MegaU kids banking

The MegaU Kids Banking App teaches children about savings and earning money. The premise was to take the everyday earn and rewards systems used in households and turning it into a digital experience where kids learn about earning their pocket money and saving for something really special (with rewards of course).

Role: UX Designer

Date: 2014-2015

01 inception

Barclays has a hackathon each year for internal staff. The idea is to come up with a product that can be prototyped and presented within 24 hours in front of 200 people and a Dragon’s Den of experts.

A colleague came to me with an idea for a kids banking app and together we created our idea based on how we learnt about money as kids and what we assumed would be motivation for saving. I remember having a chore chart on the fridge with my chores for the week. If I completed them all I would get my pocket money (which I spent on stationary, of course). This idea really resonated with me and we wanted to incorporate that as well as how we could help kids save for their dream items within the app. Our idea made it to the final round and within 24 hours we had a working prototype to show to our peers and judges.

We emerged the winners and got the chance to create the app within the bank. Our challenge was to create an app that kids would use to learn about money, how to earn it, how to spend it and how to save it.

02 project challenge

How will this make money for the bank?
How do we connect parent accounts with children accounts?
How do we get the parent to sign up and link the child?
Can we get parents to open accounts for their kids on their own profiles?
How do we solve these issues making sure we adhere to all legal compliance?
How will we make kids feel like this is their app and empower them to earn and save?

In a bank the size and age of Absa this meant dealing with a lot of legacy systems and getting business buy in and input was difficult at times.

03 the process

INITIAL USER RESEARCH

We brought in 15 kids and their parents for user testing and research. We then separated them into two rooms and observed and interviewed them using our prototype as well as interview questions.

RESEARCH LEARNINGS

Parents were using a manual system of rewarding their child by earning and saving for things that they wanted. If the child did their chores they got rewarded, whether that was with money or “things” that they wanted. If they wanted something expensive, they would have to “earn” by studying, listening to mom or doing jobs around the house. This manual system could be a chart in the kitchen or just a mental calculation, by mom, in keeping her kids in check.

Children understood this reward for doing well and the negative result of not doing what was asked of them.

MegaU was a great way to digitise the chore calendar on the fridge!

LESSONS

This project was a startup within a large multinational corporate. Even though we won the competition, we had to fight for budget, prove commercialisation and earn our stripes.
I fell in love with UX right here and had to fight tooth and nail for my user. In the end I'm not sure I won, but I learnt so much from this experience.
I learnt to pick my battles and fight for what was really important.
I started my love for working with projects for children in my design career.
Business needs vs user needs vs tech constraints....these things were so hard to understand at the time but they are my passion now!

04 outcomes

The Absa MegaU mobile banking app allows kids to manage their money and assists parents in teaching their kids the value of money and good savings habits.

Features in the MVP:

Sign up and register on the app.
Link your child through the app
Parent can create tasks for their child and even make them recurring
Once these tasks are completed, parents can “pay” the child in data, airtime or with cash
Children can view their tasks and balances
Children can buy airtime with their balances