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Dollars & Sense The design process
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The Team Zach Thomas Prototyper
Lizzie Luckman Identity Designer
Chloe Reibold
Collateral Designer
Karly Nelson Visual Scribe
Table of Contents Framing the Problem The Problem What’s Out There Our Goal
Finding the Solution Survey Saving Our Identity Logo Brochure The App
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Part 1
Framing the Pr
g roblem 1
The Problem Personal finance is something that you have to know, but no one bothers to teach you (unless you go out of your way to take a class). The sheer amount of information available on the topic is so overwhelming that even the idea of teaching yourself is daunting. This was our experience as young adults about to enter the workforce, and we found that we were not alone.
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90% 42% % 28 According to a Bank of America poll:
of adults say it is “essential” for adults to be knowledgeable about their personal finances.
of adults are put off by the sheer amount of information about financial issues.
believe it is difficult to learn about finance because there are too many choices and they don’t know where to turn.
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We are suffocating under too much choice,
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We are suffocating under too much choice, which leads to inaction. Dan Kadlec, Why We Want—But Can’t Have—Personal Finance in Schools, TIME Business
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What’s out there There are many useful tools, like budget planners and calculators. There are also educational programs. But the tools assume that their user has prior knowledge, and the educational programs either present too little information in a clear way, or too much information in an overwhelming way.
Too much information
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Assume prior knowledge
Too little information
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We want to e people w undertand pe finance an them to learn
Our go 8
educate who do not ersonal nd empower n.
oal
Our goal is to teach people about personal finance in a clear, concise, and enjoyable way that does not just add to the information overload.
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Part 2
Finding the So 10
olution 11
We surveyed 25 people. We consolidated personal finance into seven basic topics and asked college students to rate these in order of interest: Loans/Mortgages Budgeting Retirement Planning Credit Investing Savings Taxes
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Investing was the most popular option, but it soon proved itself to be too difficult a topic to be successfully prototyped within our timeframe.
Budgeting
Taxes
Investing
Credit Loans/Mortgages
Savings Retirement Planning 0%
100%
Most Interested
Least Interested 1
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Breaking down saving. For our prototype, we needed to choose one financial topic, though the full solution would encompass all aspects of personal finance. Though saving was not the most popular topic, we decided it would be the easiest one to explore in our prototype within our timeframe.
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The importance of saving
Different types of accounts
How to open an account
Understanding Interest
Understanding Inflation
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san serif light clean green bright vector thin sleek colorful open airy sunny fast movement icons big images fun friendly white brown clean image窶電riven charts infographics circular professional circular
grid systematic not cartoony clean窶田ut straight forward organized interactive green arrows digital information design interface crystal clear a lake reflected water money glass box pops of color black type simple movement entertaining liquid
unique shapes easy to look at inviting tangible tactile layers buttons outlines plastic
not intimid witty entertainin personal informativ entertainin amusing personal unified empowerin resourcefu exciting knowledge green smart interactive colorful sophisticat simple sleek easy to use useful worthwhil
Our ide 16
interactive educational interesting empowering financial engaging fun simple playful graphic informative beautiful friendly
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entity
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stab can stan ena tak can sm hel loo war rela calm not atte
Names Money Mountain Fun Financial Future Mad Money Smart Cents Common Cents Money Tree Making Bank Finance University Finance Tycoon Nothing is Free Dollars and Sense Lemonade Stand Teach Me How to Money Kill Bills Simple Cents Stalking Stocks
Piggy Bank Check Yourself Checks and Balances Market Place Wall Street Wannabe Money Academy Dat Asset Go Teller on the Mountain Fun Finance Cash Cow $en$e Cent$ Wealth of Knowledge Making Dough Moola the Cash Cow
Gold Rush Goal Rush Money Brain Smart Cents Cash College Cool Coins Money Street Finance Inititiative Profit Prophet
Taglines Have a wealth of knowledge Mind your money Personal Finance made easy Finance your future Your money simplified A guide to personal finance Making sense of money Your financial compass Your money explained Breaking down personal finance A guide to money management Money made easy Know your money Understanding money
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Smart money management Making your money smart Making funds fun Funding your fun Making finance fun Freeing your future Understanding money A self–help guide to money A guide to money Building your knowledge of personal finance
Making Bank Finance University Dollars & Sense Cash Cow Moola
Dollars & Sense Combines the ideas of money and education, while being approachable through the use of humor. Who doesn’t love a pun?
