MoneyMind | Natalie Tarnovsky

From Hesitation to Confident Investing: Designing a Monetizable Financial Education Platform

Introduction

The Problem: Investing Feels Complex and Inaccessible

Financial literacy is an essential life skill, and understanding investing is crucial in today’s economy. Yet, many people find it intimidating. Traditional financial education is often dry and unengaging, leading to a lack of motivation to learn.

The Gap: Educational Apps Are Tied to Investment Platforms

Most popular financial education apps are tied to investment platforms, nudging users toward investing within their own ecosystem. The challenge? These platforms often:

Are restricted to specific regions (U.S./Europe).
Prioritize investing over education.
Lack interactive and engaging learning experiences.

The Solution: Learn by Doing & Playing

MoneyMind was created to bridge this gap by offering a universal, gamified financial education experience. Instead of tying learning to a specific investment platform, it focuses on building users’ confidence so they can step into the market on their own terms.

What to Expect

Design Thinking Process Framework

Each phase built upon the insights from the previous one, ensuring a user-centered solution that effectively tackles the challenges of financial education.

Phase 1: Empathize

Who MoneyMind Targets

MoneyMind is designed for three key groups:

Young professionals & first-time investors

Recently discharged soldiers, students & recent graduates

Young couples saving for a future goal

User Interviews

To ensure MoneyMind addresses real user pain points, I conducted AI-generated user interviews. Using AI-driven personas based on research insights, I simulated interviews with five young professionals struggling to start investing.

Breaking Down the Data: Finding Patterns

For each interview, I have added post-it notes to capture significant insights, quotes, key takeaways, and relevant details that could contribute to the research process.

Biggest pain points:

1. Fear of losing money

They worried about making the wrong move.

2. Unclear where to start

“There’s so much info out there, I don’t know what’s relevant for me.”

3. Overwhelming jargon

“I feel like I need a finance degree just to get started.”

Empathy Map

All the insights from the affinity map were synthesized into a single empathy map, consolidating the experiences of all users into one.

User Story – Defining the Core Need

In order to have the user need in mind for the next steps, I crafted a user story to guide me through the remaining stages, keeping the core goal and target audience in sharp focus as I designed.

As a beginner investor, I want a clear,

easy-to-follow guide to investing that walks me through the process step by step, empowering me to confidently take control of my financial future.

Phase 2: Define

The Problem to Tackle

The empathy map revealed a critical issue: beginner investors feel paralyzed by financial complexity, trapped between curiosity and inaction. It’s not just a lack of knowledge—it’s fear, overwhelm, and a void of engaging, accessible education untied to immediate investment pressure. New investors need a structured, approachable way to build financial literacy and confidence before committing real money to the market.

How Might We…? (HMW) Questions

Reframing the challenge by crafting 'How Might We' questions enabled turning pain points into opportunities.

HMW make investing tools intuitive & beginner-friendly?

HMW create a learning experience that builds confidence instead of intimidating users?

HMW simplify financial concepts while keeping them engaging & practical?

Shaping Insights into Statements

Crafting a problem statement and an hypothesis statement ensured that every design decision remained focused on solving real user problems rather than assumptions.

Problem Statement

New investors, from released soldiers to young couples, feel overwhelmed by jargon and lack confidence, needing a clear, interactive path to financial literacy.

Hypothesis Statement

If we create a gamified app that simplifies financial terms and offers interactive, step-by-step guidance, then the user will feel confident in his ability to start investing.

Setting KPI's

To measure whether MoneyMind effectively solves these challenges, the following KPIs were defined for success:

1. User Engagement

Time spent on learning modules.
Completion rate of interactive challenges & quizzes.

2. Conversion

Percentage of free trial users upgrading to paid subscriptions.
Drop-off rates during onboarding.

3. Retention

Percentage of users returning to complete multiple learning modules.

Tracking these KPIs helped validate whether MoneyMind kept users engaged, improved financial confidence, and provided a sustainable monetization model.

Phase 3: Ideate

Gathering Inspiration

Before designing MoneyMind’s user experience, I analyzed top educational apps to understand best practices in gamification, engagement, and interactive learning. Since MoneyMind is primarily an educational platform, I began my research with learning apps.

Learning & Gamified Education Apps

These apps excel in interactive learning, gamification, and engagement:

UXCEL

Challenge-based learning that makes education fun and interactive.

ELEVATE

Personalized learning paths to increase engagement.

Duolingo

Master of gamification (streaks, badges, progress tracking)

Brilliant

Active problem-solving rather than passive reading.

Direct Competitors – Investment Apps with Learning Features

Some investment platforms provide financial education, but it’s secondary to their investment tools:

Learning & Gamified Education Apps

These apps excel in interactive learning, gamification, and engagement:

Robinhood

Beginner-friendly articles, but lacks interactive engagement.

eToro

Offer financial education, but focus primarily on trading.

Fidelity

Offer financial education, but focus primarily on trading.

Bloom

A financial education and investing app for Gen Z, offering gamified learning.

Insights & Takeaways

Lack of engagement mechanics – Most rely on static articles or videos rather than interactive content.
Limited gamification – Few financial apps use game-like progression.

Setting KPI's

To measure whether MoneyMind effectively solves these challenges, the following KPIs were defined for success:

1. Gamification

Streaks, challenges, and interactive progress tracking.
Scoring system with a leaderboard

2. Bite-sized, structured lessons

A step-by-step learning approach.
Personilzed paths depending on privious knowlage

3. Real-world investment simulations

Hands-on experience in a risk-free environment.

