Breaking Down the Problem

Initially, the prompt looked quite straightforward. We needed to create an app, or perhaps some other service, which aided in the discovery of other financial tools (preferably those of SunLife). However, this led us to our first issue. I noticed that the wording was carefully chosen to say find and use. Is that not just a search engine?

The Google Issue

To me, finding services just means being a search engine. Why wouldn't our users just go search for help instead online? What would want to make them download Garden to do this?

Directing users outside of your app is the last thing you want to do.

This is why many apps, including games, have in-app browsers. What do other apps do to solve this?

Gamification (of course)

Every app nowadays has something to keep you coming back. I particularly liked how Microsoft Weather partnered with organizations to plant you a tree in real life. We decided to incorporate this concept into Garden, giving users not only virtual incentives to continue using the app, but also a feel-good physical incentive too when they know they've just made a real-world impact.

This all lead us to incorporate a few key concepts into Garden. Badges could be earned for completing significant financial milestones or playing minigames within the app. Progress bars would greet you right when you open the app, showing you how far you are into your goal. And a tree would be planted upon completing a long-term financial plan in your virtual garden , symbolizing progress — as well as in the real world!

But wait, what's all this about plans and financial goals? Garden allows users to simply type in what they'd like to do (say, they have X amount of money and want to buy a house in Y amount of years), and it'd automatically create a multi-step plan for them. However, it's not that easy, as this again posed another challenge.

The AI Issue

Even though we were just doing a short designathon, as a UX designer I still wanted the app to be feasible and human-centred. This meant carefully considering how we should incorporate AI into the system that created plans from user input.

The end result:

• Uses natural language processing (NLP) to decode user inputs

• Outputs knowledge cards for questions, which are preexisting and human-made

• Creates plans by drawing on knowledge cards + minimal output generation

Prototyping!

• Minimal wireframing due to time constraint

• Screens made according to presentation script and slides

• Made use of a wall and a half worth of whiteboard!

• Gained valuable feedback from SunLife employees and mentors

  

UX Decisions

While they were largely not discussed during our 3 minute presentation pitch, I decided that it would be not only important, but also good practice, to think from a UX perspective (as it's often overlooked in favour of UI). Some decisions we made were:

• What screen should the app open to? (What will the home screen display?)

• Plant preview and progress bars

• Data transparency

• Helpful notifications

• Stress-free, clean interface

One Key Iteration

While designing, 3 teammates went out to get feedback. While pitching the idea to a mentor, they received highly negative reception, which was very different from what we heard from the others. With only 2 hours left, we couldn't change up much. So, we:

• Decided to switch up the marketing

• Focus on automated plan-making as key feature

• Create screens according to this, as it was unique

This was a great exercise in last minute changes and working collaboratively as a team under pressure!

Takeaways

I learnt a ton from this designathon, from collaborating as a team, to using styles and auto layout in Figma. While Garden didn't win, just being able to be part of such an amazing team felt like a win in the end to me! It was incredibly fulfilling seeing everyone work together on making a script, slide deck, graphics, and the interface.

Thanks again to Andrew Ellyatt (ideation, script, slides), Charlene Lee (ideation, whiteboarding, script), Emily Chan (ideation, graphic design), Gaurav Shah (ideation, script, presenter), and Winston Zhao (ideation, interface design).

What I Would Do Differently

• Focused maybe too much on the UX, causing UI to suffer a little (primarily white)

  • Judges mostly see the UI as 3 minute presentation doesn't leave time to appreciate the UX

• Only have one or two key features

  • We tried to cram in too much to make it a "viable" app

  • Ended up overthinking everything, leading to quantity over quality

• Further integrate the competition's sponsor (SunLife)