Design Process Book
Visual Language Exploration— Providing graphics solutions for ďŹ nances management of college students
Alex Jang 2019
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CONTENTS
Ideation At The Beginning Brainstorming Topic Exploration
Identity Formation Brand Identity SWOT Analysis Personas Stakeholders & Competitors
Visual Development Tone & Keywords Visual Concept Visual Elements Brand Poster Development
Final Deliverables Event: Budget Talk App: NICKL! Product: Financial Organizer
Ideation 06
At The Beginning
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Brainstorming
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Topic Exploration
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At The Beginning
Where the idea came from For the beginning phase of ideation, my main objective was to go out and explore problems that lack visual solutions, so they can’t help people properly. From a food waste problem to personal information security, I explored a various range of ideas throughout reading, googling, and chatting. Many of the topics grabbed my interest, although I was strongly intrigued by the financial management for college students as one of young adults and students.
Exploring many ideas was a challenge at this point because a lot of ideas flooded into my brain. To clarify the topic, I tried to focus on what I like and what I don’t like.
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Ideation
At The Beginning
Topic for investigation
Financial management matters to college students
Fact Many college students graduate with a huge amount of debt.
Problem They need to manage their life with a lot of expenses for college under a limited income.
Goal I want to help students how to manage the budget and what to do to save money.
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Brainstorming
What would be the core concept for the topic and where to develop the whole ideas? How to construct the story? What direction should I follow? I used sticky notes to develop the ideas. I used the wall as a “game board�. The main topic placed at the center, and I put pairs of opposite words which are used to frame the brainstorm ideas. In addition, I wrote down words that could possibly be relevant to my topic.
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Ideation
Brainstorming
To explore my idea in a more varied way, I picked some aspects from the main subject and used them as two axes of the brainstorming wall; “Future vs. Now” and “Useful vs. Wasteful.”
Especially the two aspects from the different quadrant grabbed my interest. To me, ‘Building an emergency fund’ and ‘Establish lifelong good habits’ seemed good points to set the core concepts for the whole project.
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Understand More Financial Options
Live Within Your Means
Learn How To Budget
Afford Handling More Money
Can Achieve Financial Goals
Minimize Debts After School
Grow Financial Responsibility
Build A Good Credit Score
Can Avoid Loan Default
Establish Lifelong Good Habits
Can See More Options Of Paying Back
Build A Sense Of Financial Understanding
Understanding Your Spending Patterns
Learn Aspects Of Loans Or Its Process
Grow A Sense Of Your Money Decision
FOR FUTURE
Money
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Reduce A Chance To Rely On Loans
Treat Yourself Sometimes
Can Focus More On Study
FOR NOW
Lower The Dropout Possibility From The School
A Lot Of Chances To Take Advantages As A Student
Can Save More Money Than You Expect
Dine Out/Social Meet-up When Needed
Buy Fresher/ Healthier Food
Lighten Financial Stress
Can Build A Financial Buffer
Pay Bills On Time
Sufficient Resources For Emergency
Buy School Supplies When They’re Required
Can Be Aware Of How Much You Owe
No Need To Borrow Money From Friends
Brainstorming
Ideation
Having Federal Aid
Buy/Rent E-Textbook
Creating A Budget
Get Student Discounts
Earn A Small Money
Saving Emergency Fund
Meal Plan, Cook At Home
Making Goals For Saving Money
Making Shopping List
Have Insurance
Try To Use Cash
Use Debit Card
USEFUL
Open Savings Account
Parent Allowance
Research Before Shopping
Management WASTEFUL
Abusing Credit Card Use
Not Using Bank Apps
Eating Out Too Often
Underestimate How Much Debt You Have
Spending Money Beyond Your Means
Spending Money As Soon As You Get It
Drinking/Smoking Habits
Forgetting Goals For Saving
Impulsive Purchases
Not Tracking Your Spending
Food Waste
Cycling Debts
Penalty Fees
Splurging
Overdue Charges
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Topic Exploration
Oneă…‘
Prepare Yourself For Money Emergencies How can I encourage students to build an emergency fund so that it can help them to save extra expenses? An emergency can happen anytime. If students make an emergency fund by saving a small portion of money regularly, they can handle unpredicted situations without losing a lot of money. I want to inspire them to make an emergency savings.
