Initial Concept
Three case scenarios & journey maps
3 Personas
From our interviews with several people, we were able to learn how a person with a low amount of student loans and a high amount of loans would think and act differently. We also realized that people with a stable paying job or a family net would be more relaxed and easy-going around issues with student loans. Therefore, we created 3 personas based on the level of financial stress they might have with different backgrounds.
Low Financial Stress student Journey-Rachel
The concept is about a student who has low financial stress due to a low to an average amount of student loans with a stable paying job after graduation.
The journey map of my persona is the following. This person’s priority during his college years might be socializing or school work instead of money management or student loans. Even he has a low amount of student loans, if he is the one who has to pay the loans by himself then he should think about student loans from the beginning of college. Therefore, raising awareness from the beginning of college is the goal of my design.
Since my concept is basically about raising awareness, I am designing a service that local banks or financial organizations can offer to the college freshmen. With activity most new college students do such as ‘opening a new student bank account’, college students have a high possibility to reach out to the service.
Storyboard
Product Idea
Medium Financial Stress — Chloe
Problem Statement:
How might we provide a practical design solution for students with average financial stress to change their daily spending behavior?
Goal:
Help students set their daily expense goal and keep track of their short term and long term success
How it works:
- You set a Taptap alarm on the app as a reminder to make smart decisions on routinary spending.
- Over the course of the days, Taptap sends a notification to help you mind your own spending and your goal.
- The student taps on the coin to keep track of their success.
- Through Taptap, students can check how well they are doing.
There are both the mobile app and desktop notification versions depending on the type of device most used on a specific time during the day.
High Financial Stress — Jackie
This concept centers around a student who has an extremely high loan amount and an uncertain or shaky financial future.
It’s a tricky persona to design for. This student:
- Goes to an expensive university
- Is funding their education primarily through private loans
- Hopes to find a well-paying job after graduation to pay off loans
- Is otherwise financially savvy and literate
- But is oblivious to their high-risk financial future
I have a simple message: Work to minimize loans as you attend college. Don’t take out a huge amount of loans based on uncertain or unrealistic future plans or goals. Make a smarter financial gamble.
Storyboard
My concept
My concept is essentially proposing a communications campaign to reach students who may be taking out loans irresponsibly. It’s a multi-pronged problem with multiple solutions. For example, a student may be taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans for a career that doesn’t pay well or during a weak job market. Maybe they are taking out private loans without first exhausting their federal loan options. Or maybe they can save later down the road by making manageable interest payments while they’re in school. For now, my campaign is called Loansmart. We’re trying to target the student currently in school and to fix or improve their financial habits/roadmap before they graduate with unmanageable amounts of debt.
Product Idea
