Carnegie Mellon University

Designing Connected Products for Improved Financial Well-Being

Credit and debit cards have revolutionized how we pay for goods and services. We have less cash in our wallets, and services like Apple Pay, Mint.com, Digit.co, LevelMoney.com, Acorns, and Qapital allow us to pay, manage, plan, save and invest with increased ease. However, the move to digital money is not without drawbacks. Cash is tangible and its physicality has implications for how monetary value is understood, perceived and recognized; this, in turn influences spending behavior. For example, an MIT study in 2000 shows that those who pay with credit cards have a higher willingness to pay. Other studies report that people can spend significantly more using credit cards instead of cash. Poor financial decisions and impulse spending leads to anxiety and unhappiness as well as poor financial well-being.

In this project, we explore how the use of smart “ambient” products can give physical presence to digital money and transactions in ways that positively influence personal financial decisions. The work is based on concepts developed by students in PI Byrnes’ course, ‘Designing for the Internet of Things’. We propose to further develop three concepts into working prototypes that will be deployed to users and further assessed. These prototypes will help establish the degree to which such devices can influence spending habits and ultimately, financial and emotional wellbeing.

Jonathan Cagan

Jonathan Cagan

Project Lead

Daragh Byrne

Daragh Byrne

Project Lead