Two
Lighten Stress, Focus More On School According to data, financial stress is one of the top reasons students drop out of school. How can I educate students that having good money management skills is beneficial for their studies? Students often underestimate the situation under financial stress and think they can handle it. I want students to realize that they can lighten the financial burden by managing their money.
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Long-Term Money Management Strategies How can I promote the idea of building good money management skills in college can be a lifelong good habit? For many young adults, college is their first experience managing money on their own. If they can learn how to manage their money well, then it helps them after graduation and the rest of their lives. I want to encourage students to understand the good money management skills are useful after graduation.
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Ideation
Topic Exploration
Final direction
Keep things on track, spare more for tomorrow. How can I inspire students to balance expenses and savings?
As a young adult, college students tend to believe that money management skills belong to special knowledge. The truth is, almost every student can do it if they know how to care for their budget and finances. I want to let college students know the money management isn’t as hard as they think and encourage them to save more and spend less by sticking with small and achievable goals every day.
As a student myself, I’m always interested in this topic. Living under a limited budget, sometimes I struggle to save more money. During the research, I learned that this isn’t just my problem.
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Identity Formation 16
Brand Identity
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SWOT Analysis
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Personas
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Stakeholders & Competitors
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Brand Identity
Brand Naming
NICKL Nickel is a silvery-white metal with a slight golden tinge. It has been widely used in coins throughout history. It is also known as a five-cent coin in the United States. The brand’s story is about finances. The word Nickel indicates an image of money not so directly. The shape of the letters has a balance between curves and straight lines. By removing the vowel ‘e’ and using all caps, the word NICKL stands out and is recognizable as the brand name. It’s also easy to pronounce and appealing to college students, the target audience.
The brand name is an extension of the brand, and it can reinforce the value that the brand provides. I considered the impression and feel of the brand’s name. Money management isn’t an easy task for college students because they need to manage their life with a limited income. I don’t want them to feel guilty when they’re using the brand.
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Identity Formation
Brand Identity
Brand Background Brand
NICKL
Category
Service
NICKL is a brand that helps college students gain benefits from efficient money management and encourages them to balance their income and expenses. The purpose is helping college students manage their finances. NICKL will help students know money management is an achievable goal and inspire them to save more and spend less money by taking small actions in everyday life. By updating the information and tips about financial management, NICKL will suggest a productive and suitable plan for each student.
NICKL 17
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SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis used for estimating the informed strategic positioning. What type of internal/external factors would influence the success of the brand? Strengths Financial management services for college students is rare to find. Most of them provide too much information that is complicated for the students. Educating them to learn money management is an achievable goal, that can help them save more and spend less money so that they can live a healthier and more productive college life.
Weaknesses Money management is a private matter. Providing a mutual solution not considering personal aspects may cause ineffective outcomes. Without the college students’ feedback and usage of our brand, it will be difficult to enhance our treatment and solution.
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Identity Formation
Brand Identity
Opportunities Being a college student is an important and inf luential event in life. It is a new step as an individual. Students learn and decide many things at this moment, and it affects their life after graduation. Knowing the benefit of effective money management is helpful to students having an organized life, which is a very first step that they can make as a grown person.
Threats People understand the importance of educating money management skills to college students. We can also easily find many articles written about money saving tips or expenses tracking tools. Why should college students trust our brand?
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Personas
Who can NICKL’s clients be? Based on core concepts and ideas, I narrowed down the target audience to college students. HAPPY FRESHMAN Income
No income; dependent on his parents
House
Dormitory
Budget?
No
It’s his first year in college. He has no income. He is dependent on his parents. He often goes out to eat and drink with friends. He is also interested in fashion and digital gadgets. He thinks he wastes money sometimes, but doesn’t know how to start cutting back.
For each persona, I presumed a different background, story, lifestyle, and money habit. These unique traits were helpful to understand the audience’s needs.
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Identity Formation
Personas
SERIOUS STUDENT Income
$1,000–$1,200 per month
House
Share
Budget?
