BANK OF AMERICA
Budgeting isn’t a game
[ Right??? ]
Bank of America offers Better Money Habits® courses to thousands of college freshmen every year. They wanted to create a digital experience to engage more students and teach them that strategic budgeting is the key to making smart financial decisions that would improve their lives now, and for years to come. But how could they do it in a way that wouldn’t feel like another class? That’s where they engaged my Experience Design team to generate a solution from concepts through completion.
THE ASK
Motivate and enable college students to increase their financial acumen
Generate loyalty with valuable content delivered through unexpected and memorable experiences
Create a pilot app with social, scalable experiences
Partner with colleges to expand learning communities
Convert players into new checking customers
“We talk with college freshmen who are moving out of Mom and Dad’s house. When we explain they will have to allocate specific money for buying everything their parents have bought, we specifically mention…
TOILET PAPER.
It Never fails — a few minds are always [visually] blown by this realization.”
Leah Moon
CX Strategy & Integration Lead
Bank of America
In all seriousness, this quote emphasized the real-life impact my team could make if we created a learning experience that kept students engaged, while also increasing their financial awareness and acumen at this critical point in their lives.
The Solution
We created G.O.A.T.* Dorm — an educational app that uses gamification to teach practical concepts in financial budgeting and planning. Deployed to colleges and universities, G.O.A.T. Dorm provides a unique opportunity to acclimate students to better financial habits, build community relationships at universities, and delight future customers through the innovation of the Bank of America brand.
*Greatest Of All Time
Gameplay
Since there’s a lot of financial content to share and learn, we created a unique visual design, intentionally utilizing familiar patterns from popular color-matching gaming apps. This helped ensure students weren’t exhausted by learning the game by the time they reached the financial learning portion of the experience.
Points-to-currency
At the end of each game level, students are able to convert their points to ‘Buccaroons’ (the app’s fictional currency). The more Buccaroons they earn, the more choices (practical and extravagant) they have to outfit their dorm room.
Financial acumen quizzes
At the end of each game level, students can answer financially-focused, multiple choice questions to increase their level scores. Players are awarded a Point Multiplier for correct answers, an explanation when they choose the wrong answer, and invitations to “Visit the Library to Learn More” after each quiz.
The Dorm
First-time players will have a basic, bare dorm they will be able to spruce up with their needs and wants with ‘Buccaroons’ they earn through playing the financially-focused educational game. They can choose to purchase school supplies like books and laptops, basic living needs such as bedding and toiletries. The further into the game, the choices of items can become more practical or more extravagant — depending on how the student balances their budget spend. Spending too much on extravagant wants, may cause them to deplete inventory of their needs — like toilet paper!
Level map
There are eight levels to complete on campus, with 10 games in each, for a total of 80. Once a player completes a level, they’re shown a star status, indicating how well they played. Players can’t continue to the next level until they’ve passed the one prior, but they can go back and replay levels to get the highest score and star counts they desire.
During testing, we found including buildings specific to a school’s campus tested with higher student engagement scores (versus generic building names). In the example below, The Library, The Swamp and The Century Tower were all designed to look like the real buildings on the University of Florida campus. Additionally, we added palm trees and alligators to bring in the local flavor to the map.
The Team
Creative Director:
Kevin Flores
UX Designer:
John Blackwell
UI Designer & Illustrator:
Shannon Flowerday
Researcher:
Michael Benning
Developers:
Zachary Conner
Ryan Murphy
Account Executive:
Les Morelock
Project Manager:
Ross Cooper
Client:
Lea Moon
Senior Vice President
Financial Center Marketing, Innovation and Emerging Experiences