BeaverBuild
A Guided Learning Platform to Empower Financial Literacy in International Students at Humber College
The Problem
Humber international students felt unsupported by the institution in their learning of the Canadian financial environment, and the resources that do exist lack visibility and awareness, and fail to speak directly to their experience.
We sought to fill the gap by designing a platform that can be provided directly to international students by Humber during first-year orientation.
Role
Researcher & Designer
Methods & Activities
Timeline
11 Weeks
Tools
Figma/ Figjam, Google Meet.
Methods & Activities
Competitor Analysis, User Interviews, High-Fidelity Prototyping, Usability Testing.
Discovery Research
Upon an initial competitor analysis, we were curious about three findings. This served as context for our interviews, and during analysis:
They exist in several spaces online and physically from governmental and institutional resources to private digital tools.
They tend to use technical jargon and formal language, and use acronyms without fully explaining their meaning.
They often speak to a generalized audience, and fail to speak to lived experience.
After interviewing five international students, the following themes frequently emerged:
Many participants were aware of existing financial resources, but don't feel they are valuable to them.
Participants often sought personal anecdotes to evaluate whether they should utilize or not utilize a resource.
All participants struggled managing expected costs in their first year.
Most participants wished that they had a tool to organize their learning.
These findings directed our focus on creating a tool that organizes and guides financial learning for international students.
"School resources exist, but I often find out about them too late or don’t know where to look."
"I think the school should better organize its website to clearly show what resources are available."
Ideation & Prototyping
Initial Concept Sketches
We wanted to blend the idea of a guided roadmap, with a video-based learning format. We decided to design a web-app to support personalization, user accounts, and management of their data.
Our wireframing explored combining a guided learning platform with a personal resource and tool repository, and allows for the sharing and reflection on the content with others.
Wireframes
Mid-Fidelity Designs
Testing & Design Iterations
We tested the design with 5 participants, and three major insights emerged:
For many participants the length of the Financial Roadmap discouraged exploration.
Some participants felt the functionality of the Knowledge Hub was confusing.
Most participants were looking for a search function in the Community.
All participants wanted a Help functionality to guide their onboarding.
From these insights, we proposed the following design iterations and distributed ownership of their implementation:
Reorient and shorten the Financial Roadmap to reduce scrolling fatigue and encourage engagement.
Dedicate the main functionality of the Knowledge Hub to searching and browsing resources on the platform, and separate where Saved Resources exist.
Add a Search function to the Community.
Add Help icons to each page to aid onboarding.
“I had no idea [the larger roadmap was there] because I didn’t scroll and reach the bottom”
“Feels like people might not necessarily post here.”