Sensum

Design Research Project
This is a project to explore design opportunities for how members of generation C organise their finances through the use of digital wallets and the internet of things. The brief was made as a collaboration between the Glasgow School of Art and Tesco Bank. The brief asked us to look at how members of generation C use current technologies and how that impacts their financial decisions.
Team : Yerim Moon, Fiona, Vanessa, Iona
‍Role : Primary research, Secondary research, Analysis, Concept development, Proposal
‍Duration : Three Months
Contents
INTRODUCTION
Summary of Brief
Methodology

RESEARCH
Financial Literacy
Research Questions
Stakeholder Engagement

INSIGHT ANALYSIS
Evidence Wall & Insights
Conclusion
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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Brainstorming and Ideation
Design Solution
Introduction
Summary of brief
The brief for our project was to explore design opportunities for how members of generation C and organise their finances through the use of digital wallets and the internet of things.

The brief was made as a collaboration between the GSA and Tesco Bank. The brief asked us to look at how members of generation C use current technologies and how that impacts their financial decisions.
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What Is A digital Wallet ?
A third party product, often an app, that can store the user’s payment information and the passwords attached to it.

What is the IoT ?
The Internet of Things (IoT) describes the inter connection of objects (or Things) for various purposes including identification, communication, sensing, and data collection.
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What is Generation C ?
Generation C is a term coined by Google in 2013. Unlike Generation X or Y, Generation C doesn’t refer to a specific age group, but to an attitude that people have towards technology.
Defining the problem
Within the context of the brief, there were numerous areas that we could have explored. One of our main considerations when choosing a direction was the fact that Generation C is not made up entirely of Millennials and that any age group could be a part of it. One of the key characteristics of this user group is that they like to keep connected with each other via social media.

The lines between what is private and what is public for them is becoming increasingly blurry. Would they mimic their behaviour within their online environment when it comes to their finances, or is that still an area that is considered too private to be shared with others?

We wanted to gain an understanding of how this group interacts with their finances, therefore we’ve decided to focus on financial literacy and education because this forms the basis of a person’s interaction with their finances.
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Methodology
Although our design process wasn’t linear, the methodology that we’ve followed can be split into four stages:
DESK & FIELD RESEARCH
From our research we wanted to get a clear understanding of how Generation C interacts with their finances as well as their attitudes towards the current banking system. We’ve selected stakeholders from
INSIGHT ANALYSIS
We had a rich set of data from our research phase and we made sense of it within a workshop held by Iain Aitchinson. We’ve generated theories and insights based on our data by using inductive, deductive and abductive thinking processes.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
The insights generated in the previous phase formed the basis for our initial idea generation. We’ve come up with solutions for becoming aware of one’s financial situation throughout various stages of a person’s life.
DESIGN SOLUTION
The design solution encapsulates all of our design insights, the feedback we were given from our initial concepts and the values that Tesco Bank promotes as a brand.
Research
Financial Literacy
What is financial literacy?
In the context of this project, we defined financial literacy as being a person’s awareness of their financial situation at any given time. This awareness stems from the knowledge gained about finances from various people and resources throughout a person’s life.

Why is financial literacy important ? 
People are becoming more and more independent in making financial decisions. This independence works best when the person has knowledge of how finances work. Having the knowledge to confidently make financial decisions plays a key part in having a balanced lifestyle.

Where financial literacy came from ?
We’ve chosen to focus on financial literacy because we felt that it was the area that gave us the most room to explore, as we felt that financial education sets the foundation for a person’s future interaction with their finances.

Research Questions
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The core finance questions are the ones that we will ask to every stakeholder in order to get an idea of their level of financial literacy and how they’ve learned to manage their finances, if at all.

The “Organization of Finance” questions will help us understand their current methods of managing their finances and related items

The next set of questions is about exploring the person’s attitude towards their money and finances as well as how social they are online within the social networks that they currently use.

Additionally, we’re also interested in finding out what events in a person’s life may trigger changes in their attitude towards their finances.

The personal relationships, understanding and usage of finance questions are meant to gauge whether or not the financial education they have received has had any impact on them, how they currently relate to their bank account and other banking services as well as whether or not they understand the terminology associated with the current banking environment.
Stakeholder Engagement

For our stakeholders, we’ve aimed to have a variety of participants of different ages and backgrounds. Our main categories of stakeholders were a group of primary school children, young adults, people who strongly identify themselves with Generation C, families with younger and older children as well as financial advisors.