Dollars & Sense
Build your knowledge of personal finance
A beginner’s guide to personal finance Making sense of money A guide to money management Build your knowledge of personal finace
Build your knowledge of personal finance Dollars and cents are the “building blocks” of currency
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Making the logo.
Monograms
Inspiration - Negative space
Negative space 20
Dollar bill folding
$&¢
We wanted to create a logo that played with the dollar and cents signs in an interesting way.
Monograms Inspired by monograms, we strove to integrate the symbols into one monogram, as opposed to simply placing them next to each other.
We then moved more towards the use of abstract shapes and negative space. Here, instead of symbols, we explored creating an abstracted D and S.
Negative Space Combining the ideas of integration , abstraction, and negative space, we developed this logo, playing with the symbols once again.
We refined the logo and integrated the idea of paper
Dollar bill folding
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We chose to use Interstate because it mimicked the angles in our logo, and is sleek but approachable.
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Color change emphasizes folding
For our color logo, we chose to use a gradient of yellow to green. We chose green because it is a color associated with money, and the first impression of a logo is important. But we added a gradient to make it more interesting.
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Building knowledge. We created a set of brochures to advertise our product to college students. First, however, we wished to integrate our tagline, “Build your knowledge of personal finance� into the design, through the use of pattern.
Logo elements were taken and turned into patterns.
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The pattern references both the tagline and the logo, through continuing the idea of “units” of currency and “building blocks.”
Patterns help emphasize the idea of building and how one block builds upon another to create something new.
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Why would I need to save? What if you lose your job, but don’t have the money to support yourself while finding a new one? What if you want to take a vacation, but don’t have enough money for a hotel? What if your car breaks down, but you don’t have money to fix it?
Why would I need to know how to file taxes?
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Savings? I’m too young to think about that.
Taxes? I’m too young to think about that.
Build your knowledge of personal finance. Saving money prepares you for the unexpected.
Learn how to save and much more with the Dollars & Sense app.
It’s also easier than you think.
The goal of the brochures is to convince, to engage, and to incite action. They start a conversation by asking questions like: Why do I care? and How do I learn more?
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Making the tool. We decided that an iPad app would be the best tool to use to educate people in an engaging, interactive, and clear way. We took WWF’s iPad app as inspiration, as it uses fun, interactive elements to present a wealth of information clearly.
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WWF’s app uses interactive elements in ways that are both entertaining and educational.
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Our pro 30
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Home Screen The topic that the app suggests you learn next grows larger over time.
Topics are color coded using bright, friendly colors.
Each topic has its own home screen and a short definition of the topic. The user can either swipe to the left or click the right arrow to move to the next screen. Each topic is arranged in a timeline that makes it easy to use and learn.
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Collapsable navigation bar with home, finance calculators, glossary, and settings buttons.
Swatches
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Interactive Element Each topic will have several interactive elements that make learning engaging and clear.
The user can move the tabs to change the start age and end age. As the length of time between the two ages increases, the number above the end age grows, demonstrating interest earned.
Glossary The glossary is organized alphabetically, both within each topic, and overall. There is also a search option.
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For the more advanced user, there is an option to customize many variables in order to produce a more accurate projection of earnings.
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This book was designed by Karly Nelson in Fall 2013 at Washington University in St. Louis. Typefaces used are Garamond, and Univers. Statistical data is from a Harris Interactive survey, “Bridging the Knowledge Gap.� 40