Erdembileg Chin-Erdene | PiggyFund: Finance for the youth, for the future.

 
As technological advancements provide the general public with unprecedented access to financial devices, people’s ability to create multiple streams of income and acquire wealth has increased. Such financial innovations like internet banking, mobile investing services, and cryptocurrencies hitting the mainstream mean people have numerous options to acquire wealth, but also many more pitfalls for those who don’t have the required foundational knowledge to utilize these tools to their full potential. From research, the financial literacy resources available to the general public, especially to the youth, are not only limited, but also lack the updated content to cover the many different forms of financial tools available to us today.

PiggyFund, an app for financial literacy with a mobile payment function aims to tackle these two problems by providing the youth with a resource that they can turn to and directly apply their knowledge in real life situations. Using design thinking and UX design as frameworks, PiggyFund is especially designed for high school students with a semi-professional aesthetic for the payment functions and an enjoyable playful aesthetic for the financial literacy classes through gamified, bite-sized lessons. The app also provides incentives for the youth to learn the lessons on their own by providing rewards in the form of achievements and an in-game currency that can be redeemed for coupons and discounts for their favorite services and products. The app also provides a social function called the “Social Hub” where students can foster a community of financially-conscious individuals.

The main aspect that required the most research was the creation of the lessons to be simple, effective, relevant, yet engaging. The key was to find a way to teach these complex concepts in a simple and understandable manner. Through multiple trials with high school students, the current form of learning through interactive, multiple-ending, and miniature games came to fruition. The simplicity and engagement of the UX and its content allows for current students to learn essential financial concepts on-the-go. Though the slightly more adult aesthetic of the payment function required a few iterations of its own, the current form is meant to prepare young users to the multitude of professional apps in the real world.

The long term vision of this app is to include the entire K-12 system and provide youth an app that “grows” with them, with subjects of lessons and functionality increasing in complexity with every year until they are fully ready for the real world by the time they finish their education. Currently, the app aims solely at the high school demographic, providing users a glimpse of the full range of functions that will be available to the older students. By ensuring that the youth become financially independent users by the time they reach adulthood, we can be sure that the future generations of families of any race and background an equal opportunity to learn and develop their financial foundation for generations to come.