Mortgage Hero

UX Research

2021 Spring 9 weeks

Team: Cindy Liu, Heying Wang, Shuo Jin, Shuqi Yang

Role: Project Manager, UX researcher, UX designer

OVERVIEW

Our client, Blend, came to us with first-time home buyers' financial literacy problem. We find that First-time home-buyer always has very little knowledge of financial literacy in the home-buying process but also facing anxiety when they start the research. They always get bored and overwhelmed feeling of the too much data and text since home-buying is a very serious topic.

We propose the solution “Mortgage Hero" A website-based educational game that aims to enhance young adults’ financial literacy in the home-buying process.

PROBLEM

Based on our research, we find that First-time home-buyer always has anxiety around being asked for too much personal information or lack of financial knowledge, and when they start the research, they always get overwhelmed feeling of too much data and text. Through extensive research, we came up with the HMW question

“How might we improve young adults’ financial literacy

by utilizing the functionality of online platforms via game?”

METHODS

Process: Wall Walk & Problem Reframing ➡ Contextual Inquiry➡ Interpretation session ➡ Affinity Diagram ➡ Think-aloud Protocol ➡ Speed Dating ➡ Prototyping

FINDINGS

SOLUTION

Low-Fi prototype

We first started with the low-fi prototype to showcase multiple interfaces including all the information and tentative user interaction we want to use in the game. This is a low-fi prototype but still effective in transferring our ideas to the users being tested. We had four interviews through Zoom with our target population group and ask the participants to play through the prototype and we used the think-aloud method to let the participants express their thoughts while playing the prototype.

After all the interviews, we gained many insights and feedback on our design. Most participants expressed that they could not relate to the characters we provided, so we decided to let the player create their own characters. Most of the participants also said the date progress bar was confused, so we changed it to a calendar to make it more clear. We also add more definitions and financial info since many participants says they want more info while they were asked to make decisions

Hi-Fi prototype

Mortgage Hero is a website-based educational game that aims to enhance young adults’ financial literacy in the home-buying process.

By first picking a character and making several financial choices throughout the simulated homebuying process, the users can gain both feedbacks for their responses and other related knowledge. This game thus provided a general and holistic understanding of the financial-related aspects of the homebuying process. Also, users can use the game as a handy tool when calculating their own affordability and comparing different mortgage plans.