This gave us a comprehensive view of how a person’s attitudes towards their finances changes throughout their lives, as well as the extent to which technology has affected their perceptions of the banking environment.


Stakeholders
Primary School Children
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Primary 3/4 Class
East Dunbartonshire Primary School
& Mrs. Picovsky [ Teacher ]
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Purpose of Engagement
To see how children work with and understand money

‍We decided to do a workshop with them within the school environment. The lesson plan was based on the process of ‘thinking, doing solving, making’.
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Key Findings
It was interesting to note how the children differentiated between tangibility and non-tangibility. Some phrases they said included, “Sometimes money can be invisible”, “ You can’t always see money but you need to know what you have”, and “You can save money in two types of banks”.

“The education system lacks creative stimuli. Children need to be inspired, motivated and interested, in order to gain a deeper understanding of something…making learning experiences more interactive aids this”
Mrs, Picovsky
Young Adult
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Victor Loux and Lauren Atwell
PhD student and Junior Designer

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Purpose of Engagement
‍To gain an understanding of how young adults use technology to manage their finances.

Key findings
Both claimed that they received no financial education and that they picked up the skills for managing their money from either their parents or from personal experience.

Victor prefers to use cash because he is concerned about the privacy of his financial data and he feels that he can keep better track of his finances
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Lauren on the other hand, prefers the convenience of using a card and rarely uses any cash.
Family
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Interview
The Manuel Family
Family with young children
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Purpose of Engagement
To gain understanding of parents' struggles to teach their children how money works.
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key Findings
Manuel’s described how their teenager likes to be social with her friends through keeping connected via her smartphone. They went on to say how online banking lacks a social element, which in turn lacks the desire to be connected to their finances.

TheManuel’s go on to explain how easy it can be for their child to purchase in-app games on a tablet, without the need for passwords or security.

“With technology, there is a fine line between fantasy and reality.”

“Children learn from experiences and remember through emotions.”
Mature Adult
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Interview
William Lang
Senior Financial Manager within Public Sector Services
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Purpose of Engagement
To learn about different perspective on technology in banking

Key Findings
William mentions that the language conveyed within banking is too mundane, and the physical approach to money is losing its touch.

“There is no longer a generation gap. The issue now is that we are facing a technology gap.”

“In terms of being social, technology is a wonderful invention, what it lacks is visualising and understanding non-verbal queues.”
Insight Analysis
Evidence Wall
‘Evidence Wall’ was a way of externalising all of the information that we had found. By visualising and highlighting the evidence from our desk research and stakeholder interviews, we were able to begin the process of synthesis.
Synthesis
By taking an abductive approach, we began to draw connections between insights. This led us to identify tension points and reoccurring themes from multiple stakeholders within our research and consider the reason behind each of them.

Whilst not a linear process, we were able to create a list of hypothesises, opportunities and objectives that these findings opened up, which in return clearly helped define the landscape to move into for concept development.

It Pays to be Nice
Emotions play a part in making financial decisions. Our emotions are products of our life events, which can in turninfluence our financial decisions. This therefore relates to ourattitudes and behaviours towards dealing with money.
Emotions
Behaviours/Attitudes
Awareness
Money Talks
The language and terms used when talking about finances, demonstrates a process. For example, in order for you takeout a loan, you have to understand the procedure of it in terms of literacy. You want to buy something but don’t have enough money to do so, therefore you need to understand terms such as a credit or debit card, credit scoring and interest rates.

By doing so, people learn by doing, which creates a specific meaning to those terminologies. Understanding the process and knowing the correct vocabulary, instils confidence in people’s actions.
Language
Knowledge/Education
Symbolism
Awareness
Learning by Doing
There needs to be a sense of interactivity. When people are engaged with something, they create memories from the lesson or activity. These memories can proceed to life skills through ‘learning by doing’.
Interactivity
Awareness
Attitudes/Behaviours
The Power of Personalisation
Personalisation and emotional attachments are more valuedthan accuracy.
Personalisation
Emotions
Attitudes/Behaviours
Knowledge/Education
Technology and Familiarity
People’s perceptions of money are linked to subconscious symbols within society. People take symbols from the real world and translate it into the digital world. This makes it easier for people to relate to the digital world and interact with it. By having visuals that are more engaging, quicker and easier to understand, can in turn can create a sense of security.
Attitudes/Behaviour
Symbolism
Awareness
Interactivity
Knowledge/Education
Technology and Familiarity
The tangibility and non-tangibility of money reflects people’s spending patterns, which relates to personal methods and approaches in having an awareness of money. People adapt to the way they manage and interact with their finances to their lifestyle and knowledge.
Behaviour/Attitudes
Interaction
Knowledge/Education
Awareness
Summary
From our insights, we identified opportunities within the context of our brief.
This allowed us to realise that, whilst we can not initiate a new education system for financial literacy, creating awareness by making money more interactive and engaging is a step in the right direction.‍Throughout the synthesis process, key themes from our insight analysis emerged. In order to generate ideas, we decided to attribute the emerging themes into to the life stage process. This gave us a kick-start in terms of areas for development, which then enabled us to move forward to the concept development stage.
Concept Development
Brainstorm & Ideation

