Money conversations are culturally sensitive and rarely happen, leaving teenagers any guidance despite financial decisions shaping their futures. Rather than creating another money management tool, we focused on enabling honest family dialogue from an early age.
The Challenge
Candid cards for curious conversations
Money Talks
We used an agile design process - research, ideation, prototyping, and testing to create a solution that sparks financial conversations within families. Instead of a digital tool, we designed physical artifacts as a conversation starter, helping teens and parents discuss financial topics and learn to manage it together.
Our Solution
Anam Koradia, Sampada Pote, Tanvi Warghary, Vedika Mehwala and Bhairavi Ruparel
Team
Tools
Figma, Mural, GithuB and ZenHub
Duration
January 2025 - May 2025
Individual Contribution
UX Researcher and Designer
1
Teen opens first paycheck, expecting full pay, but confusion replaces excitement.
2
Child asks about missing money; mother hesitates, glancing at father in the living room.
3
Later, in private, mother shares the conversation with uncertainty; father nods, admitting he also struggles to explain.
4
At the store, mom spots a game box; teen’s curiosity is sparked.
5
Family gathers around the table; teen draws a card, “$500… but with deductions.” Curiosity grows.
6
Parents explain taxes and budgeting through game prompts; teen begins connecting the dots.
7
Teen earns a “Paycheck Pro” badge and grins with pride.
8
Teen reviews paycheck, smiles, and asks to play again; parents exchange a hopeful look.
From Broad Challenge to Specific Focus
We were tasked with designing ways to make financial literacy more accessible. Though our team shared SouthEast Asian backgrounds, our different experiences growing up here made us wonder: do cultural and parental values still shape how SouthEast Asian-American teenagers learn about money? We focused on teens (ages 13–19) as the critical intervention point where these conversations could still be shaped.
Broad Challenge: Make financial conversations accessible
Focus: Teenagers need guidance & support
Target Group: SouthEast Asian-American teenagers
Uncovering How Culture Shapes Teen Money Mindsets
To understand how cultural values and family expectations shape financial learning, we conducted secondary research and interviewed 15 parents and teens. Mapping stakeholders' needs helped us identify opportunities to introduce financial literacy in ways that feel relevant and confidence-building for SouthEast Asian-American families.
Key issues we indentified:
Gaps in Financial Preparedness
Young adults struggle with financial literacy due to limited education, little family discussion, and peer or media influence, often leading to poor money decisions. Only 30% of Southeast Asians feel confident in their financial knowledge.
Lack of Financial Transparency
Parents often avoid sharing financial details with their children, leading to confusion and missed opportunities to learn from their experiences and strategies.
Here is an example of how we synthesized our interview insights using empathy mapping. This helped us identify where parents and children shared common ground and where they diverged on financial literacy matters.
Father's Empathy Mapping
Child's Empathy Mapping
We developed our point of view from both secondary and primary research, which became the starting point for our design process.
For
Who
Our
Is a
That
South Asian-American teenagers (ages 13-19) and their parents
Struggle with financial education and independence due to cultural taboos in relation to knowledge of modern finance skills
Physical Interactive activities
Culturally collaborative gaming experience
Bridges generational gaps to foster open discussions for families to build financial literacy while honoring cultural values.
Making Financial Conversations Accessible
An interactive card game that helps families discuss money matters anytime, anywhere. The deck has 4 themes, each with challenge cards, prompts, and tips to guide the conversations.
The deck includes a Pause Card, allowing either the teen or the parent to step away from the conversation during tense moments and revisit it later in a more comfortable setting. An Instruction Card is also included to help players understand how to play the game.
Money Mindset Theme
This is an example of the themes we created, shown through prototype cards. Each theme included a challenge card with supporting prompt cards designed to spark conversation, with colors and topics varied to reflect different types of money conversations.
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Process
Bridging Generations Through Financial Conversations
We explored three strategic directions to help South Asian-American teens and parents connect around money. After mapping needs, goals, and impact, we chose Hill 3 option, bridging expectations and realities through interactive, culturally relevant tools, as it best supported our vision of fostering open and transparent dialogue.
Mapping the Journey of Money Talks
After choosing to bridge the gap between parents and teens (Hill 3), we mapped out the complete experience across five stages: Entice, Enter, Engage, Exit, and Extend. Each stage required careful consideration of both physical and conversational interactions which that would deliver the experience.
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Narrowing Down our MVP
The Kano model here highlights how we developed our MVP. Our goal was to define a minimum viable product that showed enough value to users, while prioritizing features that offered high customer delight with reasonable implementation effort, helping us balance feasibility with impact.
Customer Delight
High
Low
Absent
Touch
Participate in interactive activities like prompted card/board games for open conversation
The Kano Model shown here is a simplified representation
Implementation Investment
Touch
Distributing physical badges, certificates or loyalty cards for milestones achieved
Excitement Features
Touch
Physically engaging with card game materials.
Performance Features
Basic Features
Sight :
Visual game elements, progress tracker.
Touch:
Feeling the physical game box in a store
Fully Implemented
Everyday Money Moments Can Trigger Honest Family Conversations
The storyboard below illustrates what Money Talks does and how it connects to Hill 3, bridging gaps, starting dialogue, and fostering collaboration within families. Frames 2, 3, 4, and 6 served as key moments that informed the design of our MVP.
The remaining features we identified for the product were not part of the MVP.
Excitement Features
Performance Features
Basic Features
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Rewards for successful referrals
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User explores community feedback & testimonial within the app
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User receives awards, badges & digital rewards visible in their profile and leaderboard
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Sending new challenges or personalized suggestions.
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User engagement tracking
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Sound: Hear other people stories and share knowledge (Q/A Sessions)
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Touch: Easily invite people to the platform to collaborate
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Leave comments for discussion on newsletters
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App customizes user experience, shows animations, or provides voice guidance.
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Users register for events and receive notifications through calendar, Zoom, or Eventbrite.
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They can refer friends using a unique referral link or code.
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Users receive an in-app pop-up or email inviting them to a feedback survey, which they can click to join.
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Analytics tools track campaign performance (e.g., impressions, clicks) and help optimize strategies.
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Notifications provide personalized recommendations to users.
My Takeaway
Through this project, I gained valuable experience in both process and mindset that will shape my future design work.
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I learned how to manage design tasks within an agile sprint cycle using GitHub and ZenHub. Breaking large goals into trackable tasks, revisiting earlier decisions, and adapting to project shifts strengthened my ability to stay flexible while keeping momentum.
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By prototyping challenge and prompt cards, I saw firsthand how even lightweight iterations can spark rich dialogue. This taught me the value of low-fidelity testing to quickly validate ideas and guide meaningful conversations with users.
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I pushed myself to learn a completely new toolset in under a week. This experience boosted my confidence in adaptability and showed me that I can quickly pick up unfamiliar platforms to keep projects moving forward.
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Working at the intersection of agile and HCI principles revealed how structure and flexibility can complement each other. I gained experience balancing sprint deadlines with user research insights, ensuring that our progress remained anchored in real user needs.