Sprout

Financial goals that grow with your family.

Client: Sun Life uXperience Design Jam

Problem

How might we design a solution that helps young Canadians find and use available financial tools and education? Create an empathetic, inclusive solution that helps young Canadians open-up about financial needs, education & literacy.

Process

We focused our research and design efforts on new parents within the young Canadian demographic, a group experiencing both heightened financial responsibility and emotional vulnerability.

To ground our work in real user needs, we:

Created user personas to represent varying financial literacy levels, family structures, and cultural backgrounds
Identified core user goals, anxieties, and barriers to engagement
Translated these insights into a prioritized set of product requirements for a mobile-first experience

Requirements Gathering

Language accessibility: Support for multiple language preferences to ensure inclusivity
Personalized onboarding: A set-up survey to tailor savings goals based on user context and priorities
Shared financial planning: Ability to link accounts with a partner to promote transparency and collaboration
Behavioral reinforcement: A points-based system to encourage consistent saving habits
Goal management: Tools to record, update, and track short- and long-term savings goals
Advisor discovery: A search experience connecting users with verified Sun Life financial advisors suited to their needs
Community support: A discussion forum for parents to connect, share experiences, and reduce financial isolation

Solution

Prototype

To drive engagement and sustained usage, we applied principles from behavioral economics, specifically leveraging the EAST framework—making desired behaviors Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely.

Key Design Decisions

Gamification for motivation

We introduced a points system that rewards positive savings behaviors, reinforcing habit formation through immediate feedback.

Visible progress indicators

A growing tree visual represents users’ progress toward their savings goals, clearly communicating system status and creating an emotional connection to long-term growth.

Accessible and inclusive design

Language options were integrated throughout the experience, alongside a comprehensive, searchable database of certified Sun Life financial advisors to ensure users feel supported regardless of background or financial knowledge.

Branding & Visual Identity

The Sprout name, logo, and tagline—“Financial goals that grow with your family”—were intentionally chosen to symbolize growth, care, and long-term support.

This metaphor reinforces:

The early-stage nature of new parents’ financial journeys
The scalability of the platform as families and financial goals evolve
Sun Life’s role as a trusted, ongoing partner rather than a one-time service

Retrospective

As my first design competition, and with over 100 post-secondary students participating, this experience pushed me outside my comfort zone in the best way. Working under tight timelines emphasized the importance of team alignment, rapid decision-making, and lean UX methodologies.

My biggest takeaway was the realization that financial tools are not one-size-fits-all. Designing effective solutions requires a deep understanding of users’ emotional context, values, and lived experiences—especially in sensitive domains like money and family planning.

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