No
She shares a house with other roommates and has a part-time job. She likes to hang out with friends. She has one debit and credit card, mostly uses her credit card. Food and transportation fees take the highest part. She wants to save more money, but doesn’t track all of her expenses.
PREPARING FOR POST-GRADUATION
It’s her last semester and she has a paid internship.
Income
$1,800–$2,000 per month
She shares rent, utility fees, and groceries with her
House
Share
apartment roommate. She has a used car and credit
Budget?
Yes
card which gives 3% cash back from gas. She has an emergency savings account. She thinks she knows how to manage money.
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Stakeholders
Find the three stakeholders. Who will also be interested in NICKL?
Parents Parents care about their children and want to help them when they need it. Parents understand the importance of financial management and willingly educate their children to care about the budget and expenses.
College Staff The staff at college care about their students. They try to hold helpful events for students and want to know new information to enhance the life of college students.
Financial Advisor Many financial advisors meet families and students for counseling about college loans and money management. As a specialist in the financial strategy field, they want to know information for their family clients who have college students.
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Identity Formation
Stakeholders & Competitors
Competitors
What brands will compete with NICKL? How do they solve the problem? NEFE The National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) is a nonprofit national foundation inspiring empowered financial decision making for individuals and families. They provide financial management workshops and educate how to use money management tools.
Mint Mint is a free, web-based personal financial management service. Its primary service allows users to track bank, credit card, investment, and loan balances and transactions through a single user interface, as well as create budgets and set financial goals.
Nerdwallet NerdWallet offers a website and app that aims to assist users in making personal financial decisions. The company’s web site provides information on credit card selection, college loans, banking, mortgage loans, stock trading, and insurance policies.
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Visual Development 26
Tone & Keywords
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Visual Concept
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Visual Elements
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Brand Poster Development
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Tone
What language is the best way to describe the brand’s concepts and ideas? What messages does NICKL want to deliver to the clients? NICKL will deliver a positive and friendly mood to the audience, instead of making students feel guilty for not saving money. The purpose of NICKL is to encourage college students to organize a budget and spend less money on a limited income by participating in small actions in daily life; eventually, this will be a habit of their own.
Message
Money is a tool, and knowing how to use it with less risk is beneficial and positive for your college life. Money management starts with small and achievable steps. By understanding a priority and goals in financial f low, you can follow where the money comes and goes. Managing money is not just for saving money, but by saving more and spending less, you can utilize the saved money when it is really required.
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Visual Development
Tone & Keywords
Keywords
Priority Seting a priority is the first step when you start to manage something. It helps you to catch what is more important or less important. It also ref lects your interests. By doing this, you can see where you need to pay first and what to do next is clear.
Track To save more and spend less, you need to track your money transfer every moment. Track both required for income and expenses. You can see the f low of your money; where it comes and where it goes. This can help to prevent impulsive or unplanned expenses and to save more money for better use.
Goal Understanding of an achievable financial goal affects your money management plan and budgeting. Saving $100 per month seems impossible, but saving $4 per day seems far more realistic. Setting an achievable goal is an important key when you are managing your finances.
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Visual Concept
What visual verve conveys the brand’s aesthetic? The keywords for the mood board are: Friendly, Playful, Balanced, Organized, and Safe. Since my target audience is young adults, I chose turquoise green and yellow to represent the energetic and positive vibe of the brand. These two colors are vivid, so I also selected neutral green and grey for balance. Hand-drawn type illustrations are appealing to students. Its simple shapes would help them to understand the brand’s aesthetic. Sans serif typefaces are chosen because of its clean and tidy appearance. All caps headlines deliver a steady feeling that is one of the NICKL’s main idea; a balance between expenses and savings.
NICKL’s goal is to let students know the importance of financial management and encourage them to spend less and save more money. Green and yellow are key colors of the brand.
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Visual Development
Visual Concept
Mood Board
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Visual Elements
Logo Development Inspired by a triangle shape from a one dollar bill, I explored both typographic and iconographic solution for the brand logo. I was interested in the pointed part of the shape.
Typography
Iconography
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Visual Development
Final Logo
Visual Elements
The logo for NICKL needed to indicate the balance of expenses and savings, needs and wants, and friendliness with professionalism.
