RAISE from Young Enterprise: Investing in the future
Services: UX and design | Software engineering
95% of people aged 16-24 believe money management is a skill that can be learned, but 85% get absolutely no financial education from school. That’s why Young Enterprise exists, to provide financial and enterprise education to nearly half a million young people across the UK each year.
The Resource for Assessing Investment and Savings Efficacy (RAISE) app was conceived in 2021 as a gamified financial education app. Users aged 16-18 would learn to make informed decisions around savings and investments and build greater awareness of the importance of financial security.
Creating this experience from scratch initially required a working prototype. Then, a subsequent phase involved user testing and feedback to inform the final version of the game. Expertise in UX, design, and rapidly iterating development were essential.
Helping young people get their money working harder
In 2005, the government launched the Child Trust Fund scheme for those born between 2002 and 2011. As of September 2020, about 55,000 of these funds were maturing every month. Many young people had no idea they were even entitled to this money. Others found themselves simply being given hundreds of pounds, and no guidance on using it wisely, when they turned 18.
This came to YE’s attention at about the same time as insurance giant Aviva. Together, they knew they could raise awareness and provide lasting educational value. But the experience needed to be more engaging and appealing to teenagers than the temptation to spend their fund immediately.
Fluent had worked with YE in the past on their Money Heroes project for children aged 5-11. We also have a significant track record in the charity and education sectors. It was clear our team had the skills to realise this project.
Discovery: Rapid analysis leads straight into phase one
We officially joined the project in May 2021, with a full-day analysis workshop. The decision had been made to develop a web app in favour of something like iOS or Android. Within that framework, we could rapidly start pooling ideas about what we could potentially do, and how to achieve it.
Six days of design and UX wireframing in Figma produced a clear idea of what the game would look like. Characters were introduced to guide users through their choices. A clickable wireframe prototype was completed for early July.
Deeper consultation for initial feedback followed and by August we were ready to enter the first stage of development. This phase had two parts; back-end development and front-end implementation of the actual product. At the same time, we were working with one of YE’s content experts to make sure the copy balanced clarity with accuracy.
By the start of September, we’d produced a fully functioning prototype of the RAISE app. Now, it had to be rigorously tested by YE’s network of teachers and students.
Feedback, phase two, and beyond
RAISE was presented along with supporting documents for teachers in September 2021. These helped them guide students through the two prototype user journeys in about 15-20 minutes. This phase produced valuable feedback.
The feedback showed us a number of ways we could make the app even more engaging. These steps would help users get to grips with the core concepts quicker, and help YE understand their behaviour. They included:
- Implementing a local leaderboard to foster a sense of community. Students can compare and discuss scores with peers
- More gamified elements, making it a bigger deal when students achieve key milestones
- Visual fidelity and motion improvements for animations and page transitions
- Expanded guidance for decisions, with the ability to remind users of steps they’d previously taken
- Introducing a hover-over pop-up guidance feature
- A more in-depth onboarding experience to cater for all experience levels
- Improvements to the entire experience on mobile
The next iteration of the game, incorporating these requests and more, was developed between January and April 2023. Project planning broke the new features down into groups; usability, functionality, design, and so on.
We also learned from our experiences developing the prototype. Both parties, YE and Fluent, were firmly reacquainted with how the other worked. We knew where to leave some wiggle room in timelines, moving time allocated for one feature to another as needed.
Outcome: A new way to show young people their true potential
The latest version of RAISE was delivered in April 2023. YE immediately rolled it out to an even wider cohort of teachers and students. This is already generating even more user feedback, which we’ll use to keep refining RAISE throughout our ongoing partnership.
The app is an important tool to help students see the impact of savings and investments. Even after Child Trust Funds stop maturing, the app can still provide tangible value in the classroom. RAISE is unlocking better education outcomes and more opportunities for long-term social mobility.
“We have a way to reach young adults, helping them manage their money, now and in the future. What I really appreciate about Fluent is the down-to-earth approach. The people see the common goal and work towards that goal in a collaborative way. It’s a strong team, with a lot of great people.”
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