MoneyWise
Role
UX/UI designer
Duration
Sept - Dec, 2024
Team
Context
This project adhered to the design brief outlined in the ACM CHI 2025 Student Design Competition. Its objective was to contribute to one or more of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the project focused on addressing the gender gap in financial literacy, aligning with Quality Education (Goal 4) and Gender Equality (Goal 5).
Goal
Identify challenges faced by women college students in gaining financial literacy.
Develop a solution addressing these challenges, leveraging established design processes, techniques, and frameworks.
Solution
MoneyWise is a financial education app that provides personalised content tailored to users' life events and preferences, seamlessly integrating financial learning into their daily routines.
Read ahead for my design process.
We conducted a literature review on the gender gap in financial literacy, revealing consistent findings that women generally possess less financial knowledge than men. This insight motivated us to explore the underlying causes of this disparity.
We chose women college students as our target user group, as research indicates that financial literacy interventions are most effective when directed toward individuals under the age of 35.
To identify challenges in financial literacy among women college students, we surveyed 41 women college students in London. The findings revealed that 58% of respondents felt anxious about their financial decisions and lacked confidence in their financial knowledge.
Sample Survey Questions
How much do you agree with the following statements?
Building on the survey responses, we conducted 5 in-depth semi-structured interviews and analysed the transcripts using thematic analysis. The key findings include:
Avoidance behaviour stemming from a lack of knowledge
Situational relevance influencing interests in financial topics
Preference for passive information delivery
We conducted a SWOT analysis of five competitors, including Female Invest and Your Juno, and identified 3 design opportunities:
Customisable, life-stage-specific financial education
Catered for young users with limited financial experience
Digestable information to reduce feeling of overwhelm
Competitive Analysis
Define
Based on user research, we defined the problem statement as follows:
Problem Statement
Female university students avoid engaging with financial education because the information is overwhelming, inapplicable to their current life stage, and requires active effort to find. This hinders their ability to build confidence and develop financial skills.
Ideate & Prototype
We ideated 30+ different solutions using Crazy 8 and How Might We. We narrowed down the ideas to 5 using dotting voting and evaluated the 5 ideas using an Impact/Practicality matrix.
Evaluate Ideas Using a 2x2 Matrix on Practicality and Impact
This led us to 2 main ideas:
Scenario-based card game
Personalised learning journal
We elaborated on the two ideas with storyboards to visualise user flows and identify potential pitfalls and created 2 paper prototypes.
Storyboards
Scenario-based Card Game
Personalised Learning Journal
Focus group
We conducted a 60-minute focus group with 3 potential users to gather feedback on the two prototypes. The discussion transcripts were analysed using the Google HEART framework, categorizing user reactions into Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, and Retention.
Users expressed an overwhelming preference for the journal to the scenario-based game for its highly personalised nature and its potential to fit in with their daily routine.
Focus Group Key User Insights
Engagement with Physical Product
Users appreciated the physical journal, describing it as a refreshing and enjoyable alternative to app-based solutions.
Integration into Daily Routine
Users highlighted the importance of integrating the journal's calendar with existing digital calendar apps.
Flexibility and Convenience
Users emphasised the need for flexibility in updating the calendar and accessing learning content. They expressed a preference for the convenience of accessing learning materials on their phones, indicating the potential for a complementary digital solution.
We ideated and evaluated different ways to improve the flexibility and convenience of the journal while retaining the physical experience of learning.
Following the focus group, the next prototype incorporated the following iterations:
Iterations Following Focus Group
Sticky Notes for Calendar Updates
Personal events in the journal's calendar are represented with sticky notes, allowing easy updates.
Digital Complementary Calendar
A digital calendar was introduced to enable event updates on a digital device.
Paper-Based Learning Content
Learning content remains in the journal to preserve the tactile, paper-based learning experience.
Digital Onboarding Questionnaire
The onboarding questionnaire was recreated in the digital complementary platform for user convenience.
Physical Journal with Sticky Notes, Calendar and Learning
Digital Complementary: Calendar and Onboarding Questionnaire
Usability testing
We conducted in-person usability testing with 3 potential users to identify usability issues. The research questions were as follows:
Is the onboarding process clear and enjoyable for users?
Are users able to engage effectively with the learning materials?
Does the calendar provide sufficient flexibility for users?
Do the digital and physical components of the solution complement each other effectively?
Users were asked to complete three tasks: filling out the onboarding questionnaire, locating content pages, and updating the calendar. They followed the Think-Aloud protocol.
Design Decisions Derived from User Insights
Prioritise Digital Experience over Journal
While user expressed enthusiasm for the paper-based learning experience, many did not have the habit of using a physical journal and preferred managing their daily events on a digital calendar, such as Google Calendar. Additionally, the need to maintain both the physical calendar and the app calendar separately was described as tedious.
Improve Content to Be Actionable and Personally Relevant
Users expressed that the learning page content could be more “actionable,” with specific steps to achieve financial goals. Some felt the current content could “just be Googled”.
Explore Email Newsletter as Alternative Content Delivery
We brainstormed alternatives approaches to deliver content. After evaluation, we chose to explore email newsletters as it aligns with users' existing habits and their preference for passive information delivery.
Final iterations
We modelled the event-update flow to mirror Google Calendar’s for a familiar and therefore intuitive interaction experience as several users expressed regular engagement with the app.
Update Events in Calendar
The learning content page now contained a related personal event, based on which the learning content was suggested and a checklist of actionable steps to consolidate the learning.
Learning Content with Related Personal Event & Checklist
Product overview
MoneyWise is a financial education app that provides personalised financial content based on users’ life events and preferences. It addresses challenges faced by female university students, including the lack of situationally relevant financial resources and discomfort with complex financial terminology.
Onboarding
Newsletters are scheduled around the occurrence of relevant personal events. These emails provide bite-sized, event-specific financial content and calls-to-action directing users back to the app for additional information.
Email Newsletter
The app integrates the MoneyWise calendar with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, embedding financial learning into users’ routines.
Calendar Integration
Heuristic evaluation
Due to time constraints, we conducted a heuristic evaluation to assess the usability of the final prototype. While the prototype adhered well to several usability standards, such as Visibility of System Status, User Control and Freedom, and Recognition Rather than Recall, gaps were identified in Error Recovery Mechanisms and Help and Documentation.
Heuristic Evaluation
Next steps
A/B Testing: Conducted A/B testing to compare the effectiveness of delivering learning content via email versus push notifications.
User research with older women: Interviews with young women revealed that some users felt content with their current money management approach. However, this satisfaction may stem from a lack of awareness about their own knowledge gaps. Gathering insights from older women could provide a retrospective perspective on the challenges of developing financial literacy from a young age.