Monkiri
PRODUCT DESIGN + VISUAL DESIGN
Simplifying visual elements and integrating personalizations through AI to facilitate learning, while bringing in moments of delight in the learning process.
OVERVIEW
Role: Product Designer (UX Design, UI Design, User Researcher), Visual Designer
Team: Software Engineers, Founder, Product Manager, Researchers, Data Analyst, Course Creators
Timeline: 2 project phases (V1: 2019 | V2: 2020–2021)
Problem: Young adults in emerging economies struggled to engage with financial literacy tools due to low digital literacy, limited English proficiency, and lack of motivating experiences.
Solution: Designed and iterated on Monkiri’s financial education app and learning management system with a character-based interface, simplified navigation, and gamified progression. Developed personas, flows, wireframes, and a style guide to ensure consistency and accessibility.
Impact:
Increased daily active users to ~150+ by improving usability and engagement in V1 to V2.
Created a scalable design system and brand guide adopted across the product.
Validated designs through user testing and feedback loops with target learners.
Successfully launched in multiple geographies (Southeast Asia + Canada).
Learners reported increased clarity, better navigation, and more motivation.
Takeaway: Learned how to design inclusively for low-tech, multilingual contexts, balancing simplicity with engagement. Next iteration would explore personalization (AI-driven learning paths) and expanded usability testing.
THE CHALLENGE
How might we make financial concepts accessible and easy to grasp for users who are new to digital tools and learning in a non-native language?
THE SOLUTION: LATEST DESIGN (V2) - ON ANDROID FOR SOUTHEAST ASIAN & CANADIAN LEARNERS
Simplifying visual elements and integrating personalizations through AI to facilitate learning, while bringing in moments of delight in the learning process.
Monkiri is an AI-powered mobile e-learning platform focusing on financial literacy and inclusion. The platform aims to help young adults, especially those from emerging economies, learn about core financial concepts and make it easier for them to connect with relevant financial service providers.
Monkiri realizes that 70% of people in emerging economies don’t know the rules because they lack the understanding of the essential concepts. Without being able to understanding the concepts, it means that over 2 billion people are excluded from financial services. I joined Monkiri as I believed in democratizing financial knowledge.
Over two major redesign phases, I led the end-to-end user experience: user research analysis, prototyping, flows, visual design, interactions, and accessibility. I simplified complexity and brought in moments of delight. As of March 2020, the app has hundreds of downloads and active users within Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Myanmar, Phnom Pehn) and Canada.
LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) FOR CONTENT PARTNERS
I also redesigned the Learning Management System to allow content creators and our partners to easily add and manage lessons and students. It was a very complicated process and a lot to consider and implement after rounds of research and user testing. I was heavily involved in building the informational architecture for multiple use cases, as well as the entire design system and style guide.
THE V1 INITIAL PROCESS (1 WEEK)
In March 2019, as a UX/UI Designer, I helped redesign the (Android) interface and experience for the MVP (V1) based on user feedback from testing. I also aimed to establish and integrate the overall brand look into the experience. As most people in emerging economies are not too familiar with tech, apps and English, I had to keep that in mind and use icons as well (which I recreated). I took on the opportunity to design on the team as it was a meaningful initiative for me in helping those in need.
The previous designs showcase the intention to help people learn about core financial concepts and connect with relevant financial service providers. There was also a big focus on making the learning experience fun.
PERSONA: KIRY (ADAM)
With only one week to redesign the existing UX and UI for our MVP, I started off with building out the persona. The founder had previously had a target audience in mind through user interviews while he was abroad in Myanmar.
USER RESEARCH INSIGHTS & KEY OBJECTIVES
Interviews and surveys were conducted to gather feedback and insights to improve the mobile app. In designing for emerging economies, there were 3 key objectives:
Simplifying Concepts
Making Learning Fun
Connecting To Financial Services
I was aware of some of the constraints and pain points from the user base such as having limited experience with technology, limited levels of English, and having only older devices.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
With the feedback we received from our previous prototype, I considered the overall flow for the refined MVP. Our main parts that help Kiry (Adam) achieve his goals is through Lessons, Profile, Services and Challenges.
SKETCHES & MOCKUPS
In redesigning Monkiri based on user feedback, I sketched out possible layouts and interactions. I considered the 3 core focuses: Simplifying Concepts, Making Learning Fun, and Connecting To Financial Services
DESIGN GUIDE
Working with a developer and also as reference for other team members, I put together a design guide. I wanted to integrate an overall brand colour to the app and also redid the icons and illustrations for a more cohesive look.
THE FINAL V1 REDESIGN
The redesign was for our persona, Kiry (Adam), who is a young adult looking to expand his knowledge in managing finances. He does not have as much technical experience so the interface had to be very natural and simple.
Lessons: Home Screen
The lessons are presented in categories for users to go through and pick the ones they want to learn.
Some of the pain points included: not sure what each lesson is about, the progress bar isn’t too clear, can’t see some of the icons or text clearly
Lessons: Navigation
Once they select a category, there is a mountain they can climb based on lessons completed, with the hardest lesson at the top. Some of these lessons are built by the team’s course creators or representatives from financial partners.
Some of the pain points included: unclear where to go back to home screen, not being able to skip lessons, not sure what happens after going through all the lessons
Lessons: Questions
Once they select a lesson, questions will start popping up. There are various formats of the questions. They can exit whenever they want and have their progress saved.
Some of the pain points included: progress is hard to visualize, screen looks too busy not sure where to focus first
Lessons: Category Completed
Once a lesson is completed, a screen will pop up to congratulate them and share awards they received to continue motivating them to keep learning.
