Increasing financial literacy and promoting healthy financial behaviors utilizing AI

project overview

KLI (Keylime Interactive) is a user experience (UX) research and customer experience (CX) service design agency with 15 years of serving over 150 clients in all industry segments across Fortune 1000s, including Amazon, Roku, Bose, and Google. Our shared purpose is to advise companies on their customer experience (CX) so that we make a difference through better-designed products and services.

The goal of the project was to increase financial literacy and promote healthy financial behaviors for college students by conducting research and creating solutions to promote beneficial financial habits.

How can we create a solution to help college students build healthy financial habits, specifically within budgeting?

skills

team

Leadership

Literature Review

User Research

Journey Mapping

Sketching

Workshops

Interviewing

User Testing / Usability Test

Wireframing

Competitive Analysis

Myself (team lead)

Neda Rahimi (team lead)

Jack Gerber

Brynn Davis

Linh Pham

Logan Carter

Max Stahl

Natalie Newton

Egan Homeric

timeline

August 2024-December 2024

current experience

There are currently no consumer facing AI banking tools

identifying relevant users and beginning to explore the user journey

milestone 1:

We started by diving into the world of Gen Z college students and their relationship with money. Through a mix of literature reviews, reddit dives, and interviews, we looked at everything from compulsive spending to emotional triggers like guilt, stress, and fear.

key findings:

Students often want to budget—but don’t know how, or feel too overwhelmed to try.
Budgeting usually means “try not to spend money” or “check my bank account and hope for the best.”
Many said they know they should be investing, but have no idea where to start.
Financial tools are often too complex, or they feel irrelevant.

We then synthesized this information into 2 personas:

sam

alex

knows a bit, but lacks motivation and doesn’t trust most tools

knows very little, but is curious and overwhelmed

Our research revealed not just a skills gap—but a motivation gap. Students don’t just need better tools. They need ones that are simple, trustworthy, and motivating.

uncovering what’s missing from today’s financial tools

milestone 2:

After identifying students’ knowledge and motivation gaps, we originally set out to design a tool that could help college students start investing. Many of the students we interviewed said they were curious about investing, but felt intimidated or didn’t know where to start.

But when we spoke to financial experts, we heard the same message, loud and clear:

“Investing is important—but students need a strong foundation first. Without a budget, they’re not ready.”

That changed everything.

We shifted our focus to budgeting, specifically, how to help students understand their current habits and build a healthier relationship with money before jumping into more advanced tools.

To figure out what was missing from today’s tools, we ran a comparative analysis of popular financial platforms like Mint, Rocket Money, Acorns, and CLEO. We also led a discovery workshop with real college students, where they reflected on their spending in real time.

comparative analysis

what stood out:

Most apps don’t integrate well into students’ day-to-day lives
Users ignore features like categorization and long-term planning
Tools feel boring, complicated, or even judgmental
There’s a clear lack of personalization and motivation

workshops

“I thought I budgeted well...until I looked at my account.”

"I get way too much anxiety trying to sift through my own account and make a budget"

Students were shocked by their own habits, but also didn’t feel like existing tools gave them a clear way to improve.

Our expert interviews echoed this disconnect: tools won’t stick unless students are motivated to engage, and budgeting is the first behavior worth reinforcing.

Students don’t need more complexity—they need a tool that helps them make sense of what’s already happening. A tool that feels approachable, forgiving, and just smart enough to be helpful.

designing for simplicity, trust, and real use

milestone 3:

We used this momentum to run a co-design workshop and ideation session. Students helped us brainstorm and sketch ideas that they would actually use.

two big ideas emerged:

1. receipt scanning + cashback (already exists in the market)

2. ai budgeting assistant that works inside your existing banking app
(our direction)

key findings:

Students don’t want to download another app
They prefer tools that do the work for them
Visuals and simple nudges (like alerts before overspending) are helpful
They want real-time feedback—not end-of-month regret

We moved forward with designing an AI-powered budgeting feature that fits inside an existing banking app. Users could get personalized suggestions, auto-categorized spending, and tips to stay on track, all without needing to start from scratch.

testing, iterating, and refining our vision

milestone 4:

Once we had a working prototype, we brought it to students to see how it actually held up. The response was positive overall, people liked the direction and appreciated how simple it felt. But the testing also surfaced a few things we hadn’t expected. Some features were confusing, others didn’t feel trustworthy, and a few moments just didn’t land the way we thought they would.

That feedback helped us take a step back and really think about how to make the tool feel more clear, approachable, and supportive.