Piggy Bank
Live Brief for Virgin Money
Collaborative Undergraduate Degree Project with Sam Poulter and Joel Warden
Personal Role: UI/UX Designer
January to March 2017
We were given an open live brief from Virgin Money, which was to think about the future possibility of a cashless society. We looked at different areas that could be effected by this, such as younger people keeping track of their money and homeless people or charities receiving money without physical donations or charity pots. Ultimately, we settled on how children would be taught about the value of money without physical cash.
After discussion about this area, we realised that when we were taught about the value of money as children, it was by physically seeing and holding it that we were able to register the value of each coin, a vital interaction that would be removed in a cashless society. Our response was to develop an application that would educate, entertain and most importantly, allow children to receive, spend and save money.
Our target audience was between 4 and 10 years old, so we conducted research into the familiarity of these ages with technology, finding that an increasing number of young children had access to an iPad or other tablet in the family home. This led to us devising a plan for two separate applications that would be able to communicate with each other, one for the parent on their smartphone, and another for the child on the family tablet.
The core of our idea was that instead of the physical metaphor of cash, children would learn the value of their money by completing chores to save up for different spending goals. Each chore would have a set amount, allowing the child to eventually make associations such as "If I complete X chore Y times, I can afford item Z". This will also allow them to appreciate the value of the item, as they will know how hard they have had to work to save up to be able to afford it.
The two applications would act as a 'hub' for the parent and the child. The parent would be able to set base amounts for each chore, update the number of times the child had completed each, offer 'one-off' chores for bonus money, send gifts to their children, view spending and saving activity for each child linked to their account and most importantly, send the earned pocket money over.
The child would be able to receive this money, allocate it to their spending goals through gamification elements, donate a small amount to a chosen charity, read different tips about saving money which are taught by cartoon characters, ask for additional chores to complete, view projections for how many chores they need to complete for a certain item, and redeem items they have successfully saved up for.
The visual design for the child application used simplistic rounded text and flat graphics to convey a large amount of information, as we felt that children would not be likely to absorb large walls of text. The colours and backgrounds were kept bright and fun, with an element of customisation being included with options for different backgrounds and characters available. The visuals for the adult application were much more toned down, using a subtle colour gradient and keeping as close as possible to iOS design guidelines.
Security was also paramount within the applications, with both child and adult versions including options for four-digit passcodes to ensure that personal and financial details were kept secure. The child application also offered custom ways of signing in, such as using a colour or shape pattern to log in instead of the traditional number-based system.