After identifying key opportunities and moments within the human life cycle, we developed a large number of concepts, addressing a wide range of insights from which several themes emerged.

This included; attitudes / behaviours, awareness, emotions, interactivity, knowledge/education, language, personalisation and symbolism.

We then refined and combined these themes together into ideas during the key life stages in order to develop further. Taking our opportunities and themes we began the ideation process by generating as many potential design outcomes as possible. We began by doing this individually, and then collated our ideas together as a group.

Throughout the concept development process, we asked the question, “What if?” in response to each of the insights taken from our research data. This allowed us see the value in each of the designs.
Toddler
When toddlers are playing…
What if we merged traditional toys with technology?
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Toddlers play with building blocks, all of which are numbered. A number will be shown on the tablet/laptop screen, and the toddler has to match the blocks according to the number shown. Once the addition is correctly achieved, the next level will begin.

By introducing and interacting with numbers through technology, a sense of awareness and recognition is instilled from an early age. This design acts a fun stage in the toddler’s development.
Children
When children are learning…
What if they use familiar symbols to better understand the processes of money?
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An app on a children’s phone or family tablet, can be connected to a 3-D clock.

Similar in style to a child’s night-light, the clock will be illuminated. The app and clock are connected to an existing bank account, which adults can use to give children a form of income, e.g. pocket money, and can control it.

The handles on the clock will illuminate when the child is near their target. The app will show a picture that relates to their savings goal. This will help create memories, feelings, and reminders, and giving them a reason for saving.

Educating children the value of money via the online and offline environment encourages children to manage their money and visually save towards their goals.
Teen
When teenagers are communicating to their peers…
What if we made the language more visual in order to create interest?
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Instead of communicating with words, teenagers can communicate with Emojis and symbols. This type of network encourages teens to interact more with their finances, and helps them become more social. By eradicating complicated jargon, teenagers can express themselves in a language that is more comfortable to them.
Young Adult
When young adults are becoming more aware of their finances…
What if wearable technology was more interactive?
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By wearing technology literally on your sleeve, directly links the wearer to their personal finances through an engagement trigger feedback system.

Colour changes, symbol appearing, noises or feelings being made can be activated through the wearable device.

This creates a constant link to your finances and almost instant awareness of any financial transactions through an experience. It can help eradicates complicated financial jargon and processes.
Conclusion
So far the design process has been focussing on creating concepts for each key life stage. By taking elements from each design, a final design solution was able to emerge. This emersion focuses on one activity that can be used throughout the young adult, and adult life. However, it provides a more approachable, active and fun method to money for those who are younger to associate with.‍
Design Solution
For our final concept, we’ve envisioned a future in which people have a more direct connection with their finances. The current methods of interacting with your finances are coins, banknotes, cards or digital wallets.

Neither of these methods creates a direct and convenient link to your finances. Although NFC technology is widely available within smartphones, but the technology hasn’t taken off because users would often have to set up a third party digital wallet in order to use their phones as a payment.

Phones and cards also don’t provide enough of a physical experience. Both are flat and offer little sensory feedback.
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Sensum
Sensum is a product that connects and engages users to their finances through sensory motions and feedback.

It works by the user connecting their hand to the product; the product then reads the biometric data of the user in order to start functioning.

If the user is the owner of the product, the product changes its weight according to the settings profiled within the app.

The app serves as a personalised profile setting for the product, e.g. the user can change the weight setting according to whatever balances the user values. The weight change creates a discreet sensory awareness, which is directly linked to the users personal finances.
Branding
The name Sensum is a portmanteau of the words ‘sense’ and ‘sum’. This linguistic blend of words connotes the use of the users‘ sensory movement, i.e. their hand, and the sum of money they wish to deal with. The ‘u’ in the brand name is a symbol of our logo, which reflects the shape of the product itself.

