Empowering financial wellness through gamification
Project Scope
Role & Team
Deliverables
Key Metrics
Financial wellness is a critical aspect of overall well-being, yet many struggle to achieve it.
These challenges lead to:
Lack of financial literacy
Many individuals lack the basic knowledge to manage their finances effectively.
Emotional Relationship with Money
Financial behaviors are often driven by deep-seated emotional patterns and psychological barriers rather than just knowledge gaps.
Financial Isolation
Social taboos and personal embarrassment around money discussions prevent people from seeking help and learning from others' experiences.
The Opportunity
How might we transform financial literacy from an overwhelming challenge into an engaging, social, and empowering journey?
Our solution focuses on three key areas:
Tangible Financial Visualization
Financial wellness is deeply rooted in personal attitudes and past experiences. The Dream Builder creates positive visualizations of achievable futures, replacing anxiety with hope and transforming abstract financial concepts into tangible goals worth pursuing.
Age selector tabs allow users to jump between life stages, helping them see connections between current decisions and future outcomes
Converting lump sum retirement goal to monthly income makes abstract large numbers more concrete and relatable to daily life
Added progress percentage toward goal creates immediate feedback and motivation, even for long-term financial planning
Preset growth options (Conservative, Average, Optimistic) simplify complex financial projections without overwhelming users with calculations
Community Motivation: Celebrating Progress Together
Financial progress is often an isolated journey. By creating thoughtfully designed social comparison tools, we break down isolation while avoiding the demotivation pitfalls common in traditional leaderboards.
Personalized filters for age, location, and time period empower users to find categories where they can measure and celebrate their individual success
Blurred specific metrics in top-performer view prevent new users from feeling demotivated by seemingly unattainable numbers
'Success Showcase' framing repositions the feature as celebration rather than competition, reducing negative comparison effects
Guided First Steps: Building Momentum From Day One
The home screen serves as both initial onboarding and ongoing engagement hub. By creating a clear, achievable path forward, we lower the psychological barriers that often prevent users from taking control of their finances.
Redesigned task list allows reuse for daily engagement without dominating the interface
Added stats overview satisfies users' desire for immediate status while subtly encouraging regular financial check-ins
Progress bar that transforms into an action button upon completion creates a satisfying visual reward
Partially visible 'Upcoming Events' section creates curiosity and encourages further exploration of the app
What's Next: Insights & Opportunities
Reflecting on our journey and looking ahead to future challenges and possibilities.
What I Learned
Build in the Right Order
Don't waste time on onboarding until your core functionality works. Our team of 4 designers spent weeks spinning wheels because we designed things out of sequence
Domain Knowledge Is Essential
You can't design what you don't understand. Learning the psychology behind financial decisions completely changed our approach. Plus, diving into these new domains was very satisfying for me
Effective Leadership Guides Vision
A strong PM is worth their weight in gold. Ours helped cut through ambiguity, kept everyone aligned, and ensured our creative solutions actually provided value
