Ongoing Masters Thesis Project
Gen Z + Financial Wellness
Uncovering how social media affects Gen Z's financial well-being, and designing solutions to better support them.
TEAM
Manuni Dhruv (Designer), Jahnavi (Designer),
Meghna Melkote (Industry Mentor, Product Designer, Capital One)
Dr. Carrie Bruce (Advisor)
TIMELINE
August 2024 - ongoing
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam, Dovetail, Qualtrics
ROLE
Research and scoping,
Design and ideation,
Facilitating discussions with mentor and advisor
TEAM
Manuni Dhruv (Designer), Jahnavi (Designer), Meghna Melkote (Industry Mentor, Product Designer, Capital One) Dr. Carrie Bruce (Advisor)
TIMELINE
August 2024 - ongoing
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam, Dovetail, Qualtrics
ROLE
Research and scoping,
Design and ideation,
Facilitating discussions with mentor and advisor
TEAM
Manuni Dhruv (Designer), Jahnavi (Designer), Meghna Melkote (Industry Mentor, Product Designer, Capital One) Dr. Carrie Bruce (Advisor)
ROLE
Research and scoping,
Design and ideation,
Facilitating discussions with mentor and advisor
TIMELINE
August 2024 - ongoing
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam, Dovetail, Qualtrics
CONTEXT
Gen Z is changing the way we make sense of money in the digital world.
Gen Zer's (often called "Digital Natives") —the first generation to grow up with the internet as a part of daily life.
From trends like "loud budgeting" on TikTok and comprehensive Reddit threads on investing, Gen Z has more financial information accessible to them than ever before.
Capital One wants us to know how they can strategically lean into this space of Gen Z behaviors and social media. How can we then inform the capital one mobile/website experience?
What Capital One wants from us
Our project and learning goals are:
Our motivation for this project is compounded by the prevalence of majorly app-like solutions in the fintech space. We want to break this perception by exploring smart design approaches in the fintech space that go beyond tracking and budgeting.
Uncovering how social media affects Gen Z's financial well-being, and designing solutions to better support them.
CURRENT GUIDING STATEMENT
To guide research efforts and identify problems
CONTEXT
Gen Z is changing the way we make sense of money in the digital world.
Gen Zer's (often called "Digital Natives") —the first generation to grow up with the internet as a part of daily life.
From trends like "loud budgeting" on TikTok and comprehensive Reddit threads on investing, Gen Z has more financial information accessible to them than ever before.
What Capital One wants from us
Capital One wants us to know how they can strategically lean into this space of Gen Z behaviors and social media. How can we then inform the capital one mobile/website experience?
Our project and learning goals are:
Our motivation for this project is compounded by the prevalence of majorly app-like solutions in the fintech space. We want to break this perception by exploring smart design approaches in the fintech space that go beyond tracking and budgeting.
CURRENT GUIDING STATEMENT
To guide research efforts and identify problems
Uncovering how social media affects Gen Z's financial well-being, and designing solutions to better support them.
HERE'S THE PLAN TO GET THERE
Design Process
HERE'S WHAT WE DID SO FAR
Design Process
RESEARCH
Explore correlations within Gen Z financial needs, goals, social media and bank app preferences.
Preliminary Survey | 83 participants
How does social media content influence Gen Z's thinking patterns about personal finance?
Diary Study | 4 participants
Gain a thorough understanding of the Gen Z landscape through lit reviews and surveys with a larger sample size.
Secondary Research | 5 Articles and External Surveys
RESEARCH
Explore correlations within Gen Z financial needs, goals, social media and bank app preferences.
Preliminary Survey | 83 participants
Diary Study | 4 participants
How does social media content influence Gen Z's thinking patterns about personal finance?
Secondary Research | 5 Articles and External Surveys
Gain a thorough understanding of the Gen Z landscape through lit reviews and surveys with a larger sample size.
Case study in progress.
Research synthesis is currently underway.
