial decisions through personalised insights and guidance.

Weekly

Monthly

Weekly

This Week

Gross Income

Expenses

Expected income

Savings Advisor

-₹3,000

₹15,000

₹12,000

₹500 to ₹800

10 days of financial safety this month.

Risk

₹6000

Caution

₹10,000

Safe

₹20,000

Safe

Edit

Earn More

Switch to Rapido after 6 PM.

All income in one place

Understand your finances

Know what you expect

Build your safety net

Watch Video

Gigflow

A financial companion for gig workers.

Jump to

Final Design

As part of a class exercise to understand system mapping and causal loops, my team explored savings in an account as a topic and collaboratively developed a broader system map. (Vidushi, Ashish, Ankit, Rushabh, Sneha.K)

From financial access to financial uncertainty

Through this exploration, I identified the gig-worker space as a promising direction for further investigation. Mapping the broader financial ecosystem led me to examine how gig workers’ financial security is shaped by interconnected factors, from fluctuating earnings and work incentives to everyday expenses and the ability to plan ahead. I then created a focused system map to understand these relationships and identify a potential problem space for further research.

Identifying the Core Problem Space

The system map revealed how unpredictable earnings, incentive-driven work decisions, and work-related expenses interact to shape gig workers’ financial security. These challenges extend beyond earning money, affecting their ability to understand their actual take-home income, manage everyday expenses, and plan for the future. This led me to focus on the gap between earning money and understanding what it means for financial stability.

Where it all began

Secondary Research

This research helped me build a broader understanding of the challenges gig workers face and identify key financial needs and opportunities for further exploration.

Literature and academic paper review

News and media analysis

Industry reports

Understanding the gig economy

Understanding the pain points

KEY INSIGHTS

Gig economy growth: Platform work offers flexible earnings, but workers face uncertainty.

Financial challenges:
Work costs and family commitments hinder saving.

Income & incentives:
Earnings vary with demand, peak hours, targets, and incentives.

Gig Work, By the Numbers

Projected by 2030

2.35 Cr

Earn under ₹2.5
lakh annually

77.6%

were able to save every month

45%

We usually have a sense of how much money we need to earn each week or each month. Till we come close to earning that specific amount of money, we work however long it takes, and then we take it slow, take a day off or work for just a couple of hours, watch a movie, get some rest. Otherwise, we will feel burnt out. (Swiggy Delivery Partner)

Sources: NITI Aayog, India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy (2022); Borzo survey of over 2,000 delivery workers across 40 Indian cities, reported by Moneycontrol (2024).

Primary Research

I interviewed 15 gig workers across Chennai and Bengaluru to understand their work routines, income patterns, spending habits, and saving behaviour. The research helped uncover the financial challenges they face and how fluctuating earnings, daily expenses, and limited predictability influence their ability to build financial security.

Observation + Shadowing

Semi-structured interviews

Contextual Inquiry

Gig workers interviews

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews

& contextual observation.

Platform types & work contexts

Cities: Chennai & Bengaluru

INTERVIEW OVERVIEW

If we cancel any order, then we won’t even get the INR 500 incentive. We would have already budgeted that for our fuel costs. So, if we cancel any task, we will not have money for fuel. We do not cancel tasks even if they are inconvenient. (Zomato Delivery Partner)

Instamart Warehouse

5 person every 2 minutes

Waiting for the order

Delivery workers face time pressure and fragmented income, making them ideal for studying financial behavior under uncertainty.

A small break in between orders

On the go

Jumping the signal

Ready to Deliver

Gig worker’s resting pod (Anna Nagar, Chennai)

The interviews revealed that understanding daily earnings was the first step towards achieving financial stability.

Conversations That Shaped the Design

From Conversation to Understanding

Observations from the primary research

Aspects

Tools Used

Digital Literacy

Device Usage

Multi-App Usage

Gaps

App Interaction

Payment Behaviour

Pain Points

Insights

Zomato app for orders, navigation, earnings; Google Maps for routing

Moderate; comfortable with delivery apps, limited financial tool usage

Smartphone (mid-range Android), used continuously on the move

No expense tracking, no net income view, no prediction support

Quick, glance-based usage in short bursts (signals, waiting time)

Weekly payouts via bank; uses UPI for daily transactions

Frequent phone checking, info overload, no simple financial summary

To understand the financial challenges of gig workers, I explored their everyday experiences through ecosystem mapping and a heterotopic storyboard. These helped me examine how people, platforms, physical environments, and daily decisions intersect to shape their working lives and financial realities.

