mula.
Student Finance and Budgeting App
For UTD’s annual UX Club Designathon, our team was tasked with creating a student financial app for the Intuit design challenge, where we placed 3rd. As a result, we created mula: an app with the sole objective of generating a fun, collaborative financial experience for students that allows them to create budget plans, track expenses, and receive feedback from financial advisors. This intensive 24-hour design sprint showcased our team’s ability to prioritize, iterate, and successfully deliver a collaborative, student-centered financial solution under a tight deadline.
Key Deliverable
Key Deliverable
-Interactive Prototype
Overview
Overview
The Problem
Managing expenses can be tricky and time-consuming for busy college students on a strict budget
Only about 38% of college-educated individuals in the U.S. regularly practice budgeting (Source)
Average budgets for full-time students in the 2020-2021 academic year ranged from $18,550 to $54,800. (Source)
Studies indicate that peer interactions and social media play significant roles in building financial literacy among students, suggesting that peer collaboration can enhance financial management behaviors. (Source)
The Problem
Managing expenses can be tricky and time-consuming for busy college students on a strict budget
Only about 38% of college-educated individuals in the U.S. regularly practice budgeting (Source)
Average budgets for full-time students in the 2020-2021 academic year ranged from $18,550 to $54,800. (Source)
Studies indicate that peer interactions and social media play significant roles in building financial literacy among students, suggesting that peer collaboration can enhance financial management behaviors. (Source)
The Solution
Simplify budgeting and financial literacy for college students
The Solution
Simplify budgeting and financial literacy for college students
Mula’s main objective is to help students tackle their spending and saving through a collaborative budgeting platform that empowers them to create personalized financial plans and receive actionable feedback through an intuitive interface designed to foster meaningful collaboration and financial literacy.
Design Statement
Problem Statement
How can we design an experience that allows students to effectively create, share, and refine budgeting plans, enabling them to get meaningful feedback and collaboration from peers and financial advisors?
Segment of Interest (SOI)
Our SOI is college students who need a way to effectively and easily budget their limited income that accommodates their busy lifestyle, while maintaining financial literacy.
Due to the time constraints, we were unable to conduct in-depth interviews, so we conducted in-depth secondary research by studying online forums, articles, and statistics
User Persona
I then designed a primary user persona for the app
After conducting secondary research about student's experiences with their expenses, I created a user persona based on this information.
Key Deliverables
-User Persona
-User Flow
-Interactive Prototype
Due to the time constraints, we were unable to conduct in-depth interviews, so we conducted in-depth secondary research by studying online forums, articles, and statistics
User Persona
I then designed a primary user persona for the app
After conducting secondary research about student's experiences with their expenses, I created a user persona based on this information.
Mula’s main objective is to help students tackle their spending and saving through a collaborative budgeting platform that empowers them to create personalized financial plans and receive actionable feedback through an intuitive interface designed to foster meaningful collaboration and financial literacy.
Design Statement
Problem Statement
How can we design an experience that allows students to effectively create, share, and refine budgeting plans, enabling them to get meaningful feedback and collaboration from peers and financial advisors?
Segment of Interest (SOI)
Our segment of interest is current and incoming college students who are navigating the scholarship and financial aid application process
Client
Intuit
Team
Sumayya Ali
Srinaya Vemula
Priyanka Jidagamu
Elise Hart (Me)
Timeline
24 Hours
User Journey/Flow
I then mapped out a typical user flow for the app to get a better idea of how users might interact with the app
After conducting usability testing amongst the team, my teammate created a user flow based on our feedback to get a more accurate understanding of how a primary and secondary users might interact with the app.
Key Features
After conducting secondary research, creating a primary user persona, and conducting a competitive analysis, we compiled a list of mandatory functions and features of this app meant to assist and guide students through the budgeting and expense tracking process while providing access to financial advice.
