SappySavvy

Inspiration

We are inspired by college students being stressed about finances, wanting to become more financially literate, and providing accessible solutions for students with ADHD through our minimalistic and simple UI.

What it does

A digital piggy bank that makes it fun for you to save by growing your "animals" as you save more.

How we built it

We ideated on a Figjam and wire framed it on Figma. After designing we sent it to the CS members of our team and they coded it on Svelte and hosted on Firebase using Firestore as our main database.

Challenges we ran into:

Balancing Features with Simplicity:

Our biggest challenge was balancing feature richness with simplicity, as we needed to create a tool that was both functional and approachable for financially inexperienced users. It was tempting to add extra features, but we had to keep the interface clean and avoid overwhelming users.

Time Constraints and Rapid Decision-Making:

The hackathon’s tight schedule forced us to make quick decisions. This sometimes meant choosing less complex solutions, which was challenging when we had ambitious goals for functionality. We had to prioritize features that aligned most closely with our core mission and user needs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of:

Completing the program, generating a working prototype, designing the UI/UX

The Future of Sappy Savvy:

As Sappy Savvy grows, we envision expanding into a “digital piggy bank” that transitions with users into adulthood. Future developments include advanced budgeting tools, customizable reminders, and features that address more complex financial needs as users’ financial knowledge and independence grow. The Importance of Focused, User-Centered Design: Developing Sappy Savvy in a fast-paced hackathon environment taught us to put the user’s needs first. By honing in on specific challenges faced by our target users, like financial stress and inexperience, we created an app that feels intuitive and helpful without overwhelming the user.

Rapid Prototyping & Iteration: Hackathons demand quick iteration. We learned how to rapidly prototype, test, and refine features, which helped us stay agile and responsive to design challenges as they arose. We also learned to abstract and identify what are our key features that we should include in the MVP.

Collaboration & Role Clarity: With limited time, we quickly learned the importance of effective collaboration and role division. Each team member’s strengths were utilized fully, allowing us to maximize productivity and focus on delivering a working prototype. What we learned