PLAYING THE MONEY GAME: EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF GAMIFICATION IN PERSONAL FINANCE AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This research paper would not have been possible without the invaluable generosity and guidance of my supervisor, Dr Alex Mitchell. Thank you for openly sharing your knowledge and experiences with me, and for nudging me in the right direction whenever I encountered a roadblock. Most importantly, thank you for giving me the space to direct my own learning and freely explore my interests one last time as an undergraduate. Thanks to everyone who helped me with my research as participants, or who have in one way or another contributed to the development of this paper. Your kindness has provided me with plenty of learning opportunities and inspired me to continue honing my craft. Thanks to my friends who have seen me for all that I am and believed in me in the last four years. That you have entered my life, chosen to stay and written me into your stories continues to fill me with a comfort that defies the indifference of the universe, even if for just a while. Thanks to all my mentors and supervisors whom I had the privilege to know and work with over the course of my career thus far. To Ariel, thank you for both teaching and learning alongside me during our time at VIPKID in Beijing. To Wern, Haikal, Enny and the rest of the team at Sephora Digital SEA, thanks for valuing my contributions and investing sincerely in my professional development. Needless to say, I am forever indebted to the love and support of my parents and family, without which I would not have been able to enjoy the privilege of a university education and the wonder of exploring and learning about the world and myself. Despite its importance to individuals across all ages in Singapore and especially young adults, there exists barriers to budgeting and expense tracking in effective personal financial management. At the same time, the increasing adoption of mobile technologies in recent years has led to the proliferation of digital products and services. Gamification has emerged as a strategy in digital product design that refers to the use of game design elements in non-game contexts to foster human motivation, engagement and performance in a given activity. Given its myriad applications from education and work to healthcare and social networking, there is potential for gamification to encourage positive behaviour in personal finance. This research paper explores how gamification can be employed in a digital mobile application to encourage young adults in Singapore to take ownership over their personal finances. Drawing from theories on technology acceptance and modern approaches in user experience (UX) design, the first phase of the research involved surveying 43 young adults to understand their relationship with personal financial management. A low-fidelity (lo-fi) and high-fidelity (hi-fi) prototype of a mobile application for budgeting and expense tracking were then created through an iterative, user-centred design process. In the second phase, two distinct gamification approaches were developed based on a set of heuristics to evaluate interactive gamified systems, leading to two versions of the hi-fi prototype. User studies were then conducted on the two versions with 10 young adults to study the impact of the different gamification approaches on the attitudes of the participants. The results provide insights into the use of gamification to engage and motivate users in the context of personal finance. Overall, the findings of this research paper are useful for designers and researchers who are interested in employing gamification to develop digital products that are motivational and enjoyable.