Major Project
Helping Teenagers become more financially smart with their parent's support. [Read more]
DEAL!
DEAL! is a money management app for teenagers (15-17 years old) who need to work together with their parents to gain trust and independence by creating and completing custom short & long-term goals to positively reinforce better spending/saving practices to better prepare teenagers for their futures.
DEAL! allows a parent and teenager to input their own goals or targets for the teenagers financial life. Goals are timely, measurable and can include custom incentives/consequences.
DEAL! uses ‘Open Banking’ to access a teenagers bank account and monitor balance, income and spending to accurately track progress on goals and provide insight and advice on how to stick to them.
The Challenge
Finance and banking are being disrupted and changed every day. The fastest growing banks in the UK such as Monzo, Revolut, Starling and others are boasting 35M new users a year, with a large portion of their customers being under the age of 30 - millennials and Gen Z. However, the next generation, Gen Alpha - those born between 2010 and 2025, will be opening their first bank accounts over the next ten years, how will their experience with money change and vary to that of generations before?
Teenagers desire more responsibility and control over their lives and money - as they mature and live more independent lives they prefer more space and ability to make their own decisions. Parents also want this for their children as they hope for them to become more self-sufficient and reliant. However, the biggest barrier to this is trust. Parents don’t have full faith and trust in their children to take on more financial responsibilities without first proving that they have the ability to do this.
User Research
A detailed User research phase was completed to gain contextual knowledge and understanding of how children, teenagers and families interact, behave and feel about money management. Research methodology involved using a range of activities from semi-structured interviews through to generative methods.
Methods Include:
- Semi-Structured Interviews: Use of prompts and questions to lead conversation on the topic.
- Card Sorting: Interactive activity involving participants prioritising a selection of of common teenage spending categories, Parents and children will be asked to prioritise these in terms of how the child should spend their money.
- Family Work-Booklet: Selection of questions and activities to be completed by a group in relation to the topic. Asking families to analyse their child's existing money management situation and consider how it could be improved in the future.
Key Insights and Opportunities
Data was collated and analysed using affinity mapping. Key insights included:
- Independence and Trust: Teenagers desire more independence in their financial/lifestyle choices yet need to prove themselves to their parents to gain their full trust and support.
- Planning and Budgeting: Families attempt to plan/budget for their teenager, however these plans often fail due to poor spending habits, or unrealistic plans or budgets.
- Education: There is a lack of financial education in schooling or at home for teenagers. Most learning is currently self-taught or comes from experience.
Design Iteration
Initial ideas were generated by a series of peer design workshops and brainstorming activities.
Early concepts and iterations were tested with users (families) in the form of contextual scenarios presented as detailed storyboards. Each storyboard demonstrated a key feature or function of the solution used in a relatable scenario. These activities tested the viability of presented solutions and allowed for new ideas to be generated in a co-design manner.
Staying On-track & Privacy
DEAL! allows the user to keep track of their transactions and spending from their existing bank account using 'Open Banking' technology. Users can clearly view their spending and break it down by category in order to ensure they stay on track, don't over spend and save some for the future.
Users have complete control of their privacy settings, allowing the teenager and parent to agree on what details of the teen's spending are shared between them.
Setting Challenges
DEAL! allows the parent to set goals and challenges for the teenager in the form of a 'Deal'.
Each Deal is made up of up-to three spending/saving goals as well as option incentives or consequences to keep the teenager motivated.
The teenager is able to view their progress over time, staying on track to complete each Deal ensuring they are eligible for the associated reward incentives.
Personalised Advice
DEAL! uses Artificial Intelligence to monitor the teenager's spending habits and progress towards their goals. This allows for personalised tips and advice to educate and guide the teenager to better financial results.
When a teenager is presented with advice, the parent may be prompted to create new goals and incentives that best suit the teenagers current spending patterns and needs.
Matt Malindine
A creator, team player and fast-food enthusiast with an interest in start-ups, technology and product-strategy.
During my five years studying design practices at Loughborough University, I have had the opportunity to put my skills into action via two work-experiences that have been crucial to my development as a designer and a person.
Firstly with technology start-up, Pavegen, where I led design for both in-house and client projects. Secondly with financial institution, Morgan Stanley, where I sat within the global UX delivering software projects across FinTech applications used by the firm and its prestigious clients.
Currently seeking opportunities in product-led technology companies.
Major Project
Helping Teenagers become more financially smart with their parent's support.
Awards
In late 2019, I completed the 'IBM Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner' certification and earned the practitioner badge by demonstrating my knowledge and application of IBM's design thinking methodologies.
In 2018, I completed a 'Diploma in Professional Study (DPS)' which was achieved during a 12-month industrial placement in a degree relevant design role.
In 2017, my UX project 'Tandem' - a response to a live-brief considering how data in future connected cities could empower a better transit experience - was shortlisted by O2 customer experience design team.