Background
Bloom, an investing app targeted at students, set out to address a major gap in financial education. Many young people are eager to learn about investing but lack practical tools that make the experience engaging and easy to understand. To solve this, I designed Bloom — a gamified learning platform where students can explore investing through mini-games and a simulated £10,000 portfolio using real market data.
Core problem
While interest in investing is growing among students, most educational tools fail to bridge the gap between learning and doing. Without interactive experiences or live feedback, students struggle to build lasting confidence in their financial decisions.
The Approach for Bloom
The goal with Bloom was to create an engaging, accessible way for students to learn about investing through play and practice. We focused on merging education with gamification - using interactive mini-games and a simulated investment platform to make learning about finance feel intuitive, rewarding, and hands-on. The aim was to lower the barrier to entry for beginners while promoting real-world understanding of markets.
Steps Taken
User Research & Validation:
I began by identifying the main challenges students faced when learning about investing - from intimidating jargon to a lack of real-world context. Surveys and user interviews helped shape a clear direction focused on simplicity and engagement.
Gamified Learning Experience:
To boost motivation and retention, I designed a series of mini-games that introduced core investing concepts in an interactive way. Progression systems and rewards kept users engaged while reinforcing financial literacy.
Simulated Investment Platform:
I built a live simulation that gave every user £10,000 in virtual money to invest using real-time market data using API's. This allowed students to experiment safely while gaining practical insights into market behaviour.
Iterative UX Improvements:
Through A/B testing and feedback sessions, I refined layouts, visual hierarchy, and onboarding flows to reduce cognitive load and keep the experience approachable for all levels.
Key Improvements
Intuitive, game-based learning experience
Real-time investing simulation with £10,000 virtual balance
Clear onboarding for first-time investors
Data-driven UX enhancements through testing and feedback
Improved engagement and retention via gamification
Results and Impact
The final product successfully transformed a traditionally complex topic into an engaging, user-friendly experience. User testing showed strong engagement with the gamified elements and high satisfaction with the app’s visual design and usability. Test participants reported increased confidence in understanding core investing concepts and appreciated how the simulated portfolio brought real-world context to their learning.