FIRST$AVER
A youth banking account for SC Mobile, Standard Chartered Singapore
A youth banking account for SC Mobile, Standard Chartered Singapore
Release Date
2024
Client
STANDARD CHARTERED BANK
STANDARD
CHARTERED BANK
Role
Role
Lead Designer
Product Duration
Product Duration
9 - 10 MONTHS
role
LEad Designer
Product Duration
9 - 10 MONTHS
Most children in Singapore will make their first payment before they ever hold a paycheque. First$aver is a joint account built for that reality: a bank account that feels like the child's own, with the parent watching, topping up and setting the guardrails. I designed everything after onboarding for both users, from January sketches to the October launch, while a second designer owned sign-up.
Most children in Singapore will make their first payment before they ever hold a paycheque. First$aver is a joint account built for that reality: the child gets a bank account that actually feels like theirs, the parent gets to watch, top up, and set the guardrails. I designed the full post-onboarding experience for both parent and child, from first sketches in January to the October launch, while a second designer owned the sign-up journey.
oct 2024
Launched on SC Mobile, with instant account opening via MyInfo.
Launched on SC Mobile
for Singapore families,
with instant account
opening via MyInfo.
Launched on SC Mobile,
with instant account
opening via MyInfo.
Launched on
SC Mobile, with instant account
opening via MyInfo.
S$100 a day
S$100
a day
Default daily limits on
card spend and transfers.
Low default limits on card spend and transfers. Protection designed
into the defaults.
Default daily limits
on card spend
and transfers.
Default daily limits on card spend
and transfers.
two users
A child learning independence,
a parent needing oversight,
one account.
One account serving a child learning to be independent and a parent needing oversight.
A child learning independence, a parent needing oversight,
one account.
So how do we design one product for a first-time banker, and the parent who worries about exactly that?
SO HOW DO WE Design
one product for
a customer who
has never banked before, and their parent who worries about exactly that?
So how do we design one product for a first-time banker,
and the parent who worries about exactly that?
Disclaimer: Some details are omitted or generalised to respect confidentiality
obligations to Standard Chartered Bank. All views are my own.
To respect confidentiality obligations to Standard Chartered Bank, some details
in this case study have been omitted
or generalised. All views expressed
here are my own.
01
//Context
First$aver
//Context
First$aver
01
//Context
First$aver
A first account for kids who may never touch cash
A first account for
kids who may never touch cash
A seven-year-old in Singapore may never queue at a bank, fill a deposit slip, or count change. Money arrives on cards and moves through QR codes. But kids' accounts hadn't caught up: built around a parent and a passbook, they treated the child as a name on a form, not a customer. First$aver set out to close that gap.
Pocket money moved from cash to digital in a single generation.
How pocket money moved from cash in
hand to digital payments over a generation.
02
//The Problem
First$aver
//The Problem
First$aver
02
//The Problem
First$aver
One product that gives the child independence and the parent control.
One product that
gives the child independence and
the parent control.
A twelve-year-old and their parent open the same app wanting different things. The child wants to feel trusted: their own balance, card and choices. The parent wants to know nothing can go wrong: every transaction visible, every limit set, savings no scam or impulse can empty.
A twelve-year-old and their parent open
the same app wanting different things.
The child wants to feel trusted: their own balance, card and choices. The parent wants to know nothing can go wrong: every transaction visible, every limit set, savings no scam or impulse can empty.
How does a child's first account feel like theirs, when it legally belongs to both?
How does a child's first account feel like theirs, when it legally belongs to both?
And it all had to live inside SC Mobile. One app, serving a
first-time banker and a veteran of it, without becoming two products.
And it all had to live inside SC Mobile.
One app, serving a first-time banker and a veteran of it, without becoming two products.
What the child and the parent each needed from the same account.
What the child and the parent each
needed from the same account.
03
//Process
First$aver
//Process
First$aver
THE APPS KIDS ALREADY USED
THE APPS KIDS
ALREADY USED
Research started with the two products already putting banking in young hands: POSB Smart Buddy,
which turns school pocket money into something a child tracks and saves, and Revolut's Kids & Teens account, which treats the child, not the parent, as the primary user. Two very different answers. First$aver's would be a third: the same SC Mobile, simplified for a first-time banker, with the parent keeping full oversight from their own app.
Research started with the two products already putting banking in young hands: POSB Smart Buddy, which turns school pocket money into something a child tracks and saves, and Revolut's Kids & Teens account, which treats the child, not the parent, as the primary user. Two very different answers. First$aver's would be a third: the same SC Mobile, simplified for a first-time banker, with the parent keeping full oversight from their own app.
How Smart Buddy and Revolut each hand banking to a child.
Competitive analysis across three banks
that launched MoneyLock ahead of us.
How Smart Buddy and Revolut each hand banking to a child.
How Smart Buddy and Revolut each hand banking to a child.
WHAT SAVINGS GOALS COULD LOOK LIKE
WHAT SAVINGS GOALS COULD LOOK LIKE
WHAT SAVINGS GOALS
COULD LOOK LIKE
From there I went deeper on the feature I cared most about: savings goals. A UI study across goal-tracking patterns,
from banking apps to Dribbble, explored how far colour, illustration and motion could go for a young user while keeping the trust cues a parent expects from a bank.
From this research I conceptualised the goals journey and the kids' home screen, a quieter take on the SC Mobile home, then designed the full post-onboarding experience, both sides. The goals designs made it to the finish line. The development timeline didn't, and goals were cut from MVP1.
