When Foundation Wealth and Tax Management found that their clients were asking them to educate the next generation they reached out to me for help.
The Problem
Foundation Wealth Management and Tax Advisors is a wealth management company looking to increase the amount of financial education available to young adults and find new clients. They came to me to help them find an e-learning solution that could be posted on their website.
The Solution
I met with the client and reviewed their current situation and what outcomes they wanted from this project. After analyzing their needs, two solutions were presented. A traditional direct instruction of terminology, best practices, multiple choice questions, or a scenario-based learning project. The client decided the scenario-based learning project would result in a more effective learning solution.
Interactive Prototype
After I finished the visual mockups, I created an interactive prototype. Initially, the client wanted a stick figure to do all the whiteboard animations. After creating these animations, it was mutually agreed to try a more traditional whiteboard animation. The client also wanted a different budget and the ability to go back and review your choices.
I made a second Interactive prototype with the requested changes and got approval to move on to creating the full project.
Full Development
The last step was to develop the project entirely, I used Vyond to create the new whiteboard animations, designing each animation specifically for the text and information that was on each slide. I changed the budget to closely reflect the realities of the intended audience and the second question about the damage to the phone. Next, I added a back button at the client's request to allow the user to change their choice. The addition of the back button greatly complicated the variables in the project. Initially, the triggers and variables listed were set to increase and decrease appropriately based on the user's choice. If the user used the back button, it did not reset the financial tracker appropriately. To solve this problem, I added a trigger to reset the tracker to the original slide value every time a slide was loaded. Finally, I added the conclusion scene where the results of the user's choices were displayed, and a link to the client's website was included.
My Process
Action Map
My first step in this process was to meet with the SMEs and discuss what exactly they felt were the roadblocks to financial independence. Through this discussion, we decided that there were three high-priority interactions. These interactions were decided on because of the emotional and storytelling aspects of each. The first was to choose a budget that reflected current expenses. We decided to create three different budgets each with a different amount put into savings at the end of the month. The second interaction was an unexpected expense, and the third interaction would be an unexpected bonus.
Text-based Storyboard
I then wrote the first draft of the storyboard. This is where we introduced the main character and decided on using whiteboard animation. I decided to use variables and a financial tracker to track how the learner was doing financially based on their choices. I wrote each scenario, with positive and negative results to show the consequences of their decisions. I also introduced the financial manager as a way to guide the learner through the experience.
I sent this to the clients and received some edits back; after I made the changes the final storyboard was approved, and I moved on to visual mockups.
Visual Mockups
Most of this project would be placed in a frame, and I wanted the frame to be consistent throughout the project. I mocked up three frame options and shared them with the client, who made the final choice.
Reception and Reviews
This project was well received by the client.
“I am looking forward to sharing this with my clients and tax partners. Great work! “
Matt Costa - Managing Partner - Foundation Wealth and Tax Advisors.