Money Leaf

1. Prototype link (Please submit a link to a playable prototype, not a link to your design file) Link

2. Describe your project (max 150 words) Money Leaf is the app for all things finance an undergraduate student would ever need. No matter how many hours a student works, there is never enough money. That is where Money Leaf comes in. This app allowed students to manage their funds in an easy to understand and time-efficient way. The users can connect their bank accounts to the app and can create financial goals with start dates and end dates to keep themselves accountable for spending habits or financial responsibility. There is also a feature that allows students to search for jobs on their campus, all in one location with the ability to apply directly in-app. The investment feature allows students to learn the basics of investing and invest in stocks within the app using which they can transfer from their connected account. Lastly, there is a personal AI chatbot they can communicate with regarding all financial questions.

3. Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words) As a college student, money is always in the bank of your mind, whether that be the burden of tuition or inflated rent prices or cost of food. There has never been a good solution to this financial problem that students face because of the lack of easily accessible resources. The running joke that schools don’t teach you how to do your taxes is unfortunately very true. Schools do not properly prepare students to go to college and manage their own money for the first time. After conducting interviews with some of my friends on their thoughts about such financial issues and then doing my own secondary research, I found that budgeting, lack of education regarding finances, and job searches on college campuses were all pressing issues that undergraduate students struggled with daily. Thus, my idea for Money Leaf was created. The two main features I wanted to tackle were job search and easy investing. As a college student myself, I know how difficult it is to find a job on campus because everything is never in one easy place. At my college, there are multiple websites and places you have to look to find a job that may appeal to you. Because of this, I decided to create an inclusive job search tool for students to use without having to navigate tens of different websites. Being able to apply in an app was also important to me because that saves time and frustration. For the investing feature, the common consensus from my user research, personal experience, and online research was that students were interested but didn’t know where to start. Investing in stocks appears to be a daunting scary endeavor but when simplified, it can be an easy way for students to gain money in the short-term, but also benefit financially in the long-run. Because of this, I included the personal chat bot and investing guide. These are easy in-app resources that students can use for any questions or concerns they may have. Money Leaf was inspired by my own experiences with finances as a newly independent college student. My research further supported these conclusions, leading to my decision to create this all-in-one financial hub for students to use to manage their account, create financial goals, search for jobs nearby, as well as invest.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/09/how-to-manage-stress-about-money-while-youre-in-college.html https://news.osu.edu/70-percent-of-college-students-stressed-about-finances/

1. Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words) My goal with creating this app was to make it as user-friendly and navigable as possible. I wanted to create a solution that wouldn’t add more problems and time waste to an already extremely busy undergraduate student’s life. As a student myself, I know that I do not have the time to use a difficult app that doesn’t properly address my needs. Therefore, with every design decision I made, I kept this in my mind. To begin, I wanted a sleek and simplistic user interface and design kit. I used two main colors, sage green and brown, along with one main font. The uniform green buttons and brown boxes throughout the app create a theme and continuity. On the home page, I wanted to ensure that all the information was viewable without having to scroll. Thus, I sectioned off the page with three brown boxes for the three necessary sections and added pop-ups so that more information could be displayed on the page without having to scroll. The design for the goals was inspired by journal and notes apps that have post-it type notes for users to jot down their thoughts. This inviting design will hopefully encourage users to write down goals and continue to revisit them to ensure they stay on track. For the jobs page, my design was inspired by my own experience with job-finding applications. I wanted something simple that wasn’t overly intrusive or asked too many questions. The three simple questions give the app all it needs to find applicable jobs within that university location for the user. The most important feature I wanted to incorporate in this jobs section was the ability to apply within the app. Oftentimes, job applications require users to go to external websites, create accounts for each company website, and fill out all the same information that is already in their resume. This method of simply uploading the resume and having the app do all the dirty work saves immense amounts of time and frustration for the users. The invests page was designed based on existing investment apps with the added component of making it user friendly. From speaking to fellow undergraduate students, I know how relevant chatbots are in our everyday lives now. For us, it is much easier to communicate with a personal tool than going to a search engine and doing the research ourselves. Additionally, with finance, the internet has so many conflicting messages and hard-to-understand language that students cannot comprehend in an easy manner. Overall, my design choices stemmed from personal experiences with such features on different apps and/or websites as well as speaking to multiple other undergraduate students. After completing the prototype, I conducted brief user testing with about 8 people and had them go through the app. From their feedback I worked to further improve and make it easier to navigate. For instance, the investments page at first was very crowded as I was giving too much information on the landing page itself. After the testing, I decided to change the layout of the page to make it simpler and more sleek.

Built With

• figma