List of Features and Functions
Feature 1 - AI generated push notifications to encourage app usage
Feature 2 - Personalized financial goals category
Feature 3 - Gamification to incentivize app usage
Feature 4 - Video resources for financial advice
Feature 5 - Optional bank account/credit card syncing for privacy concerns
Feature 6 - Expense tracker
Feature 7 - "Herds" to encourage group savings goals for trips/large expenses
Competitive Analysis
Let's take a look at other apps
We took a look at other finance and budgeting apps in the market, both geared towards students and a more general audience. The three apps are: PocketGuard, YNAB, and GoodBudget. After comparing features across the apps, we compiled a list of commonly found features, as well as less common features we wanted to include in the final prototype.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
We then translated these ideas into lo-fi wireframes
High Fidelity Wireframes
We then narrowed down the features/function list to a few core components and finalized the UI
Since the initial submission review deadline was drawing near, we decided to focus on a few core features that we could further flesh out after the design sprint was completed
For UTD’s annual UX Club Designathon, our team was tasked with creating a student financial app for the Intuit design challenge, where we placed 3rd. As a result, we created mula: an app with the sole objective of generating a fun, collaborative financial experience for students that allows them to create budget plans, track expenses, and receive feedback from financial advisors. This intensive 24-hour design sprint showcased our team’s ability to prioritize, iterate, and successfully deliver a collaborative, student-centered financial solution under a tight deadline.
Sumayya Ali
Srinaya Vemula
Priyanka Jidagamu
Elise Hart
Team
Timeline
24 Hours
Client
Intuit
Key Deliverable
Interactive Prototype
User Journey/Flow
I then mapped out a typical user flow for the app to get a better idea of how users might interact with the app
After conducting usability testing amongst the team, my teammate created a user flow based on our feedback to get a more accurate understanding of how a primary and secondary users might interact with the app.
Competitive Analysis
Let's take a look at other apps
We took a look at other finance and budgeting apps in the market, both geared towards students and a more general audience. The three apps are: PocketGuard, YNAB, and GoodBudget. After comparing features across the apps, we compiled a list of commonly found features, as well as less common features we wanted to include in the final prototype.
Reflection
If we could fully flesh out this project without the 24 hour time constraint…
After receiving several rounds of feedback from the designathon judges, our team decided to implement some of these changes into the final product
AI generated notifications to incentivize students to actually use the app to track their expenses
Make the bank account/credit card syncing feature (opt-in or out) more visible during the onboarding process
High Fidelity Wireframes
We then narrowed down the features/function list to a few core components and finalized the UI
Since the initial submission review deadline was drawing near, we decided to focus on a few core features that we could further flesh out after the design sprint was completed
Feature 1 - AI generated push notifications to encourage app usage
Feature 2 - Personalized financial goals category
Feature 3 - Gamification to incentivize app usage
Feature 4 - Video resources for financial advice
Feature 5 - Optional bank account/credit card syncing for privacy concerns
Feature 6 - Expense tracker
Feature 7 - "Herds" to encourage group savings goals for trips/large expenses
Final Prototype
The finalized hi-fi prototype
Key Features
After conducting secondary research, creating a primary user persona, and conducting a competitive analysis, we compiled a list of mandatory functions and features of this app meant to assist and guide students through the budgeting and expense tracking process while providing access to financial advice.
List of Features and Functions
Low Fidelity Wireframes
We then translated these ideas into lo-fi wireframes
Reflection
If we could fully flesh out this project without the 24 hour time constraint…
After receiving several rounds of feedback from the designathon judges, our team decided to implement some of these changes into the final product
AI generated notifications to incentivize students to actually use the app to track their expenses
Make the bank account/credit card syncing feature (opt-in or out) more visible during the onboarding process
Final Prototype
The finalized hi-fi prototype
The Problem
Managing expenses can be tricky and time-consuming for busy college students on a strict budget
Only about 38% of college-educated individuals in the U.S. regularly practice budgeting (Source)
Average budgets for full-time students in the 2020-2021 academic year ranged from $18,550 to $54,800. (Source)
Studies indicate that peer interactions and social media play significant roles in building financial literacy among students, suggesting that peer collaboration can enhance financial management behaviors. (Source)
The Solution
Simplifying budgeting and financial literacy for college students