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Color Scheme
f6a31e
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Fresh
Quality
Cool
Efficient
Creative
Accountable
009999
bae1d8
edede6
ffffff
Optimistic
Simple
Balance
Energetic
Clear
Harmonious
Self-confident
Bright
Prosperity
Visual Development
Visual Elements
Typefaces
GOTHAM BLACK ALLCAP HEAD Raleway Bold Subhead Raleway Regular Contents Body I used Gotham Black All Caps for the head. The straight lines and the heavy weight of this sans-serif reminds a responsibility as an adult. Raleway is also a sans-serif typeface but it contains distinctive identity with curves and tails, I think it describes well about the friendly mood of NICKL.
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Graphic Elements I chose to use hand-drawn graphic elements for the project. The topic might give an uncomfortable feeling to my target audience that’s the reason that I would approach them with a soft and easygoing visual language. I created the key imageries that have direct stories like money, coffee, public transportation, etc. I also designed a simple circle and dots that can work as an abstract graphic element throughout the whole design system.
Drafts
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Visual Development
Finals
Visual Elements
All elements are designed in a simple way. Applied colors describe NICKL’s visual aesthetic. Narratives inside the imagery could be helpful for the target audience who need to understand the concept of the brand.
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Brand Poster Develpoment
Drafts At the first phase of the brand poster design, I used photographs as a core visual message delivery with SNS style speech bubbles.
The class gave positive feedback to the main ideas of each poster. They also stuck to the posters’ concept. I decided to keep using the copies from the drafts.
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Visual Development
Brand Poster Development
Refined
The core idea behind the posters is also the core concept for the brand: reminding students that managing budget is an achievable goal.
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Final Deliverables 42
Event: Budget Talk
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App: NICKL!
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Product: Financial Organizer
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Event: Budget Talk
Knowing your money habit is the first step to start finances management. Based on personal expenses history, NICKL provides an answer to how to begin your budget management as a student who has limited income. This financial consultation is a three-day event that NICKL cooperates with the financial consultants. It takes place in a pop-up gallery. The purpose of the event is teaching the concept of fixed/f lexible expenses and achievable savings goals to the students. The participants need to submit their expense history for a few days. Based on this, consultants will give suggestions to increase the savings portion in the budget.
BUDGET TALK Money Management Consultation & Workshop
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
Event Poster Series
I designed the series of the poster to promote the event. I used green as a key color, displaying abstract illustration for the target audience so that they can get interested in our project.
The QR code allows users to access the brand’s website easily.
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The event poster is placed at the bus stop nearby colleges.
A banner in the school building.
The posters will be displayed on the street billboards near colleges. We also promote the event in the campus.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
Reservation Website
Clients can participate in our event by completing the registration on our website. The website is designed for making a reservation. It shows information about the upcoming event, and helps the students to understand what this event is for.
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Sign In is required for registration.
Summary of the event.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
Users can edit their personal details as much as they want. They can go back and forth through the webpages during the registration.
Personal details are required for registration. This information will be used for the consultation.
A user can choose the date and time for the consultation. They can reschedule it before the event.
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This personal details and money expenses history will be used to help understand the character of clients.
The consultation will go on based on personal details and transactions history.
A user can sign-in at the website and change their reservation details anytime.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
Design of resource papers for the consultant based on the provided personal details.
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The Event Place The participant can find the building where the event is taking place easily because the wall of the building showing the event information. A check-in booth is at the end of the welcome wall.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
Check-In
Welcome wall.
Check-in booth.
Entrance.
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Check-in Gift
After the check-in, the participant will receive a small gift. It means that the event registration was successful and the name of the participant is on the guest list. Provided papers and a binder are for the consultation. They can use a mug at the coffee bar at the end of the consultation.
A tote bag and a mug.
A binder and consultation papers.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
Waiting Room Selfie mirror on the wall.
Entrance.
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Consultation Room
The participant will follow the consultant and get the consultation for 30 minutes. Each room is separated by a divider so that the participant can talk with the consultant in a private.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
A name tag of the consultant.
Entrance.