A Day in the Life of a Gig worker as a Heterotopic Storyboard

A layered view of a delivery partner’s day, showing how their actions, environment, platform systems and financial decisions intersect across time.

From morning till night, we complete tasks, hoping for incentives. We work long hours, but when close to qualifying, tasks stop coming. Even when waiting, they just don’t arrive. We’re unsure if it’s deliberate, but it happens often. (Swiggy / Zomato Delivery Partner)

Voices, Struggles & Aspirations

"Sometimes if the lift doesnt work, and the person who ordered doesnt know, so they give bad reviews or less ratings, but i would have climbed 10 floors to deliver it."

"I keep shifting, suppose this doesn't give me enough money, I move to the next delivery company"

"They used to give ₹80 disability bonus but recently stopped"

"Savings are out of reach as of now, but I am aiming to save."

"I built a habit of saving 100 or 200 per day and it has been helpful"

"I wish I would be able to save for emergencies, because my whole family depends on me."

"They used to give ₹80 disability bonus but recently stopped"

Gig workers can track their earnings, but struggle to see the full picture.

Unpredictable Income:
Income varies daily due to demand, weather, traffic, and platform.

Incentive-Driven work:
Workers extend hours and switch platforms to maximize earnings.

Informal Income tracking: Track income and expenses informally using notebooks or WhatsApp.

Saving Around Needs
Savings rely on leftover funds; immediate needs come first.

The Gap

Knowing what they’ve earned today doesn’t tell them how financially secure they are.

MAIN INSIGHT

KEY INSIGHTS

Income Uncertainty

Limited Income Visibility

Hidden Expenses:

Fuel and other work costs reduce take-home income.

Financial Planning

Aligning with users’ mental models

I analysed existing fintech and money-management apps to understand their visual language, including colour palettes, typography, data visualisations, and information hierarchy. I also explored how these products present savings, earnings, transactions, and financial information to make complex data easy to understand. These observations helped me identify familiar design patterns and establish a visual direction for GigFlow.

For Gig Workers: Savings and Loan

Payment

Investment

Credit and Finance

Google Pay

Groww

Cred

Refyne

Karmalife

Colour

Blue = Trust, security
(e.g., banks, PayPal)

Green = Growth, money, safety

White / Light UI = Clarity, simplicity

Red (limited use) = Risk, warning

Typography

Clean, sans-serif fonts

Easy to scan

No decorative fonts

Visual Style

Minimal

Data-first

Clean spacing

Simple charts

Avoid:

Clutter

Over-design

Too many graphs

Tone types:

Calm

Supportive

Non-judgmental

Encouraging

I reviewed existing delivery partner apps to understand how workers interact with earnings, incentives, and financial information. I wanted to assess their digital proficiency, familiarity with charts and data visualisations, and comfort with financial terminology and money-related representations in apps. This helped me identify how financial information could be presented in a simple, intuitive, and accessible way.

Swiggy Driver app

Zepto Driver app

Blinkit Driver app

Uber Driver app

Icon-led navigation

Performance feedback

Information density

Familiar financial language

Prominent earnings cards

Weekly earnings visualisation

Competitive Analysis

Initial Sketches

Ideation

User interviews repeatedly showed that workers check their phones mainly for:

How much they earned today

Weekly progress

Whether they are close to targets/incentives

Which platform is performing better

Crazy 8s — Exploring Multiple Solutions

Design Prioritisation — Balancing Clarity and Detail

Feature Mapping — Connecting User Needs to Solutions

What will motivate them?

In app saving? Required?

Appreciation?

GLOBAL ELEMENTS

DETAILS SCREEN

PRIMARY NAVIGATION

ENTRY

Information Architecture

Planning the application

I mapped the information architecture and user flows to create a clear, intuitive journey for gig workers to track earnings, understand their financial health, and make informed saving decisions.

Main User Flow

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Final Design

Screen recording · Save flow

Screen recording · Rewards flow

Screen recording · Health flow

Screen recording · Predict flow

Screen recording · Home flow

Onboarding

Intention: Help gig workers get started with GigFlow by understanding their work, income sources, and financial goals.

