Cash Blitz prototype

Consumer spending awareness has become a prominent topic in discussions about financial behavior, with the widespread availability of spending trackers in mobile banking applications contributing to increased awareness of customers' purchasing habits. Nevertheless, despite the wide availability of resources and information about money management, there is a growing concern regarding the potential number of non-performing loans indicating borrower’s financial struggles (Khairi et al., 2021). Moreover, the poverty rate due to indebtedness is higher among young people (15–24 years old) than among older adults (Coffey et al., 2023). In particular, young people are reluctant to ask for help because of the solitary and personal experiences of humiliation associated with debt, overspending, and thoughtless financial choices.

Being aware that young people would rather experiment with their own money rather than ask for assistance or be upfront about their financial circumstances, I propose creating a gamification feature called Cash Blitz. Cash Blitz is a narrative game designed to delve into the player's habits and choices regarding cash management. This feature is expected to play a significant role in forecasting purchasing patterns and assessing readiness for financial risk, potentially benefiting e-commerce, banking applications, and individuals.

Gameplay and Prototyping

The gameplay component consists of two primary sections where users are expected to set their circumstances/settings and the systems will store scores in each progression.

  • Customizable profile: Players create a persona of a character. The identity variables could be in the form of name, gender, occupation, income, number of households or pets that a character needs to support with her income, and her future financing planning.
  • Monthly goals and challenges: The game started by the first day of the month. And every two or three days there would be a prompt of events in which players should decide on what to do with the primary, secondary and tertiary needs wrapped in realistic events. The player will receive a report at the end of a full month indicating whether or not they met the bar.
  • Realistic events: This is the main idea of the game. This part mirrors common financial scenarios introducing unexpected challenges and opportunities to enhance decision-making. This part can be enhanced by forming partnerships with existing brands or pulling out some products in the shopping cart, if this is embedded in an e-commerce platform.
  • Scoring: The threshold is set by using a ±5% tolerance to evaluate how well players' follow the plan. For instance, in the event that a player chooses to allocate 70% of their funds for spending and 30% for saving, the system will only accept amounts that closely match this predefined plan. In the event that players are passing the results they will have to try the challenge again and miss the coupon incentive until a more precise result.
  • Game prototype: Please refer to this Figma page for the visual demonstration, and kindly ensure that the options on the upper right corner are set to "fit to screen".

    • ui/ux