Spendopia

Service Design | Illustration | 2023-2024

Scratch the itch, Saving through Buying!
A playful digital pet and virtual shopping world that help Gen Z with ADHD channel real-world spending urges into saving, through fun, gamified alternatives.

[ Uni Project]

About

Royal College of Art graduation project  12 weeks team work

Team

Olivia Li
Sunny Duangvichai
Lucy Song.

Project Overview

Mindful Money is a collaborative project at the Royal College of Art, part of the Future Finance Challenge Lab. Tasked with reimagining financial services through the lens of human and societal needs, we chose to focus on 'Financial Inclusion: Neurodiversity in Digital Services'. Our approach requires a deep dive into understanding our specific user group, pinpointing their challenges, and focusing our design intervention in a direction that promises the most impactful solutions.

Why this project...

The Challenge

How might we empower GenZ, especially those with ADHD, to curb impulsive spending, ensuring they are prepared for unforeseen financial challenges and reinforcing their confidence to pursue their life aspirations?

My Role

I led this 12-week student project, working closely with two other service design students.   My responsibilities included:

Recruiting participants and conducting user research
Facilitating workshops and co-creation sessions
Prototyping and testing key features
Developing the business model

Project Outcome

Spendopia offers a gamified saving experience with a focus on curbing impulsive spending during the checkout stage, where 48% of such behaviours occur. To achieve this, we present users with virtual alternative products that they can purchase instead of impulsive buying real goods. These virtual items can be showcased within a virtual community, and the money spent on them is channelled into a dedicated UK-licensed bank saving pot for future redistribution.

Feature 01

Playful digital pet AI saving assistance help draw your attention away from impulsive buying

Do you know: Gen Zers admit they get more joy from seeing their pet happy than their partner (36% vs 21%), more than any other generation.
A gentle notification can help draw your attention away from impulsive buying.

Feature 02

Virtual alternative shopping, change your every online shopping into a saving

When you feel the urge to make a purchase, consider buying a virtual product to use within a virtual community, offering an opportunity to connect with friends.
Moreover, you can establish your own savings fund, and what's even more exciting, you can collaborate on a savings pot with your family and friends!"

Feature 03

Link To You License Bank

Partnership with license bank help protect your money in a safe space

Project Objectives

Persona creation

User Research

Leo’s Bank Statement

Impulsive Purchases:

The statement includes several high-ticket online impulsive buys such as gadgets, clothes, and home decor, indicating a lack of planned spending.

Problem statement

Gen Z individuals with ADHD are severely tormented by impulsive spending.

41% Gen Z individuals in the UK commonly struggle with impulsive spending. However, individuals with ADHD are more prone to becoming victims of impulsive behaviour, the challenge is intensified due to cognitive impairments in planning and self-control.

The scope of the problem

The Hidden Cost of Impulsive Spending Affects 41% of Gen Z Individuals' Daily Lives.

60% of individuals who are living with ADHD are suffer from impulsive spending
£1600 is the cost of a year on average due to impulsive spending behaviours

Impact

Uncontrolled Spending

Reduced future access to beneficial financial services

Debt traps

Constant financial worries compound mental strains

Mental Stress

Unpreparedness for unexpected costs

Financial Crisis

Hidden cost

Calculation of Potential Savings over 5 and 10 Years

Example:

Initial Amount: £0
Annual Contribution to Savings: £800 to a high-interest savings account
Annual Contribution to Investments: £800 to an investment portfolio
Annual Rate: 5% for the investment portion

After 5 years: Approximately £9,186
After 10 years: Approximately £21,007

By turning spending impulses into savings, Gen Z can start building toward real financial goals, from emergency funds and debt repayment to education, home ownership, and future security.

For example:

Emergency Fund
Debt Repayment
Retirement Savings
Down Payment for a home  Education or Skills Training

What we learned

Insights

Individuals who impulsively spend often experience a cycle of immediate joy and subsequent regret, yet this regret does not deter future purchases.

Pleasantness

Browsing for purchase

Implusive purchase is made

When the pleasure run out after 1-2 days

As a long term influence

Reget

😒

😱

😍

☺️

Extreme Happiness

Process of losing control

Extreme Anxiety

It feels good, but not for long; stress soon follows when I realise the negative consequences of our purchases, namely money problems

Anxiety

Satisfaction & extreme joy, produces a quick dopamine rush. Can’t control themselves to

Impulsive behaviour often stems from executive dysfunction, which diminishes self-control and makes rational decision-making difficult during the pursuit of a dopamine rush. They failed to recognise their impulsive behaviour, always being late to catch on.

Executive

Function

Describes a set of cognitive abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviours. Executive functions are necessary for goal-directed behaviour.