The consultant compares the participant’s money expenses pie chart with the ideal shape of the chart. They teach how to budget and where the client can save more money.
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Exit.
Coee Break After the consultation, the participant might have uncomfortable or complicated feelings because they now know something’s wrong in their money habits. For them, NICKL provides a relaxed place. The participant can get a free
Entrance.
drink with a check-in mug. Get a free drink at the coffee bar.
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Final Deliverables
Event: Budget Talk
The participant can sit down at the table and set a budget for the next week. This time, they can use what they learned today. They can use the provided consultation papers with blank spaces that they received at the check-in booth.
Take a seat and have a little moment to plan a budget for the next week. The participants can get a free drink for the check-in mug.
Learning about the problem of money habits is a good starting point to begin finance management. The participants now know what the basic concept of the budget is. They can see where to focus on if they want to spend less and save more with a limited income.
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App: NICKL!
Achievable savings goals and reasonable motivations can encourage more savings and prevent splurging. This app is designed to help students to follow a savings routine. You can save a small amount of money on a daily basis. Followed by your goal, the app automatically puts the target money into your savings account every day. During your goal setup, you can manage the chill day savings that is a less portion of money than the daily savings goal, which makes you feel less-guilty under a tight financial situation and you are still on track.
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Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
Wireframe
This wireframe simply shows the f low of the app. A user can access a slide-menu from its homescreen. From there, they can go to each different menu.
Set a new goal
Homescreen
Profile setting
Slide-menu
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A user can start a new goal set-up from homescreen. The setup feature is connected to Your Bank menu. A user can review their bank accounts information while setting a new savings goal.
Set a new goal
Push notification
Go to Your Bank directly
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Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
The app also has Achievements, NICKL, Tips, and Your Bank menu. Each menu is approachable from the slide-menu.
NICKL Slide-menu
Achievements Tips
Your Bank sreens
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Every Day Auto-Savings This app’s main feature is auto-savings. When you set up a daily savings amount, it transacts the money from a checking account to target savings account automatically. To establish an achievable goal, the app encourages you to find a strong motivation so that it makes you keep on track willingly.
Landing screen.
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Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
Homescreen
Slidemenu.
Set a new goal.
The summary of savings. How much do you want to save? For how long? For what reason? For better motivation, a user can use their photograph as a background image.
Savings graph.
It shows how often a user follows their daily savings goal. A low point means less amount, and a high point means more amount.
Transactions history.
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Set a New Savings Goal Savings Goal setup is a start point of your savings. In this menu, you can set a portion of your savings and time period for daily auto-save. During the new goal setup, you can find the motivation of your savings, and by writing it down, you can be encouraged to keep on saving.
A user can set Chill Day and Go! Day. By doing this, they can be free from the guilt when they can’t afford their savings goal sometimes.
Savings inspirations.
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Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
According to the timer setting, auto-save would initiate every day at the same time. A user will get a notification of which option they would choose. If a user ignores the notification, the app initiates the savings automatically by following the track.
A user can explain the motivation of the savings by themselves. It could encourage them to do more savings.
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Your Bank In the Your Bank menu, you can add/manage your bank account information. You can also set prior accounts for your daily savings. You can also remove the accounts that are not in use. You can access this menu from both the slide-menu and the setup.
A user can access Your Bank menu while they’re setting a new savings goal.
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Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
A user can add multiple bank accounts for each different savings purpose and their budget plan.
To use the auto-save feature, a user needs to add at least two different bank accounts; one checking account and one savings account.
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Profile You can set your profile on this menu. You can type your name and email, and upload your photo. It also requests the student confirmation that is linked to NICKL service.
Students’ confirmation is required to use NICKL benefit service.
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Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
NICKL NICKL is a service feature for students, the target audience. When you finish the student confirmation, you will get a QR code and benefits information for the NICKL’s students nearby.
Members of NICKL can get special discounts or cash back from the linked stores.
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Achievements & Tips On the Achievements menu, you can see your savings history by timeline; When did you start the goal? Why did you start the savings? How much did you save and in how long? Maybe, you can be motivated by your past. You can find savings tips on the Tips menu. It changes every day with random tips.
Savings history and timeline.
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Random savings tips are provided every day.
