I was selected to participate in the Spring 2018 IDEO CoLab Makeathon! In this all-day event, my team and I explored the potential for AI to assist with financial management for new grads.

Our final presentation involved a simulated voice UI.

The makeathon is a team-based event, where we met our teams and topics the day-of. Throughout, we used a technology-based design process to address our prompt of AI and finance.

We realized that AI is scary, finances are scary, and even scarier is your future. Our voice assistant-based prototype, xtal (shorthand for crystal), would check in with you to discuss how your daily habits would affect your student loan payments and related goals. By accessing your credit card transactions (similar to Mint), the AI could use that data to help you understand and engage in healthy financial habits. By sharing your values with xtal, you are able to reflect on your habits and whether they are helping you be your best self, whether that’s you on vacation, or you living debt-free. We didn’t want the AI to have an overbearing presence, and a key part was being able to integrate personal, emotional attachment to visualizing your financial goals.

Since we were a team of recent/soon-to-be grads, we created an initial user based off our experiences. I conducted research on current loan repayment strategies and methodologies, and led a comparison of existing apps.

I learned a lot about working with a team, especially when our idea failed to crystallize until the very end when we simplified it. Initally, we envisioned a system closer to meeting with a financial advisor but when it failed that “would even we use it?” test, we stripped away many interactions. At the end, the voice UI would respond to major credit transactions or when a user would start a conversation. We struggled to find a use case for our prompt, and in hindsight, should have taken a hard break during the day instead of working through lunch.

It was exhilarating to prototype my first mindful technology creation! I wrote my first voice interface script. I didn’t realize my normal way of speaking would sound so mean when a computer said it. Our team didn’t have pre-defined roles, and I took on the role of a systems designer. It was challenging, tiring, and I want to do it again (maybe I’ll lead one back at CWRU?)