Dollars & Decisions

A Financial Literacy Game for young adults

Dollars & Decisions is an open source game. Try it out.

My Role:

Lead Product Designer

Art Director

UX Research

Overview

Dollars and Decisions is an educational game designed to enhance financial literacy among high school students. It employs a choose-your-own-adventure format, immersing players in realistic financial scenarios within an engaging narrative. By combining fun with fundamental financial concepts, the game aims to break down barriers to financial education and make learning both relevant and enjoyable.

The game's development was guided by recent survey data showing that 93% of teens and 97% of parents recognize the critical importance of financial literacy for achieving life goals.

Story and Characters

Players step into the shoes of a recent high school graduate who relocates to a new city, starts a job, and navigates their newfound independence. The main character encounters various real-world financial challenges, including budgeting, handling taxes and credit cards, and managing emergency expenses. Players' choices directly influence the character's financial stability and overall success, providing a practical understanding of the consequences of financial decisions.

Meet the Characters

Game Features

Student Choice

Players begin by selecting their character and job, setting the stage for their adventure. This choice impacts their financial journey and the scenarios they encounter.

Modular Learning

The game is divided into modules, each focusing on a specific financial concept. These modules build upon each other, progressively deepening the player's financial understanding.

Interactive Financial Management

Players manage their virtual bank accounts and budgets, providing hands-on experience with financial decision-making.

Final Assessment and Feedback

At the start and end of the game, players complete assessments to gauge their financial knowledge. They receive a performance report with actionable recommendations to improve their financial habits.

Design and Development Process

Scriptwriting and Conceptualization

As a key contributor to the project, I was involved in crafting the storyline and developing job options for players. This phase included detailed research on Generation Z’s media interactions and financial attitudes, ensuring the game’s content resonated with the target audience.

Art Direction and Interface Design

As the art director, I led a team of illustrators, animators, and writers to develop a visually cohesive and engaging game environment. We created relatable and aspirational characters and designed an intuitive user interface. Initial testing with our target age group helped refine our designs to ensure they met user expectations.

Technical Development

Collaborating closely with the technical team, I ensured the game was optimized for consistent performance across various devices. Our focus on high-performance coding provided a smooth and reliable user experience.

User Feedback

We conducted extensive user testing with high school students and educators nationwide to gather insights into the game's effectiveness and reception. Key findings included:
1. Users appreciated the game’s enjoyable and educational nature, noting that it made complex financial concepts more accessible.

2. Feedback highlighted the quality of character design and narrative, with users finding the game’s style and content relatable and believable.

For Teachers

Initially, the game was developed as an open-source platform, allowing students to play without creating accounts. This approach ensured data privacy but limited teacher oversight. In phase 2, we introduced a teacher dashboard to enhance the educational experience.

Classroom Management

Teachers can now create and manage multiple classrooms, generate class codes, and create student accounts.

Reports

The dashboard allows educators to view detailed reports on student progress and learning outcomes, facilitating more effective teaching and support.