Internalisation of Speech

Reconstitution

Working

Memory

Self-regulation of motivation

Having trouble over decision making

Having strong sense of impulses and having problem control desire

Having hard time deal with savings due to lack of motivation

Impulsive behaviour favours immediate gratification at the expense of future rewards, posing potential risks.

Weak executive inhibition is overshadowed by the joy from cognitive dissonance; the itch of desire runs over and takes control.

Frontal Lobe

Dopamine Rush

Perceptions

Represention of emotional reaction

Threat Cue

Coping for emotional control

Appraisal of coping outcomes

People with ADHD

😍

Experience immidate desire and pleasure

Impulse buying produces a quick dopamine rush leads to exceeding pleasure

Fall in regulating the recuring implusive behavior because of the pleasure

😔

Suppose be regulated by Self-regulation of motivation

Design Vision

We believe that helping individuals regain control of their spending helps them build resilience in facing unseen crises and enables them to have more faith and ability to achieve their life goals.

First Step

“Scratch the itch” while helping people regain the control of their spending

Design Vision

Help improve executive function, engage in management practices and enable people achieve a good state in finance

Big picture

Help GenZ individuals have good financial literacy and well-being

Theory of change

The behaviour change model

Recognise the “stop signal” when building impulse

Fulfil the need for social comparison

“Control Impulse”

“Reduce the harm”

“Scratch the itch” of impulse

Design Intervention

Grounded in behavioural psychology (operant conditioning), our interventions are:

Setting three barriers against potential impulsiveness during the entire shopping journey.

The Pet Assistant – Nudges and distracts during impulsive moments in a user-chosen tone
“Saving Through Buying” – Virtual shopping experiences that satisfy the urge while saving real money
The Virtual Home – A creative space to display virtual purchases and connect with friends

Consumer decision making process

Target User

Strategies to broaden our target user base for maximum inclusiveness across different weights at three levels.

Based on primary user research and using four fundamental cognitive abilities evaluation criteria, we have classified our users into three main representative personas based on their levels of executive function capacity.

Prototype & Test

We tested the concept with 153 participants (Gen Z and financial experts) via prototyping videos and feature polls.

Impact

Our target users responded positively to the virtual product features, sharing that the pet-saving assistant helped shift their focus away from impulsive shopping in a lighthearted, non-intrusive way.  
Industry experts also saw strong potential for business integration, highlighting Spendopia as a promising fintech solution that makes banking more engaging, accessible, and enjoyable — especially for younger, neurodiverse audiences.

UI Design

The Spendopia APP

Information architecture of the app

First Use

Daily use

Reset password

Create Account

Notification authorise

Link to your Bank

Setting Menu

Online Shopping

Virtual Shopping

Consume

Virtual Product

Link to real world

Impulsive behaviour recognise

Setting barrier,

Send “STOP” signal

Behaviour checking authorise

Trigger

Sending notification

Tone of voice

Play with virtual pet

Mindful Money Platform

Instagram filter

Mindful Money Platform

Motivation stay onboard

Other virtual service / platform

Link with your friends

Decorate you virtual home

Motivational words

Suggest drop the phone

Suggest virtual product

Recognise behaviour

Distract of attention

Transfer of attention

Create saving pot

Saving goal

Spend plan

Onboarding Screen

Introduce service

Spending habit test

Accessibility setting

Create avatar

Adopt virtual pet

User Journey

Step 01

Create Your Avatar and Adopt a Virtual Pet Savings Assistant Today!

> Take a quick test to understand your spending habits.
> Customise your pet assistant's notification tone of voice.
> Adjust your daily purchase limit and savings amount.
> Modify the frequency and style of notifications.

Step 02

Understand your savings

> Notifications alert you to impulsive spending.
> Pop-up games distract from shopping.
> A final reminder limits you to one last purchase, suggesting a virtual alternative.

Step 03

Understand your savings

> Choose virtual alternatives to prevent purchase regret
> Enjoy the shopping experience without actual spending.

> A virtual platform allows you to create your space and connect with friends, enriching the meaning of virtual shopping.

Step 04

Virtual product & Virtual Community

> Transactions on Spendopia are automatically saved in Legacy Bank.
> Create personalised savings pots for different purposes.
> Collaborate with friends to build savings pots together.

Step 05

Link to your Bank!

Next Step

Potential Scenario for Virtual Product

As we scale up the Spendopia virtual community, the Virtual Product can enter into partnerships with social media platforms such as Instagram and the Metaverse, among others. These partnerships could encompass a wide range of virtual offerings, including game equipment, photo filters, NFT art pieces, or virtually anything that can be experienced online.