Anna Bartlett ▸ Non-linear Learning ▸ Financial Blueprint
FOLDER 03 · OPENED
Financial Blueprint
Accessible financial education for young adults — on-demand, not a curriculum.
01 · THE OVERWHELM
They want to learn. The tools get in the way.
Young adults want to be financially responsible — but the tools fail them. Banking apps bury everything in jargon. Learning apps like Zogo feel like Duolingo for money: generic quizzes disconnected from real life. So students hit information overload, can’t find the answer to the question in front of them, and get taught topics in an order that never matches when they actually need them.
You might need your W-4 before you ever learn to budget.
02 · THE RESEARCH
I let the research decide.
A competitive analysis of financial apps, interviews with college students transitioning to financial independence, and a user journey map. An affinity diagram grouped the notes into four findings — which reshaped the whole product.
Four findings: students want quick answers, not classes; jargon turns them off before they learn; real life doesn’t arrive in order; and even without full lessons, seeing progress motivates them.
their real words, not paraphrased
RESEARCH · WHO IT’S FOR
One user, sharply drawn.
Financial Blueprint designs for one moment: the first time a young adult has to manage money alone.
First-time financial independence
4th-year CS student · University of Pennsylvania · 21 · Ridgewood, NJ
WHAT’S HARD
- Balancing expenses for the first time
- Managing income from a part-time job
- No time to research personal finance
“Most banking apps are full of jargon I’m not familiar with.”
— YOUNG ADULT, INTERVIEW
“Zogo? Generic. Boring quizzes — basically Duolingo.”
— YOUNG ADULT, INTERVIEW
“I don’t have the time to research personal finance.”
— YOUNG ADULT, INTERVIEW
“Honestly, it’s just… information overload.”
— YOUNG ADULT, INTERVIEW
Offer free, professional financial help to young adults — in plain language, on demand.
the concept before the pivot
DESIGN EXPLORATIONS · “RETIREMAP”
It started as a game about retirement.
The first concept — “RetireMap” — walked you through a retirement-lifestyle quiz, built you an avatar, and unlocked a Duolingo-style map of financial lessons.
SPLASH
ONBOARDING QUIZ
GENERATED AVATAR
THE LESSON MAP
A LESSON
THE DICTIONARY
SIX SCREENS · SCROLL →
how the pivot actually looked
THE PIVOT · RETIREMAP → THE DICTIONARY
We cut the retirement gate.
BEFORE — A WALL OF QUESTIONS
WHAT WASN’T WORKING
RetireMap made you finish a retirement-lifestyle questionnaire and generate an avatar before you could learn a thing — then walk a locked, linear map. Great for a demo; wrong for how young adults actually reach for money help.
THE REDIRECT
Drop the retirement framing and the gate entirely. Keep what worked — the micro-lessons, the term quizzes, the chatbot — and make it on-demand: a financial dictionary you can open to any word, in any order.
AFTER →
That became Financial Blueprint — the built product in §03 The Product.
03 · THE PRODUCT
Four moves that meet the moment.
Instead of a course, Financial Blueprint answers the question in front of you — then helps you go deeper only if you want to. Smart search maps a plain-English term to the exact micro-lesson; five-minute, jargon-free modules teach one thing; an AI chatbot handles the oddly-specific questions no preset lesson covers; and a dictionary quietly tracks every concept you’ve mastered.
one task, start to finish
THE FLOW · A REAL SCENARIO
“Help me finish my W-4.”
One task from start to finish — how a first-timer completes a W-4 with Financial Blueprint, no jargon and no dead ends.
- ENTICE
- ENTER
- ENGAGE
- EXIT
- EXTEND
- END
SIX STEPS · SCROLL →
empowered, and in control of her money.
ask in your own words
TWO FEATURES · SEARCH + CHAT
Ask in your own words. Get a straight answer.
SMART SEARCH
Search a term in plain English and Blueprint surfaces the exact micro-lesson — Unit 6, Forms, the W-4 — no syllabus to climb and no jargon to decode first.
THE CHAT BOT
For the oddly-specific questions a lesson can’t predict — “Should I claim 0 allowances?” — the bot answers in the moment, with hints tuned to the user’s situation.
FROM THE RESEARCH
Users didn’t want another course to finish. They wanted a straight answer, fast — so search and chat became the front door, not a locked path.
04 · WHAT I LEARNED
Good UX is about access, not engagement.
I came in assuming comprehensive, structured learning would win. User research said the opposite: real learning happens when education meets an immediate need. Moving from RetireMap to Financial Blueprint taught me that good UX in education isn’t about making learning more engaging — it’s about making knowledge accessible exactly when and how someone needs it. And that the best designs come from honest user feedback at every stage, not designer intuition.
CASE STUDY NOTES
UX Designer & User Researcher on an individual class project (8 weeks, Spring 2024). Pivoted from RetireMap — a gamified retirement-quiz app — to an on-demand financial dictionary + micro-lessons + AI chatbot after user testing. The reframe: this is learning design, not fintech.