Some of the pain points included: not feeling motivated to go through all the questions, hard to read some of the text, very busy screens
Profile
To further keep users coming back and learning, there are some gamification feature such as awards to unlock and also visualization of learning progress and milestones to hit. They can also customize their avatar and profiles.
Some of the pain points included: not sure what each bar is, not sure what the summary of achievements are, the characters aren’t very relatable, hard to visualize progress and stay motivated
Services: Categories
Since we have financial partners and a large part of the lessons is to educate people so they can find the appropriate services to help them further build their wealth.
Some of the pain points included: not sure what each lesson is about, the progress bar isn’t too clear, can’t see some of the icons or text clearly, not clear that they are buttons
Services: Promotions
Some partners want to further incentivize users with special awards they can gain through completing certain tasks. There are deadlines to these to make it more urgent.
Some of the pain points included: hard to find which ones are ending soon in order to finish those first, too many to choose from and don’t remember which one they were completing, not sure which ones have money rewards, not sure if the boxes are actually clickable
Services: Promotions
Once they find a promotion, they can tap it and see more details.
Some of the pain points included: the text is hard to read, the button is unclear
THE V2 REDESIGN PROCESS (6 MONTHS)
NOTE: Due to the nature of this project that’s still in the development phase, only a limited amount of content can be shared.
In March 2020, as a Product Designer, I was hired for a 6-month full time contract on the team to further redesign the mobile app based on the user testing gathered. We needed to make the app appeal to both youth and adults, as well as consider the usability for American and international markets.
The goal was to gather as much data and user feedback to set up the direction for the second redesign of the app. The company has since rolled out the app in both the North American market, as well as Southeast Asia, and made an impact on thousands of users.
USER RESEARCH & SECOND PERSONA
After gathering data on our existing user base, we discovered a lot of learners were from Vancouver, British Columbia. The founder saw demand in North America and wanted to extend the learning opportunities there.
The new persona reflects our new user base from Vancouver and the various different needs and pain points.
JOURNEY MAP
From there, mockups and prototypes were developed with the brand vision in mind (fun yet professional) after rounds of sketching, wireframing, and feedback gathering. I worked together with our development, user testing, content strategy, marketing, and data analysis team members in building out the prototype for both the app and LMS.
USER RESEARCH & KEY CHANGES
Since the team became bigger, there was more user research collected from interviews, surveys, and usability studies of the experience from the existing user base. I had conducted several of the usability tests with users and stakeholders.
Pain Points: Not visual enough or fun enough for people to keep coming back, some lessons were hard to understand, too many lessons not sure where to start, some users were more familiar with financial concepts but they had to start with the basics, sense of accomplishment wasn’t strong enough.
The key reiterations of the previous version of the app was gamification on the financial learning experience. I took broad ideas from users and my team and mocked up various versions of how we can approach gamification. The final design was inspired by Mario and Duolingo, where users can navigate different worlds and unlock challenges with various difficulties.
USER FLOW
As not many people used the Avatar Customisation feature, it was removed in the second version. Here, just Lessons, Challenges, Services, and Profile were the main navigation tabs.
Onboarding (AI Customization):
The onboarding experience was redesigned to be more customized where they fill in simple questions and the system leverages AI to customize their lessons. A recommended learning plan is presented.
Learning (Islands):
To make the category selection more visual, there are various islands separated by difficulty levels that users can swipe up to reach. This also motivates people to learn and unlock the islands and lessons. If they prefer to browse or search for different lessons instead, they can do so now.
Profile (Progress Visualization):
The profile was redesigned to be more visual, with an emphasis on statistics, and the rewards unlocking was removed as it got too busy. Not too many older users cared about unlocking outfits for their avatar. A “friends” feature was also included to see how the users’ peers were doing to further motivate them to make progress as well.
Financial Services:
This section was not changed too much but organized better so it’s easier for people to browse what they need and search for relevant services.
Promotions (Renamed To Challenges):
The rewards were highlighted further to attract people to complete them and understand various financial services available.
With every new iteration, we set up user testing and feedback sessions for our user groups and financial partners. I presented our ideas and prototypes and also facilitated some of the sessions. It was amazing working with our supporters and having them provide input on the platforms! Many of the users loved the new designs that I created.
LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) UPDATE
After conducting several interviews and usability tests with content partners, I made improvements to the experience and interface of our LMS. The original interface was a plain grayscale interface without any visual elements. I developed a design and style guide that I followed. I also leveraged and referenced existing design patterns that would make sense to our users who have likely had experience with platforms such as Google Drive.
The challenge was mainly finding a balance between designing for the American and the Southeast Asian users as both were different culturally and in their technical competencies.
(Limited information can be provided - please contact for further details)
REFLECTION
The redesign gained a lot of positive feedback from the team and will be set for more user feedback. Overall, I was glad to help redesign such a meaningful product that will be helping many people. It is also a great experience to work with a big team. We are currently working on integrating a friendly character that will help guide users throughout the experience, ensuring that they understand the functions and interactions.
FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS
If I had more time with this project, I would have wanted to develop the AI feature of this app a lot more that helps with personalizing the lessons for each learner. Everyone learns at different paces, so this is very important both strategically for the business and ensuring a high level of engagement amongst the learners.
I would have also wanted to integrate more animations to make the experience even more fun as most of our users learn visually with the limitations of their technological experiences.
“Christy has been a major help with outlining and refining the designs on Monkiri. Not only has she been able to deliver quality designs, she helped with generating ideas, providing insight, doing research, working within flexible terms and helping the whole team better understand the design features of the app. Christy has able to develop a style guide for Monkiri, and has played a key role with the hand off from designer to developer.”