Category: UI DESIGN

Project Overview

Young adults want to be financially responsible, but struggle to access relevant financial education, and existing financial tools are too complicated to use. Financial Blueprint transforms challenging financial jargon into lessons accessible to young adults navigating financial independence for the first time. Unlike generic financial learning apps that rely on boring quizzes, Financial Blueprint is a comprehensive financial dictionary and a fun, personalized learning platform that allows users to confidently tackle specific financial challenges through targeted micro-lessons and AI-powered assistance.

Key Impacts:

• Eliminated the overwhelm of traditional financial education by creating an on-demand learning experience that adapts to users' immediate needs rather than forcing them through a sequential curriculum

High Level - The Challenge

Introduction / Background

This project began when my professor shared a personal story of feeling overwhelmed by banking jargon and making costly mistakes due to a lack of accessible financial education. This became a core project for the class:  to find a solution to making financial literacy accessible and easy to understand by exploring how we can make a meaningful difference for young adults entering financial independence.

Overarching Problem / Opportunity

Despite young adults’ desire to be financially responsible, young adults struggle to access relevant financial education. In fact, according to Allianz, "62% of Americans say they are worried another economic crisis could derail their retirement strategy, and among age cohorts, millennials are the least likely to say they're saving enough for retirement (Ponciano)." Yet, existing solutions fail to meet their immediate needs. Traditional banking apps overwhelm users with intimidating jargon, while financial education platforms like Zogo offer generic, Duolingo-style experiences that feel disconnected from real-world situations.

Our research uncovered that young adults face information overload so they can't find answers to specific financial questions when they need them most, struggle to understand financial information due to the mismatched logical progression (e.g., students might need to understand W-4 forms before learning basic budgeting, depending on their circumstances), and use apps that are not personalized and cover topics they may already know or don't need at their current life stage.

This creates a critical gap where financially motivated young adults remain overwhelmed and unprepared, unable to progress toward true financial confidence and independence despite their willingness to learn.

Final Solution

Smart Search & Instant Access

• Intelligent search functionality that surfaces relevant lessons and explanations based on the user’s previous search queries. This provides users with a personalized experience that answers their specific financial questions immediately at that moment in time, without navigating complex menu structures or sequential curriculum.

  
  

  

Micro-Learning Modules

• 5-minute focused lessons that tackle specific financial challenges (e.g., completing W-4 forms) with clear, jargon-free explanations. This reduces information overload by providing digestible, actionable guidance.

AI-Powered Chatbot

• Conversational AI assistant that provides personalized guidance for unique financial scenarios beyond standard preset financial lessons. This supports students when they are navigating unfamiliar financial decisions.

Financial Dictionary & Progress Tracking

• A visual progress system that tracks mastered concepts while serving as a searchable reference tool, allowing young adults to track their progress over time. This motivates them to keep learning and builds their confidence through achieving concepts.

Research

Our goal was to better understand a student's financial state, relationship with money, current ways to learn new financial concepts, and challenges with financial education.

Financial Planning Competitive Analysis

• I needed to understand existing financial products' functionality, onboarding experiences, and relationship maintenance strategies. By documenting what features are offered and how these services engage users long-term, I could identify specific gaps in the market for college students' needs.

User Interviews with College Students (3 interviews)

• College students represent a unique demographic transitioning to financial independence for the first time. Unlike older adults who may have established financial habits, this group faces immediate, urgent financial decisions (like understanding W-4 forms for their first job) while lacking foundational knowledge. Direct interviews were essential to discover authentic pain points and design opportunities specific to this life stage, revealing the disconnect between what existing services offer and students' actual needs during their transition to financial independence.

Financial Planning User Journey

• I needed to map how college students interact with financial services beyond just apps, from opening bank accounts in physical branches to calling customer support when confused about fees. Understanding these connected experiences revealed where students fall through the cracks and how disconnected touchpoints create frustration during their financial learning journey.

Research Insights

What I Learned from Talking to Users
After interviewing college students and analyzing existing financial apps, I conducted an affinity diagram to organize and find patterns across all my interview notes and observations. Affinity mapping helped me group similar user pain points together and identify the most common themes that became my key insights.

These were the four key problems I discovered: 

Students Want Quick Answers, Not Full Classes
Students don’t want long financial education courses. When they ask, “How do I fill out a W-4?” They want a quick answer. Most financial apps make them sit through lessons they don’t need, which frustrates them and makes them stop using the app.

