Young Girls. Big Ideas. Research shows that most low socio-economic girls/students are most likely to continue struggling financially in adulthood because they do not receive financial education. This exploratory design project examines the gap between low-socio economic girls and sustainable wealth by co-designing an educational tool for financial literacy.
Role: Researcher & Facilitator
Team: T.Villalobos, J.York, N.Shah
Category: human-centered design, product design
Methods: research, participatory design, ux prototyping
Prototype: please click here
Institution: OCAD University
Team: T.Villalobos, J.York, N.Shah
Category: human-centered design, product design
Methods: research, participatory design, ux prototyping
Prototype: please click here
Institution: OCAD University
THE PROCESS:
The goal of this participatory design session was to understand the best ways to engage and motivate students in learning activities - by leveraging the expertise of teachers. Within well-designed group activities, the teachers would act as expert guides into the world of students. Their expertise would expedite the process of identifying a design solution to our problem space – promoting financial literacy amongst low income young women. We sought to understand the following:
● Challenges teachers and students face in collaborative learning
● Methodologies that might assist in the instruction of our subject matter
● Communication and language styles most effective for use in our design.
● Methodologies that might assist in the instruction of our subject matter
● Communication and language styles most effective for use in our design.
Step 1: Conducted two participatory design sessions with experienced teachers of girls ages 8-12 to understand the best ways that this age group of students would learn and receive information. Uncovered game techniques, wordplay, name associations that served as the best learning methods for students.
Step 2: After the co-design, data analysis and coding exercise, helped source financial literacy info appropriate for age group and sorted the learning content into wordplay and name association models as a learning exercise.
Step 3: Structured these learning exercises into a multi-level game designed for the user to move through in an entrepreneur mindset – branding the financial learning experience as a business/entrepreneur learning game for girls.