4. Glossary collection

Making complex finance concepts accessible without oversimplifying.

Brain-dumping ideas

I've began with brain dumping ideas for features and screens, and mapped out those that would make learning engaging and effective:

User Flow

I've created a user flow Diagram to ensure a smooth, logical journey through the app:

Phase 4: Design

Starting with Rough Sketching - Crazy 8׳s

Before jumping into digital design, I explored multiple UI ideas through fast hand-drawn sketches using the Crazy 8s method

Moving to Low Fidelity

Once the best concepts were selected, I created low-fidelity wireframes

High Fidelity + UI Design

My favorite moment was seeing all the pieces click into place! Since I was responsible for both UX and UI, I dived into full UI design, bringing the screens to life with a polished, final look.

Home Page

This screen provides an overview of the user’s learning journey with progress tracking and easy navigation between lessons.

Features:

Daily streak tracker – Encourages consistency.
Personalized learning path – Users see upcoming lessons.
Quick access to next lesson – Keeps learning seamless.

Lesson & Quiz Flow

Lessons are interactive and bite-sized, making financial learning engaging rather than overwhelming.

Features:

Video lessons with transcripts – Accessible for different learning styles.
Interactive quizzes – Reinforces learning through active recall.
Gamified feedback – Correct answers get rewards, incorrect ones get guidance.

Glossary

This screen's purpose is to help the users grasp complex financial terms in a simple, visual way.

Features:

Unlockable Terms Collection – Users “collect” financial terms as they progress through lessons, creating a personal knowledge bank.
Searchable Glossary – Easy access to previously learned terms, with simple, jargon-free explanations.
Flashcard Practice Mode – Allows users to quiz themselves on unlocked terms, helping with retention and recall.

Profile & Leaderboard

Encourages engagement through progress tracking, social features, and rewards.

Features:

Badges & XP levels – Rewards learning milestones.
Leaderboard system – Adds a friendly competitive element.
Social connections – Users can add friends & expand their network.

AI Tutor Chat

Offers interactive financial guidance through chat and voice assistance, enhancing learning and engagement. AI adds value by making financial education more accessible and personalized.

Features:

Conversational AI Tutor – Provides instant, easy-to-understand financial explanations.
Popular Questions – Suggests relevant financial topics for deeper exploration.
Voice Interaction – Enables hands-free learning for convenience.
Teach-Back Feature – Users explain past lessons while AI corrects mistakes, reinforcing learning.
Progress Tracking – Earn XP and badges through engagement.

Phase 5: Test

Testing the High-Fidelity Prototype

After creating the high-fidelity prototype, I conducted usability testing to evaluate how users interacted with the product and whether it effectively helped them understand financial concepts. The primary goal was to measure engagement, comprehension, and overall usability.

I recruited five users from my target audience—young professionals, students, and first-time investors—to participate in moderated usability tests. During the sessions, I tracked how easily they navigated through lessons, completed quizzes, and interacted with gamification elements.

The insights were valuable:

Clear educational purpose – Users immediately recognized that this was a learning-based app.
Intuitive quiz & lesson flow – The structure felt natural and engaging.
Glossary & AI chat – These features were praised for their clarity and usefulness.
Profile screen – Users found it easy to navigate and track their progress.

However, some usability challenges emerged:

Currency as “lives” was confusing – Users associated coins with in-app payments rather than an energy system.  Possible solution - Reverted to using hearts instead.
Retry flow felt frustrating – When users answered incorrectly, they felt like they were being pushed backward into theory.  a possible solution - Allow a second attempt before directing them back to the lesson.
Home screen felt overwhelming at first glance – However, users acknowledged that this was designed for returning users. a possible solution: Testing will be expanded to evaluate the experience of first-time users separately.
Need for onboarding – Users highlighted the importance of a short but effective onboarding flow.

Heatmap Analysis: Visual Attention & Hierarchy Issues

By addressing these usability concerns, MoneyMind became a more intuitive and motivating platform, ensuring that users feel empowered to learn and progress confidently.

⚠ Issue: Call-to-action for Lesson 3 was not prominent. Solution: Increased the size of the arrow icon and used a brighter color to enhance visibility.

⚠ Issue: Text: Your Learning Path is in a high-attention area, and Overall visual hierarchy needed improvement. Solution: Using a slightly smaller font size to reduce its prominence and focus more on lesson content, and adding more whitespace between lesson cards to improve readability and focus on individual lessons.

By addressing these usability concerns, MoneyMind became a more intuitive and motivating platform, ensuring that users feel empowered to learn and progress confidently.

Conclusion & Next Steps

MoneyMind was designed to bridge the gap between intimidating financial education and engaging, gamified learning. Using the Design Thinking Process, I conducted user research, ideation, prototyping, and usability testing to craft an intuitive experience for first-time investors.

Next steps:

Further onboarding optimizations – Testing different onboarding flows to balance brevity and clarity.
Visual hierarchy refinements – Iterating on spacing and CTA prominence to enhance readability.
Additional user testing – Expanding tests to include first-time users for deeper insights into the learning curve.
Profile screen – Users found it easy to navigate and track their progress.

With these refinements, MoneyMind is one step closer to becoming a leading gamified financial education platform.