As every hand is a different size, and shape, the ergonomics of the product can be personalised to fit various users’ needs.
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From our research, it has been noted that methods of payment and storing of money is mundane and lacking engagement. Which therefore can create a type of negative aura when dealing with money.
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By designing something that creates a buzz and interest, looks interesting and colourful, negativity can help be diminished.
How to use Sensum
In terms of creating a concept in which money can be more social, Sensum can be used to transfer money between two or more products that are within immediate proximity of each other.

This is confirmed via a verbal connection, as it humanises the transaction and brings value back into giving. The app can track monetary transactions as well, creating an easy way to remember spending activity.

Sensum can be used anytime and anywhere. It can be used socially or privately, depending on the user’s preference. Sensum can be activated when you go shopping, when you want to get a sense of your bank balance instantaneously, and for many other everyday activities, like paying for public transport.
The Technology
The technology behind Sensum involves biometric sensors, a weight shifting material, NFC sensors and voice recognition technology.

Biometric sensors are used to recognise the owner of Sensum. Each Sensum is linked directly to a user’s bank account when it isset up through the accompanying app. The sensor wraps around the product and it is able to read the user’s hand print, just like the Touch ID recognises an iPhone’s owner.

Sensum connects directly to your bank account and, because it contains an NFC sensor, it can be used as a form of contactless payment. Users can also transfer money between two bank accounts through Sensum.

With the help of a voice recognition sensor, the user can input the amount of money that they want to transfer as well as the name of the person that they want the money to be transferred too.


Touchpoints
In terms of online banking, Sensum would use this form of connection within a mobile application and website.

The user of a Sensum product will be able to access their user profiles by using biometric data technology. This user profile is then linked to the Sensum product by a sensor connector. Through this connection, the user can control the weight settings according to personal preferences, in relation to their bank account.

Sensum can therefore be used to interact with other sensums, throughout payment services, and within Internet devices.
The stakeholders of Sensums are divided into two groups – the receiving user and the donating user, in other words, a generation C user.
Setting Up Sensum
The Sensum App is the second touchpoint. Through it theuser can customise the device‘s sensory experience.
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Sensum is both an app and a physical product. The app connects to the product and allows the user to input their biometric data and map their financial situation to the weight of the product.
The app first reads the user’s biometric data. Only one person can feel the weight of the product change or do any transactions with it.
After reading the biometric data, the app prompts the user to input what they would consider a small amount of money in their bank account and what would they consider a large one. The app then maps the product’s weight to these values.
The user feels the weight chance according to the mapped values. After the process is over, the user can start using the product immediately.
Sharing with Sensum
Sensum can be used to facilitate money transfer between two devices, which adds a social dimension to the product.
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Two friends are meeting in a coffee shop. One of them buys the other a drink.
She wants to pay her friend back and use Sensum as af orm of payment.
She tells Sensum the amount of money they would like to transfer to their friend.
They touch their devices to each other in order to complete the transfer.
Shopping with Sensum
The Sensum Device changes its weight according to how much money the user has in their bank account, offering amore tangible experience of your financial situation.
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A user goes into a shop to look for Christmas presents.She sees something that she would like to purchase.
She checks the price, but doesn’t know if she hasenough money in her bank account to afford it.
She takes her Sensum out of her pocket and checks it’sweight. She can feel that it’s heavy, therefore she cancomplete her purchase.
At the till, she also uses Sensum as a form of contact-less payment to pay for her purchase.
organisational structure

“We offer products and services that help you be smarter with your money, and we’re proud to say that our six million customers are at the heart of everything we do.”
‍TESCO Bank

We propose that Sensum could be used within Tesco and Tesco Bank as a form oflearning, interactivity and practicality.
From our desk research, we designed Sensum based on the insights that were important to our stakeholders, just as Tesco designs products around their customers.Initiating a Sensum Programme within Tesco’s exiting organisational structure, we believe could help build an environment for learning and communicating.

Customers, who purchase in Tesco, and in turn use Tesco Bank, could become part of a special Sensum programme. Being involved in the programme could help individuals and families with ‘what matters most’. Although Sensum is a product that is not completely functional now, in the near future, with the help of some engineers and product designers, we believe could become a fun and profitable way to interact with money.
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