Michelle Kwok - TheRiddler401/DECO3500-Mental-Wealth GitHub Wiki
Table of Contents
Research Round 1
Preliminary Research
Initial research was conducted via interview. The aim of this research round is to build an understanding of the problem space before any solution can be devised. I found this phase to be unsatisfactory in regards to the amount of data I wished to gather, therefore I aim to strive for better performance next round.
A Research Guide was devised to aid group members in formulating effective questions.
Findings & Concept
Informed from the contextual inquiry, key findings include:
- The presence of a clear negative impact on socio-economic status after separation
- Finance is a key stress for parents and children in a separated family
- There is hostility and mistrust between parents during financial transactions
This information points towards the potential for a solution regarding finance management and communication.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
This low fidelity prototype is likely to change as there has been no primary research that defines system requirements. It is based on existing financial management systems. The two aims of this solutions are:
- to alleviate financial distrust and improve communication between coparents
- to improve money issues coming with a decrease in socio-economic status
Because of the inherent link between mental health and financial health, meeting these aims will very much also positively impact the domain space.
Research Round 2
Continued Research
Interviews and testing this round contributed to the revision of conceptual requirements, clarification of context of use, and design insights for the next prototype iteration.
The interview template was designed to collect experiences that can potentially translate to design insights. Participants began the interview by discussing their past experiences of a coparented childhood and financial problems around the family dynamic. Then, they were handed the low-fidelity prototype to use while answering questions regarding their opinion on financial management for separated families.
Findings & Design Insights
This round of research has found that:
Budget/Savings apps are not in wide usage, especially for parents
- Parents with financial management background are least likely to use apps
- Many families use manual spreadsheets and aren't willing to change from it
Transactions/Balance is the most important feature
- Single parents prefer to see their available balance 'at a glance'
- Almost every family member would possess a mobile app of their bank
Key values of co-parent financial management is:
- Communication
- Openness
- Transparency
These social experiences can be translated to these possible design insights:
Budgeting/Saving components should NOT be priority
- Balance viewing and transactions should be forefront of the app
- Perhaps even eliminated completely
App features should accomodate communication and socialness
- An ability for a family to connect via their app is a must
- Fairness in joint payments should be enforced and encouraged
Flexibility and spontaneity should be considered
- App structure should allow fast decisions
- Money should be available 'on the fly'
Medium-Fidelity Prototype
Drawing upon these design insights, the prototype can be improved to better suit the needs of the demographic in this domain space. These include:
- Widget feature gives users power to choose only features relevant to them
- A messaging feature to ensure families are connected and can communicate to each other easily
- A special secure system for joint payments
- Emergency fund saving mechanism
Final Product
Although there were no more additional rounds of evaluation due to time constraints, improvements were still applied to the prototype to prepare a high fidelity, functional product to demonstrate as a proof-of-concept. This prototype simulates interaction to a higher degree, and only focuses on the most relevant features of the app in regards to responding to the domain space. This is the messaging and money transfer feature.
There were some gaps in evaluation that would be beneficial to address in future product investigations. In the two rounds of testing, there had not been any technical-based evaluation tools used. The overall data collected was highly qualitative, consisting of past experiences, anecdotes and reflections. While this data had proven to be highly useful in the mapping of human values to design, there was a lack of technical data advising the design and conceptual requirements of the prototype. For future investigations, there should be a good mix of qualitative (interviews, study groups) and quantitative measures (surveys, timed on task).