Cutting a finished feature is its own kind of design work. I rebalanced the youth experience around what remained: savings you can see, transactions you can follow, a card that's really yours. Nothing in the shipped journey could hint at the feature that wasn't there.
From there I went deeper on the feature
I cared most about: savings goals. A UI study across goal-tracking patterns, from banking apps to Dribbble, explored how far colour, illustration and motion could go for
a young user while keeping the trust cues a parent expects from a bank.
From this research I conceptualised the goals journey and the kids' home screen,
a quieter take on the SC Mobile home, then designed the full post-onboarding experience, both sides. The goals designs made it to the finish line. The development timeline didn't, and goals were cut from MVP1.
Cutting a finished feature is its own kind
of design work. I rebalanced the youth experience around what remained: savings you can see, transactions you can follow,
a card that's really yours. Nothing in the shipped journey could hint at the feature that wasn't there.
From there I went deeper on the feature I cared most about: savings goals. A UI study across goal-tracking patterns, from banking apps to Dribbble, explored how far colour, illustration and motion could go for a young user while keeping the trust cues a parent expects from a bank.
From this research I conceptualised the goals journey and the kids' home screen, a quieter take on the SC Mobile home, then designed the full post-onboarding experience, both sides. The goals designs made it to the finish line.
The development timeline didn't, and goals were cut from MVP1.
Cutting a finished feature is its own kind of design work. I rebalanced the youth experience around what remained: savings you can see, transactions you can follow, a card that's really yours. Nothing in the shipped journey could hint at the feature that wasn't there.
The research behind the goals design: progress, named goals and playfulness.
The research behind the goals design: progress, named goals and playfulness.
The research behind the goals design: progress, named goals and playfulness.
04
//My Role
First$aver
//My Role
First$aver
TWO JOURNEYS AFTER THE SIGN-UP
TWO JOURNEYS AFTER THE SIGN-UP
My scope began where onboarding ended: everything both users see and do was mine to design. That meant two of everything: two home experiences, two mental models, two definitions of success. I mapped the parent's journey across top-ups, monitoring and locking their child's savings with Money Lock, and the youth's journey from receiving their card to spending and tracking, then carried both through stakeholder reviews, compliance and handoff, aligning with the second designer who owned onboarding.
05
//The Design
First$aver
//The Design
First$aver
THREE DECISIONS FOR TWO USERS
THREE DECISIONS
FOR TWO USERS
Kids' View:
Banking, Simplified
A first banker doesn't need less banking, just less noise. The youth interface strips SC Mobile to what matters at thirteen: my money,
my card, my payments.
A first banker doesn't need less banking, just less noise.
The youth interface strips
SC Mobile to what matters at thirteen: my money, my card,
my payments. Real capability, sized to a first account.
A first banker doesn't need less banking, just less noise. The youth interface strips SC Mobile to what matters at thirteen: my money, my card, my payments. Real capability, sized to
a first account.
A first banker doesn't need less banking, just less noise. The youth interface strips SC Mobile to what matters at thirteen: my money, my card, my payments.
Real capability, sized to a first account.
Parents' View:
Full Oversight
Every transaction, top-up and safeguard sits inside the SC Mobile parents already know.
Trust the child with more, never ask the parent to see less.
Parents never leave their own app. Their child's transactions, top-ups, and safeguards sit inside the SC Mobile they already know. Trust the child with more; never ask the
parent to see less.
Parents never leave their own app. Their child's transactions, top-ups, and safeguards sit inside the
SC Mobile they already know. Trust the child with more; never ask the parent to see less.
Safety
by Default
S$100 daily limits come switched on, not offered, and Money Lock ring-fences the savings.
A first account should be the safest one a person ever holds.
S$100 daily limits on spending and transfers come switched on, not offered. Money Lock ring-fences the savings. A first account should be the safest one a person ever holds, before anyone configures anything.
S$100 daily limits on spending
and transfers come switched on, not offered. Money Lock
ring-fences the savings. A first account should be the safest one a person ever holds, before anyone configures anything.
The three decisions as shipped: kids' view, parents' view, and the safeguards between them.
The three decisions as shipped: kids' view, parents' view, and the safeguards between them.
The three decisions as shipped: kids' view, parents' view, and the safeguards between them.
The three decisions as shipped: kids' view, parents' view, and the safeguards between them.
06
//Outcome
First$aver
//Outcome
First$aver
AN ACCOUNT THAT GROWS WITH THE CHILD
AN ACCOUNT THAT GROWS WITH THE CHILD
A first bank account
that grows with the child
First$aver went live in October 2024, opening in minutes through MyInfo. It grows up with its owner: the card, cashback and mobile access switch on at thirteen, so a primary schooler's account quietly becomes a teenager's daily bank.
What stays with me is the discipline of the cut: when goals fell out of MVP1, my job became making the smaller product feel whole rather than mourning the bigger one. The goals work is done and waiting, and it's the feature I'd fight for in MVP2. A balance teaches a child what they have; a goal teaches them what saving is for.
More Works More Works
Let'S WORK
TOGETHER
OPEN TO SENIOR EXPERIENCE DESIGNER ROLES AND
FREELANCE UI/UX AND LOGO DESIGN PROJECTS.
Let'S WORK
TOGETHER
OPEN TO SENIOR EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
ROLES AND FREELANCE UI/UX AND LOGO
DESIGN PROJECTS.
Phone
Phone