Groove Money
A view of the product dashboard.
Background
Groove Money is a financial literacy & education product that helps young adults take control of their finances by focusing on creating positive financial habits and increasing financial understanding.
My Role
I was the first & founding product designer on the project. I engaged stakeholders in discovery activities that set the foundation of the product. Several years into the products life, I ran a full product audit to uncover areas of friction created by adding features. I also did UX planning for a gamification system to increase user engagement.
Impact
73% of users reported the platform helped them develop healthy money habits while also improving how they felt toward finances.
Role
Design Lead - Product Designer
Timeline
Jan 2021 - Jan 2025
Team
1 PM, 1 Account Exec, 2-4 Engineers, 1-3 Designer
Tools
Figma, Jira, Adobe Suite, Blender 3D
Contributions
product discovery, brand development, product strategy, UI/UX Design
Problem
Young adults weren’t just stressed about finances, they were overwhelmed by how to start taking control of their financial future.
Most had never been taught the basics and didn’t know where to begin. The market was saturated with tools, but none of them spoke to users’ actual mindset.
Goal
Create a platform that empowered young adults to feel confident about their financial decisions by creating a thoughtful learning experience.
Assorted view of the marketing homepage design.
Challenges
For most of the first phase of the project I had to design by proxy.
In most meetings, design was being represented by a Brand Strategist and a Front End Dev Lead. In discovery and most client engagements, there were so many attendees from both sides that I was part of a small group that had to get information from the team members in the meetings. It wasn’t ideal but I approached it as a challenge and not a hinderance. I trusted my team and knew they could communicate my thoughts and intentions clearly to the key stakeholders and vice versa. I also got pretty good at scrubbing through meeting recordings to notice situational context of what stakeholders were saying.
Research
During my research and working with my team, I narrowed in on a few key pain points:
Young adults are easily overwhelmed by their finances
A broad spectrum of backgrounds meant we needed to meet the user where they were, not a ‘one size fits all’ approach
Stakeholders were frustrated by not having an effective way of dispersing their vast library of financial education content
Most financial apps on the market focus on tools - not the ‘why’ behind good financial habits
I realized we needed to be mindful of the complexity of a personal financial journey
Meet Blobby, your #1 financial cheerleader.
Opportunities
How might we create an educational experience that helps users of varying levels of financial literacy?
How might we leverage the expansive library of financial literacy content the client has?
How might we validate that a users financial literacy is increasing?
Decisions
I understood what it felt like to live with financial uncertainty, so empathy became a guiding principle in every design decision.
We didn’t want to build just another budgeting tool—we aimed to create something that offered hope. That meant focusing less on judgment and more on clarity. By designing experiences that explained the why behind financial concepts, not just tools, we empowered users to build habits grounded in understanding.
Decision 1
Fun aesthetic to lighten the mood
Many young adults avoid finances not out of laziness, but because stress makes it feel inaccessible. Through stakeholder research, we saw that even well-meaning tools triggered anxiety and drop-off. So I leaned into a disarming design—soft shapes, vibrant color, and a quirky typeface to lower that emotional barrier. Once users felt safe, they were more likely to engage, ask questions, and stay long enough to learn.
Decision 2
A product audit revealed friction
After running a full product audit, I uncovered how years of well-meaning feature growth had unintentionally created friction—especially during onboarding. Tools felt disjointed, and users often didn’t know where to begin. To address this, I introduced a content rating system that scored educational material by complexity (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and matched it to users based on quiz results and in-app engagement. This allowed features to work together more intentionally, creating a personalized learning path rooted in each user’s financial readiness.
Decision 3
Increase engagement through gamification
To combat stagnation and encourage repeat engagement, I designed a gamification system with three distinct models. The first was a linear progression system where users earned experience through activity and unlocked rewards at each level—every five levels granting a major item. The second introduced a shop model, letting users spend points they accrued to buy avatar flair. Ultimately, I designed a hybrid system: users advanced linearly but had to choose how to spend points on level-specific rewards. This added a light layer of strategy—encouraging users to think ahead, save points, and stay engaged with long-term goals.
Decision 4
Meet the user where they were
To make the experience feel more personal and supportive, I designed a system that scored users based on psychological financial assessments. That score informed tailored content recommendations and shaped their first steps on the platform. Guided by a friendly mascot named Blobby, users were nudged toward areas that matched their needs—like setting and tracking financial goals, building healthy habits, or exploring how compound interest shapes long-term savings. The goal was to reduce decision fatigue and help users take meaningful action from day one.
Final Design
The initial launch focused on building the core platform experience, where I designed the UI, UX, and user flows to reduce stress and make learning approachable. Educational content was tagged by complexity and surfaced based on a user’s financial confidence—scored through psychological assessments and in-app activity. A mascot named Blobby helped guide users to key features like goal-setting, savings tools, and habit-building content.
Post-launch, I began UX strategy work on future systems to deepen engagement. This included a hybrid gamification model where users earned and spent points on level-specific rewards—adding strategy and motivation. Paired with the content scoring system, these planned features aimed to create a more adaptive experience that encouraged growth over time.
Outcomes
Users Financial Literacy & Feelings
72% Reported groove helped them feel better about money
73% felt the platform helped them develop healthy money habits
89% reported groove helped them learn about personal finance
Reflection
In future phases, I would have completed the high-fidelity design of the gamification system by fleshing out reward structures, progression logic, and UI patterns. I also planned to collaborate closely with stakeholders and the research team to develop a consistent content scoring model, so that each user’s financial literacy score could meaningfully guide their experience.
One of my biggest takeaways was learning to approach finance with deeper empathy. It’s an emotionally charged, often overwhelming subject for many users. Designing with that in mind made carefully consider tone of content and structure of features. I learned that small UX choices can make a big difference in reducing stress and building trust.