Complicated Words Turn Students Off
Big financial terms like “diversification” or “compound interest” confuse and discourage students. Instead of learning, they give up because understanding the term definition is a barrier

Real Life Doesn’t Happen in Order
Financial apps often teach topics step by step (budgeting → saving → investing). But students face money issues in random order. For example, someone might need to understand their paycheck before budgeting, or figure out loans before credit cards.

Students Like Seeing Their Progress
Even if they don’t want full lessons, students enjoy tracking how much they’ve learned. Seeing progress motivates them to keep going without feeling like they’re in a boring class.

Design

Design Ideation

I created storyboards to do an initial design ideation and to help visualize how the financial blueprint would shape.

I explored multiple approaches to financial education, from gamified learning paths to traditional course structures. My initial concept, "RetireMap," focused on sequential learning through an avatar-guided map experience with extensive onboarding quizzes. I prioritized this approach because I assumed users would want comprehensive, structured financial education similar to traditional academic models. However, user testing revealed critical flaws in this approach, which we will discuss

Design Iterations

Eliminating Sequential Structure
Based on the paper prototypes for testing, we discovered that users found the map-based progression confusing and irrelevant to their immediate needs. We moved to a dictionary-style approach, letting users access any lesson based on their current situation rather than following a fixed path.

Search Functionality
From the testing on our low-fidelity designs, we discovered that users expected to find specific information quickly, but the search function wasn’t prominent enough so we made search a central feature so users could easily locate immediate answers.

Accessibility & Visual Design

From the testing on our low-fidelity designs, we discovered that the initial purple and green color scheme created poor contrast and readability issues. Testing revealed that participants found the interface visually overwhelming. Thus, we refined the color palette to balance brand personality with WCAG compliance, improving readability across all content.

From the testing on our mid-fidelity designs, we discovered that the micro-lesson format tested well; users preferred shorter lessons (3–5 minutes instead of 7–10). They also needed situational help with immediate financial tasks, not broad financial education. Therefore, we organized content around situational needs and shortened lesson chunks for quicker consumption.

Design Solution

This led to Financial Blueprint - a comprehensive financial learning platform that transforms challenging financial jargon into accessible micro-lessons and AI-powered assistance. Unlike generic financial learning apps that rely on boring quizzes, Financial Blueprint is a fun, personalized learning platform that allows users to confidently tackle specific financial challenges through targeted micro-lessons and on-demand support. The platform features a visual progress tracker that celebrates learning milestones, a searchable Financial Dictionary for instant clarification, and a Chat Bot assistant that provides judgment-free guidance tailored to individual financial circumstances and knowledge levels.

[insert high-fidelity mockup]

Evaluation/Testing

Iterative User Testing

• I conducted high-fi prototype testing with my three interview participants (Lauren, Saul, and Sheng) to validate whether the Global Mode features solved their music discovery needs. This final testing phase was crucial to ensure the interactive map and translation features worked intuitively for users with different listening behaviors.

[Insert hi-fi screens]

If I had more time (hypothetically), I would conduct the following tests to improve the Financial Blueprint,

• Longitudinal usability studies tracking how users interact with the app over 30-60 days to measure actual learning retention and behavior change

• A/B testing comparing the dictionary-style approach against traditional sequential learning to quantify the effectiveness difference

• Analytics integration to measure key metrics like time-to-find-information, lesson completion rates, and AI chatbot resolution rates

• Follow-up interviews with users after they've used the app for real financial decisions to assess confidence levels and practical application

Reflection

Based on user testing feedback and research insights, this solution would potentially deliver:

• Empowerment: Users expressed that this approach would help them feel more confident tackling immediate financial challenges without feeling overwhelmed by comprehensive financial planning

• Accessibility: Testing showed that plain-language explanations and targeted micro-lessons made complex financial concepts more approachable for college students

• Efficiency: Users responded positively to the 5-minute lesson format, indicating it would fit into their existing schedules while providing actionable knowledge they could immediately apply

Personal Reflection

Question Your Assumptions Early and Often

This project fundamentally changed my understanding of educational design. I initially assumed that comprehensive, structured learning would be most effective, but user research revealed that real learning happens when education meets immediate need.

Good UX Design is About Access, Not Engagement

The most valuable insight was recognizing that good UX design in education isn't about making learning more engaging; it's about making knowledge accessible exactly when and how users need it. This principle now influences how I approach any design challenge involving information architecture and user empowerment.

User Research Beats Personal Opinions Every Time

Moving from RetireMap to Financial Blueprint taught me to prioritize user research over personal assumptions and to design for real user behaviors rather than idealized learning scenarios.

Iteration Based on Feedback Creates Better Solutions

The systematic testing approach at each design stage, from paper prototype to high-fi, showed me that the best designs emerge from honest user feedback, not designer intuition.