Project Nemo
CI&T
Design Director & Lead Designer
Design direction
UX/UI design
Talks & Interviews
Interaction design
Workshops
Prototyping
User testing
In just six weeks, we set out to imagine a better way of managing finances for people with learning disabilities. We focused on Ellie, a young woman with a learning disability, and her mum Emily, her trusted third party. Our goal: design a money management tool that gives Ellie true ownership and control, while enabling Emily to support, not take over. We built a technical POC that proved 86% of desired features by the community can be built today, with existing technology and regulation.
People with learning disabilities struggle with digital experiences not designed for their needs. Project Nemo sought a money-management tool to bridge independence and safety, but the methodology applies universally.
We used a 6 week innovation frame work to go from zero to POC in a rapid space of time. To kick things off we hosted a workshop with stakeholders as well as real users and their carers. From this workshop we derived a host of features, far beyond the scope of the 6 weeks and ranged from things to directly benefit people with learning disabilities, as well as learning difficuilties, and physical disabilties. Prioritising a feature set to create an app POC designed around real inclusion and the bi-product of catoring for these groups means we were aiming for a product that fit a far greater user base than anything currently out there.
The solution for the app was one that had a split onboarding feature, so both the main user (person with learning disabilties) and the carer can have a unique experience that is linked together. This also meant we could look at features for the suporter app that complimented the main user, such as champion messaging, personalised tutorials and help areas, as well as emergency top up and card controlls. We tested with a group of PWLD and their Caerers with the main focus being on the PWLD side of the app. Looking at a full onboarding flow all the way to features and functionality within the app.
Some core areas came out of testing that were obvious areas of improvment. Firstly around language, by simplifying this down and removing jargon we started to make real headroom, this paired with an app that could have features on or off depending on their level of disability really helped personalise the app for the user. These areas also were simplified a lot down, for example a saving pot area had the emergency pot set up by default and I limited the saving pots to just 3. In just 6 weeks we designed and prototyped a hyper-personalised app with adaptable features that evolve with the users’ abilities and confidence levels. With a mindset of crisis-to-confidence design: Features like Calm Mode and Emergency Pots turn stress into support
At the end of the 6 week acceleration sprint we presented back across different agency's, steakholders, as well as external talks for banks like Santander.
We then unveiled our prototype at Nationwide HQ.
This launch coincided with the release of Nationwide’s Safe Spending for Adults with a Learning Disability report and was attended by The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Social Security and Disability, national press and all of the major banks.
The project and inititive made quite a splash, with the report highlighting and confirming all our research and design choices made as the right ones. The work was presented by the Project Nemo founders at Pay360, Money 20/20, and Sibos. Along side this it has also picked up a few awards and nominations too such as Money2020 and is getting nationwide press coverage, helping to spearhead large banks and disrupter banks to take notice of those with more needs, to do better, and design apps for a truely inclusive audience.