Benefit: Users can choose the platforms they work with and connect them to bring their earnings together in one place, making income tracking easier.

Working: Users provide basic details, select their income sources or delivery platforms, and share relevant financial information to set up their profile and personalise their GigFlow experience.

Unified Income Dashboard

Earnings from every platform in one clear view — with the option to add income from other sources.

Intention: Help gig workers view earnings from multiple platforms in one place instead of switching between apps.

Benefit: Workers can understand their overall income more easily and make decisions based on their combined earnings.

Working: The dashboard consolidates earnings from different platforms and allows users to manually add income from other sources.

Income Prediction

Expected earnings based on past work patterns — and a heads-up on potentially better earning periods.

Intention: Help gig workers view earnings from multiple platforms in one place instead of switching between apps.

Benefit: Workers can understand their overall income more easily and make decisions based on their combined earnings.

Working: The dashboard consolidates earnings from different platforms and allows users to manually add income from other sources.

Financial Health

Rewards

A simpler picture of where they stand — including how many days they may be financially safe.

Encourages progress towards financial goals by rewarding consistency.

Intention: Encourage gig workers to build savings despite irregular income and unpredictable daily expenses.

Intention: Motivate gig workers to make steady progress towards their financial goals.

Benefit: Workers can develop more consistent saving habits and discover financial options that support their needs.

Benefit: Recognising small milestones can make saving feel more achievable and encourage users to maintain their financial habits.

Working: The feature provides contextual saving suggestions based on the user's financial situation and surfaces relevant schemes, banking products, insurance, or financial support options.

Working: The feature highlights progress towards saving goals and celebrates milestones through rewards or progress-based recognition.

Smart Saving

Contextual saving suggestions based on earnings, plus relevant financial support options.

Intention: Help gig workers view earnings from multiple platforms in one place instead of switching between apps.

Benefit: Workers can understand their overall income more easily and make decisions based on their combined earnings.

Working: The dashboard consolidates earnings from different platforms and allows users to manually add income from other sources.

GigFlow helps gig workers understand earnings, manage expenses, and plan ahead.

Screen recording · Onboarding flow

Bird’s-Eye View of the Figma Workspace

Design System

The visual style guide ensures consistency and accessibility. Colours meet WCAG guidelines, while charts and graphs support quick comprehension with concise labels. The interface prioritises scannable information for gig workers.

I organised the Figma workspace to document the evolution of GigFlow, bringing together early explorations, design references, UI components, iterations based on user feedback, and multiple screen versions. This overview captures the design process from initial concepts to the refined final interface, including multilingual versions in Tamil and Hindi.

User Testing

I tested the working prototype of GigFlow by FigmaMirror with 15 gig workers and designers across 7 disciplines to understand usability, clarity and overall experience.

Multilingual Navigation Flow

The primary navigation flow was adapted into Tamil and Hindi alongside English to make the interface more accessible and familiar during user testing.

To evaluate GigFlow, I used guerrilla testing and five-second testing to gather quick, contextual feedback from gig workers. Given their busy, on-the-go schedules, these methods allowed me to conduct concept testing with 15 participants and UI preference testing with 12 participants without significantly interrupting their work.

Testing Approach & Methodology

Each UI version was tested with users, and their feedback was documented and carefully considered to refine the interface through iterative design changes. Most changes were done along with the testing and not in isolation.

VERSION 1

Prediction graphs felt less relevant.

The Buffer jargon was not understandable.

The star icon looks like rating and not rewards.

Modified Icon to ‘gift box’

Few users suggested moving away from a rigid dashboard.

Platform comparison was perceived as highly useful and relevant.

Users wanted to add other income to this

VERSION 2

Visual grouping reduced clutter and improved readability.

The colour segregation helped in creating focus.

Few found this layout difficult as they are used to dashboard layouts from their delivery driver apps.

VERSION 3

VERSION 4

This is a combination of V2 and V3. The segregation is maintained while reverting to the old dashboard layout.

The add income and add expense button was added considering the other sources.

User Testing Overview

Participants

Time Taken

Testing Method

participants

12 /15

found it easy to use

3 /15

needed some guidance

Key Metrics

2 min 30 sec

Average time on task to complete key flows.