Final Deliverables
App: NICKL!
You will be surprised by how much you can achieve by just saving small amounts of money daily. This app could be an active solution for students who want to cut back on splurging.
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Product: Financial Organizer
By recording your expenses every day, you can know where your money is really going and make sure you don’t overspend in your realistic budget. Tracking your spending on a regular basis is important so that you can get an accurate picture of where your money is going and where you’d like it to go instead. Pencil and paper is still a strong method for budgeting these days. The biggest benefit of it is that physically writing things down requires an active brain. Active brains are helpful when you’re dealing with money. The stationery kit includes a finance journal and a receipts/bank statements binder with index tabs.
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Final Deliverables
Product: Financial Organizer
Finance Journal
This finance journal is designed with three different colors from the brand’s theme so that it has an energetic and positive aesthetic. It’s a handbook size journal, students can easily keep it in the bag, and the ‘Save me!’ copy on its cover indicates the importance of savings.
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Savings goals sticky note
Savings goals sticky note
The interior page is designed on a weekly basis to encourage your budgeting and tracking. It has a sticky note at the bottom part that is for weekly savings goals.
Off the sticky note
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Final Deliverables
Product: Financial Organizer
You can take off the sticky note and put it any place where you keep looking, such as on the monitor. This journal is handy and helpful for your expense tracking.
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Financial Papers Binder
This binder helps to bind and organize financial papers including bank statements, receipts, etc. It makes it simple to track your expenses as well. I use abstract imagery from the brand’s graphics system.
Let’s keep things organized! You can gather your receipts under the index.
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Final Deliverables
Product: Financial Organizer
You can organize your financial papers in this binder. It has index tabs so you can keep your papers under divided tabs for each date or purpose. If the papers under certain tabs aren’t necessary anymore, you can just take them out from the binder easily.
Index tabs for paper organizing.
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If you are willing to organize your bank statements and receipts regularly, you’ll be able to track your spending easily. It would be very simple to line up all the documents and compare different months and see how you did in spending and utility expenses. In addition, systematizing your financial records will make it easy to keep an eye out for any unfamiliar purchases on your card statements and receipts.
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Final Thoughts
At the end of the project—Conclusion Probably, many people have experienced their first ‘financial crisis’ in life at college. You’re now as adult, living apart from your parents, want to experience a lot of things, but under limited income—maybe some of them from your parents—soon will realize that your wallet is in danger. As one of the students, especially, studying abroad, I met those issue many times. That’s why I’m interested in this topic. During the research, I found out that this issue is not just my problem. A lot of college students are worried about their financial situations and want to get some tips for a cutback. I was also able to find that there’s a lot of financial management tools out there, but not a specified one for students. That was the starting point for me. I understand how uncomfortable it is when you’re splurging or overspending on your budget. I also understand that it can happen to students at any time. So, I wanted to encourage them for saving money and living under their budget, not making them feel guilty. I designed the overall brand aesthetic in a positive, energetic, and reliable mood. I wanted to provide realistic solutions—though they only can have limited options—so that the students can be inspired to care about their expenses and savings by the brand that I created. Exploring and designing the whole system was also a challenge for me. It was painful but worth doing. I like that I had a chance to study one problem in various perspectives for this semester. Through the project, I learned how to develop one idea into multiple solutions. For the long term objectives, I want to keep building the brand’s database. Based on the data, the brand can provide more customized financial solutions to the students. They can cooperate with other colleges to make more students aware of finance management and have access to solve their problems.
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NICKL Smile for your future
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© Copyright 2019 by Alex Jang
Design and typesetting by Alex Jang InDesignCC, IllustratorCC, PhotoshopCC
Printed and bounced by IMAGINK San Francisco CA 94111
Typeface Raleway issued by The League of Moveable type Publico issued by Schwartzo Inc.
Paper Avon Brilliant Eggshell 80lbs text made by Neenah
This book was designed as a part of project for
Academy of Art University 79 New Montgomery Street San Francisco CA, School of Graphic Design
GR620 Visual Thinking 2019 Spring
Instructed by Sandra Isla
GR620 Visual Thinking Instructor Sandra Isla