
KA-Ching A New Finance Lifestyle Builder For GenZ
Learn More, Earn More, Pay Less
Client
Mastercard
Nov. 2019 — May. 2020
Contributions
User Experience
User Interface
Visual Design
Branding
Motion Graphic
Business Model
Collaborators
Nolan Feng
Fan Mari
Yan Tong
Mike Vinnie


Overview
Every spring, companies use Cornell Tech's BigCo advisor, collaborating at the C-Suite or VP level to research the business and industry, talk to company stakeholders, and build disruptive and innovative solutions that help them achieve their mission collaboratively with students at BigCo Studio.
Our interdisciplinary team worked with MasterCard to learn from their vision and mission, and eventually develop a digital product.
What does MasterCard need?
Background
Future-Proof Innovation
MasterCard is seeking to lead the tide of electronic payments.
Currently, MasterCard focuses on growing its core business globally, including product and service of credit, debit, commercial, prepaid, digital-physical convergence, and acceptance. While the Core business accounts for most of the revenue stream, MasterCard also intends to grow the pie and grow the share by diversifying customers and geographies, and build new areas through a combination of organic growth and strategic investment. To adapt the trend and eventually become the leader of electronic payments, we found that Gen Z could be the first target group to start with.
Design
I created a design base that stood for freedom, fun and was yet not extremely forward, aiming for a sense of seriousness and responsibility. Daniel Armash was a particular inspiration and the font used was Gilbert for its associations with inclusivity and social justice, a homage to the passion of youth today.
Before starting the design process, we consulted with MasterCard to better understand their goals for the project as well as design considerations - their visual system, branding, visual design.
We preserved MasterCard's iconic palate while subtly shifting it to a more pastel palette fitting with their target demographic. We also presumed a certain degree of tech friendliness in our use of design affordances and such as well as a more opinionated approach reflecting distinct personas. Finally, we decided to game the interface instead of a banking/financial app interface filled with data and graphs as a primary point of interface.
Numbers
$143 billion
2 billion
26%
Gen Z by the numbers
Worldwide
Of the U.S. population
Gen Z & Loyalty Programs
Incubator for future loyalty programs
After doing interviews with MasterCard's team we started to understand MasterCard users' needs well. We centralized all potential HMWs above,based on our team's background decided to focus on a Student loyalty program.
Gen Z Reading
Exclusive offers designed specifically for Gen Z students, creating good word of mouth and brand loyalty
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91% of surveyed students said they would be more likely to shop with a brand when given offers
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Creating a good brand relationship with students ensures they stay active customers for a long time
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83% Gen Zers said they would likely share a student discount with their friends and family
Competitive
Analysis





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Apple Pay, Google Pay, Banks
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Visa
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Brand Loyalty Programs - Macy’s, Nordstrom, etc.
Direct operators such as ApplePay don't have the datasets and experience of customer habits at the microlevel to be truly useful in providing discounts and such.
Brand loyalty programs like Macy’s etc. are infeasible, inconvenient and often untrustworthy in their data handling practices.
MasterCard has direct access to years of data unlike competitors and relationships across the board it could leverage and trust. All of this data is already ringfenced behind industry standard privacy and security compliance. It is also a one stop shop.
Our positioning is somewhere in between our competitors - the financial institutions/tech titans and the brands themselves. We have the understanding to serve actually useful tailored discounts. We also have the experience to do so at scale in a safe and secure way.
Therefore, we will build a product that leverages our strengths and market position.
Present Product
Outcome
As digital natives that have come of age on smartphones, interacting seamlessly with hyper-polished and competitive social apps, this massive consumer group presents a unique challenge (and opportunity) for traditional finance firms. Gen Z’s standard for what they expect from products they adopt broadly, in terms of intuitive, expertly wrought design, is substantially higher than any population that has come before. To win this valuable demographic, financial firms must deliver a payment product that is useful, beautiful, and authentic. KA-Ching aims to disrupt the payments industry by leveraging a deep understanding of how Gen-Z uses technology in their lives, anticipating their needs and responding with fresh and unique thinking that allows them to adopt healthy financial habits.


















Features
Discounts
Lit brands, restaurants, etc. Tailored discounts deals for students by students - that students are actually interested in.


Data Visualization
Fiscal & budgetary data into Visuals
Transparency and understanding of finances (through personalized, easy-to-understand visuals) is the first step towards better spending choices.
Hierarchy
We serve only the right amount of information. Information overload is a No-No.



COVID-19
We are mindful!
Financial planning in these difficult times can be stressful.
By serving a small mindfulness exercise to remind you that self cares important.
Speed
No more being fooled by hidden charges or shock on due dates. Realtime data and due date updates.
We are on your side!












Sample Tutorial
We are here to guide you through the process.







HMW
Problem Solving
Interview
Research
Business Model
Conferences
Jan. 2020
Interview
Research
Business Model
Prototyping
Wireframing
AB Testing
Interfacing
Testing
Iteration
Conferences
Mar. 2020


Business Model
AB Testing
Usertesting
Iteration
Pitch
May. 2020
Dec.2019
Research
MasterCard Learning
Interview
Conferences
Feb. 2020
Interview
Research
Business Model
Prototyping
AB Testing
Wireframing
Conferences

AB Testing
Interfacing
Testing
Iteration
Conferences


June 2019
Business Model
AB Testing
Usertesting
Iteration
Pitch













