incentives
College students juggle many responsibilities, leaving little time to focus on financial literacy—an essential yet often overlooked skill. Traditional financial planning classes can help, but they don't fit all learning styles or schedules. Recognizing this gap, amanda and I used our UX/UI design skills to create a flexible, engaging financial literacy course. our solution allows students to learn at their own pace and rewards them with prizes for completing weekly lessons. Through this project, we gained valuable experience in both teamwork and instructional design.
to see an in-depth look at our research process, read our case study.
designed at tyler school of art and architecture
art direction: abby guido
partner: amanda andreucci
RESEARCH
We designed Incentives, a personal finance course made to be easy, engaging, and accessible for busy college students. Covering essentials like saving, budgeting, loans, and financial planning, the course is available on both desktop and mobile. Our main goal was to simplify financial learning by allowing students to set their own schedules and reduce stress. To keep things exciting, we added a reward system where students earn badges for completing lessons, which can be redeemed for real rewards at local businesses.
To ensure Incentives truly met student needs, we conducted focus groups, surveys, and interviews with both students and instructional design experts. Our research revealed a major gap in financial education, with most students never having learned personal finance in high school or college. Students preferred flexible, low-pressure learning, and were especially motivated by tangible rewards. With expert advice on course design and our skills in UX/UI, we created a learning platform that’s not only effective but also enjoyable and personalized.
DESIGN PROCESS
To develop the visual identity for Incentives, we began by researching competitor logos, noting trends like the use of blue for education and green for finance, and found that image-within-type logos worked well when the brand name remained clear. We then sketched a logo that balanced playfulness with professionalism, turning the “c” in Incentives into a stylized coin and pairing it with a bold typeface and a tagline to communicate the brand's purpose.
Drawing on insights from expert interviews, we designed a customizable, stress-free interface with features like a sortable dashboard and flexible scheduling. To solve common issues with mobile LMS platforms, we ensured Incentives works seamlessly on both desktop and mobile, offering a smooth user experience wherever students choose to learn.
THE INCENTIVES
A key feature of Incentives is its reward-based badge system, designed to keep students motivated by offering prizes like free hoodies, coffee, and pizza, with the final reward—early class registration—given upon course completion. Students can redeem badges directly from the app at local businesses, with rewards tailored to their specific university.
Designed remotely during the pandemic, the project challenged us to adapt our workflow, collaborating via Zoom, shared files, and constant communication. Despite the distance, we successfully combined our skills to create a meaningful, engaging tool that supports financial literacy and improves the student learning experience.
