Roots
Sanjib Bhagawati
UX & Product Design
Mobile App
/Roots
A financial simulator.
Most people are making real financial decisions with almost no preparation, and the apps that exist largely assume you already understand the basics. My task was to create a financial solution that would make financial education and planning easier and less intimidating for everyone.
/Role: Lead Product Designer · Certificate Capstone (University of Washington)
/Timeline: 6 months · 2025
/Scope: UX Research · Information Architecture · Visual Design · Design Systems · Gamification · Motion
The Problem
Financial apps exist. Financial confidence doesn't.
Most people in their teens, twenties, and early thirties are making real financial decisions - first paychecks, student loans, rent, credit cards; with almost no preparation. Schools don't teach it. Parents don't always know how either.
When I looked at what existed - YNAB, SoFi, Greenlight, Zogo; I found tools that either tracked money, or taught concepts in a generic way that had nothing to do with actual situation.
Existing apps feel complex and intimidating
Most financial tools weren't designed for beginners. The language, the interface, the assumptions, all of it signals that you need to already know what you're doing before you start.
The content is abstract, not practical
Learning about a random topic doesn't help you if you are looking for something specific in your current situation. People need guidance connected to real decisions, not definitions.
Apps assume confidence instead of building it
Every app on the market treats financial literacy as a prerequisite. None of them are designed to take someone from zero to build the confidence to even open an account or make a first investment.
Nothing fits your specific situation
A student, a freelancer, and a new parent have entirely different financial realities. Generic tools speak to a generic person and most users don't see themselves in any of it.
90%
of Gen Z already use digital finance apps for budgeting or investing
35%
financial literacy rate among adults 18 to 24 is the lowest of any age group
/Personas
Benny Beginner
First job, recent grad
Needs financial literacy
Intimidated by investing
Stressed, overwhelmed
DIY Denise
Mid-career investor
Wants portfolio diversity
Confused by options
Time + info overload
/Research Methods
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Empathy Mapping
Journey Mapping
Competitive Audit
Most apps feel like they're for people who already know all about money.”
Research participant, age 34
The concept
A financial simulator
The research pointed to one core insight: people don't build financial confidence by being taught, they build it by experiencing consequences. So the question became: what if you could simulate decades of financial decisions, make every mistake, go back, try differently, and walk away knowing what you'd actually do when it counts?
That became the core concept of Roots. A financial simulator.
/How the tree emerged
The form wasn't planned, it came through the concept. Early ideas centered on a timeline: a linear progression of challenges based on your age. But as the decision-making mechanic developed, paths started branching. Different choices led to different futures. The structure was no longer a line, it was a tree.
And because the branching happened downward, the metaphor clicked: roots. The deeper and healthier your financial roots, the stronger your tree grows. The nature system didn't get imposed on the product, it emerged from the design logic.
The process
Seven stages, two rounds of user feedback.
Sketches. Paper lo-fi to rapidly explore tree metaphor, challenge layouts, and navigation patterns
Wireframes
Concept Testing
Sitemap
User Flows
Low-Fi Screens
Usability Testing
visual language
Reflective. Grounded. Motivating. Safe.
The visual system was built around four emotional qualities. Drawing on organic textures, seasonal forest photography, and Robert Frost - "Oh I marked the first for another day", the moodboard established a relationship with time and growth that felt personal rather than transactional.
Moodboard
Logo
Typography
Colors
Icons and Illustrations
Components
Key feATURES
Every feature solves a specific fear.
Feature 01
Your entire financial life, on one screen.
Above the horizon, your tree, your season, your age in the simulation. Below it, roots reaching into every financial moment you've played, or have yet to. It grows and branches with every choice you make.
Your tree, grows as you progress
Below the horizon: your roots
Season + age in the sim
Each node = a financial moment
Feature 02
Decades of decisions. Days to play through them.
Every challenge is a real life-stage moment, first paycheck, a medical bill, invest or spend. Pick from a few options and watch the consequences ripple forward. Never locked in: replay any node and branch a new way.
A real life-stage choice
Pick from 3–4 options
Tap any past node to replay
Consequences ripple forward
Feature 03
Be you. Or be someone else first.
Step into a curated life, student, professional, freelancer, parent, and explore with zero personal pressure. Or connect your real accounts and let the simulation build scenarios around your actual numbers. The persona path exists because research showed people needed a safe on-ramp first.
Be a persona, no pressure
Or connect real accounts
A safe on-ramp first
More you link, more accurate
Feature 04
Lessons that arrive exactly when you need them.
As your in-sim age advances, the Learn tab unlocks content tied to the life stage you're actually in, not a fixed curriculum. Just bought a first home? Mortgages appear. Every lesson links back to the node that made it relevant.
Unlocks with your in-sim age
Relevant to your life stage
Glossary, mini-modules, AI coach
Ties back to the node
Feature 05
Shared trees. Synced goals. Generational inheritance.
Share your tree with a partner, sibling, or friend, sync at a common milestone, and decide together. The deepest version is Legacy Mode — pass your tree on, debts, assets, and consequences baked into where the next person starts. A personal tool becomes a generational conversation.
Share your tree with anyone
Sync at a shared milestone
They inherit your consequences
Legacy Mode: pass it on
Prototype
This is the real thing. Click around.
The full high-fidelity prototype, tap through it the way a real user would.
Roots - Financial Literacy App UX Case Study
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Posted Jul 8, 2026
My task was to create a financial solution that would make financial education and planning easier and less intimidating for everyone.