Guerrilla Testing

Five-Second Testing

What the users valued

Insights from user testing highlighted what worked well and where GigFlow made a difference.

User Testing Overview

PART 2 - UI TESTING

PART 1 - CONCEPT TESTING

HOW MIGHT WE

DESIGN BRIEF

help gig workers make sense of fluctuating income and everyday earning decisions, while building
greater financial stability?

To design a mobile-first financial management system that consolidates gig workers’ earnings across platforms, uses AI-driven insights to reduce income uncertainty, and supports informed financial decisions and consistent saving to build long-term financial security.

Long-term Stability:
How can consistent saving habits support greater financial security?

Income Visibility:
How do gig workers track earnings across multiple platforms?

Managing Uncertainty:
How can workers prepare for fluctuating income and unexpected expenses?

Building Confidence:
What helps gig workers make informed day-to-day financial decisions?

Check out the prototype

/ Performance-driven rewards, supported by financial partnerships.

How rewards work

GigFlow can partner with banks and financial service providers to showcase relevant offers and savings products. Revenue from advertising and partnerships can help fund rewards for gig workers, who earn vouchers, coupons and other benefits based on their work performance, incentive achievements and defined milestones.

01 Discover

03 Earn Rewards

02 Perform

04 Sustain the cycle

Explore relevant financial offers, savings schemes and benefits.

Unlock vouchers, coupons and
other benefits based on performance.

Complete eligible deliveries, meet performance targets and achieve defined milestones.

Partnership revenue funds rewards, creating value for financial partners, GigFlow, and gig workers.

Value Created

Performance-Based Rewards

Context-Aware Accessibility

Income Clarity

Predictive Insights

Room to Evolve

Personalised Financial Guidance
Tailor savings recommendations to individual income patterns and financial needs.

API Integration Feasibility
Explore platform APIs, access permissions, and technical requirements to enable secure earnings data integration with GigFlow.

Reliable Income Predictions
Validate forecasts against actual earnings, account for changing conditions, and communicate uncertainty clearly.

HCI 2026 | IIT Hyderabad

Honoured to have showcased GigFlow at the Student Design Consortium, India HCI 2026, at IIT Hyderabad.

Small wins :)

The feedback at SDC was incredibly encouraging, with many appreciating GigFlow's potential and suggesting that I develop it further as a product. It motivated me to explore how the concept could evolve beyond an academic project into a solution that creates meaningful impact for gig workers.

Finalist, Student Design Consortium, HCI'26

NID | IxD Day

The project was also presented to industry experts at IxD Day 2026 at NID Bengaluru, offering an opportunity to share my work and receive valuable feedback from the Interaction Design Community.

Future Scope

Prioritise building trust through earnings insights first, then introduce expense integrations to provide a more complete picture of financial health.

Debt & EMI Tracker

Emergency Safety Net

Overall Cashflow

Through this project, I gained valuable insights into the gig economy and fintech domain, exploring the financial challenges faced by gig workers with unpredictable incomes. I learned to translate complex financial data into clear, actionable insights through intuitive dashboards, income predictions, and personalised saving guidance while balancing usability, financial accessibility, and long-term financial stability.

Learning Outcomes

User Testing & Evaluation

Research-Driven Iteration

End-to-End Product UX/UI

03
End-to-End Product Thinking

03
Microinteractions & Prototyping

Designing for Financial Inclusion

Design System Development

KEY TAKEAWAYS

SKILLS GAINED

From chasing incentives to weighing fuel costs and choosing which orders to accept, gig workers constantly make earning decisions without a clear picture of their financial situation.

Gig workers need a clearer understanding of their earnings, expenses, and financial progress to make informed decisions today and build greater financial stability over time.

This became the foundation for my research, design exploration, and the development of GigFlow.

Behind every delivery is a financial decision.

The need goes beyond earning more.

/Hustling and Juggling

10 - 12 hrs a day

/Bundled delivery but lesser incentives

/Not sure how to improve the productivity

/No direction or motivation to save

/Incentives & tips are lifesavers

How many more trips do I need, to get the incentives?

Can I afford to skip this order it’s very far away?

Can I still reach the bonus?

Process

GigFlow transforms fragmented earnings into a clearer financial picture, helping gig workers anticipate income, understand financial health, and build better saving habits.

Into the Wild

Wildlife learning through immersion.

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