Build habits
Make spending patterns visible and help users take small steps toward new habits.
Finance
A finance app, designed from the ground up for smarter saving with tangible saving goals
A smart digital wallet that helps teens build money habits through spending jars, savings goals, and personalized financial education. Created for RISD’s Design for Interaction, Spring 2026.
The problem
Money becomes a responsibility before it feels familiar.
Buckaroo began with a gap: access to financial education is uneven, yet young people are expected to make everyday decisions about spending and saving. A banking interface can show a balance without helping someone understand what to do with it.
For my RISD Design for Interaction project, I explored how a money tool could also be a learning tool. The opportunity was to meet teens in the choices they already make: food, music, rides, and the things they want to save for.
Design goals
Combine a useful wallet with education that feels personal.
I framed the opportunity around three goals. Together, they shift the experience from simply recording money to helping someone build a relationship with it.
Personalize education
Connect guidance to the decisions, categories, and goals that matter to each person.
Keep it fun and intuitive
Use a familiar, expressive interface designed around teens and their preferences.
North star
Help teens learn about money through the way they use it.
A smart digital wallet that connects everyday spending, meaningful goals, and financial education.
Design approach
Make money tangible, then make the next step clear.
The wallet, cards, and jars use familiar objects to give abstract amounts a form. Saving goals attach progress to something a user wants, while lessons and insights bring learning back to everyday choices.
The visual language follows the same idea: warm surfaces, colorful category markers, rounded cards, and a characterful wordmark. The goal is an approachable place to return to, with amounts and actions kept easy to read.
The solution
Five parts of one everyday money habit.
Wallet, Jars, Goals, Learn, and Insights work together: see what you have, decide where it goes, plan for something meaningful, and learn from the choices along the way.
01 / Wallet
A familiar place to start.
The wallet brings spending and savings into one tactile starting point. A balance, a weekly tip, and recent transactions answer the immediate questions before asking someone to go deeper.
Separate spending from saving
Virtual cards give money a visible purpose, with room for users to customize the look to their personality.
Make guidance part of the check-in
A relevant weekly tip sits alongside everyday activity, connecting education to the choices someone is already making.
02 / Jars
Give every activity its own budget.
Food, going out, subscriptions, and transport are easier to picture than a spreadsheet. Jars turn those familiar activities into categories with their own limits and progress.
A limit you can see
Each jar pairs its monthly allowance with a progress bar, showing what has been spent and what remains.
A pace you can adjust
The concept supports daily, weekly, and monthly limits so a budget can fit the way someone actually spends.
03 / Goals
Turn “I want that” into a plan.
Saving becomes more tangible when it is attached to something someone cares about. The goal flow begins with a product link, then connects that wish to a weekly savings plan.
Start with the object
The concept pulls in a product’s name and price, giving a goal a recognizable image and a clear target.
See the path forward
Progress, the amount remaining, a weekly pace, and an estimated completion date make the plan easier to understand and adjust.
04 / Learn
Learn a little. Use it in real life.
Financial education lives inside the wallet experience. Short lessons make it easy to begin, while structured paths and deeper topics leave room to build understanding over time.
An approachable daily entry
Daily cards, short slide lessons, and quizzes bring a playful rhythm to topics that can otherwise feel intimidating.
Room to explore
A learning path provides direction; Explore lets users follow their own questions about spending, saving, and credit.
05 / Insights
Make spending patterns easier to recognize.
Raw transactions only tell part of the story. Insights organizes them into charts, category breakdowns, and contextual prompts that help someone reflect on their habits.
Move between overview and detail
Time filters, a spending chart, and category totals support both a quick check and a closer look.
Connect the pattern to a next step
A nudge beside the breakdown turns a pattern into a small, concrete action, while the transaction list keeps the detail accessible.
User feedback
The learning felt approachable. The categories needed clarity.
I shared Buckaroo with three young people, ages 17, 19, and 20. Their responses pointed to what felt intuitive—and to a distinction between cards and jars that still needed work.
Approachable learning
“The learning page felt really intuitive as it makes the subject of money feel approachable.”
Tangible categories
“Being able to sort savings into separate category jars is a great visual indicator for where my money goes”
An unclear distinction
“Cards caused some confusion. I wasn’t sure whether the card name should match the jar name or be something different.”
Reflection / Next steps
Playfulness needs a clear mental model.
Buckaroo became a concept that brings financial education into the same place as everyday money decisions. The feedback suggests that tangible categories and approachable lessons are promising, while the relationship between cards and jars needs a clearer explanation.
The next iteration would focus on that distinction: explain what each object does, refine naming, and test whether users can confidently organize their money. To understand the impact beyond these first impressions, I would also need to evaluate how the experience supports learning and money habits over time.
