FinGrow: Design Sprint & Interactive prototype
The Problem
Financial education for the youth is a challenge because young people are not generally not interested in or engaged by finance topics. Our goal was to design an interactive experience for teenagers that educates them on personal finance.
The final product we arrived at aims to take a subject that is under-taught to teens and present it in an engaging and accessible fashion. Our team, including myself, was made up of 3 members of the Interactive Media and Communication (ICM) program at Quinnipiac University.
Solution
Our team rigorously followed the steps for a design sprint. We determined design elements that aimed to maximize the time that users would be on our application through curating specific game elements. The thought process behind this is that the longer users are on the app, the more they will learn about finance, which will get them closer to the ultimate goal of users reaching financial literacy.
The primary feedback that we received from testing was that users were easily able to navigate and interact with the prototype interface. Based on the interface, text, and designs they were able to intuitively make sense of the prototype and game concepts. All 3 users from testing said they would’ve liked to see a more cohesive theme throughout the application.
Process
Activities:
Lightning Demo
4-Step Sketch Exercise
Speed Critiques & Voting
User Flows
Storyboarding
Prototyping
Testing
Following design sprint facilitation guidelines, our group discussed the minimum viable product (MVP) for the application we wanted to develop. This is an essential step in getting the product to a testable state. Following this, each team member conducted brief research on existing applications, mobile games, and finance topics. We presented our research to the group, and then agreed on inspiration for leaderboards, in-game currency, avatar customization, and more. Each activity helped the group take our existing research and work and increase the clarity of our overall design decisions
Based on our initial research and agreements, each team member sketched a proposal design for the main screen of the app. We uploaded our sketches and ‘solution sketch’ to Miro, a digital collaboration platform. Through presentation and discussion what we examined each team member’s sketches.
Prototyping
The team created the prototype using Figma, an interface design collaboration platform. The prototype included an interactive main city, mini-games, home screens, avatar customization, video lessons and quizzes, leaderboards, a friends list, and user settings.
Back end of prototyping platform (Figma)
Each team member scheduled a user test where user navigated the prototype, took notes on their experience, and answered a series of questions. The testing process was the final step in the design sprint. Through putting users through a testable model gave us great insight on how to move forward with the development of the application
Impact
Based on the sprint process and our results from testing, the team collaborated to put together a comprehensive report of the process and findings. It is clear we need to further develop the individual mini-games, set a clear curriculum for the video quizzes, and make a more detailed theme throughout the map. Our Team was able to accomplish a large amount in a short period of time through virtual meetings and collaboration platforms. We created a strong foundation for a mobile application that has a clear purpose and direction for further development.
