Make Change: A Game for Designing FinTech Applications

Design Your Next FinTech Product

Make Change is a game where players create prototypes for new financial services. Anyone can play, from the hacker to the poet, and the game is great for meetups, conferences, or any event where people are learning about financial inclusion.

Here’s how it works: Players draw from four different types of cards. Using those constraints, they brainstorm ideas for products that could change people’s lives for the better.

Four types of cards in Make Change.

Make Change in Action

I tested Make Change with a few folks from my coworking community. They came up with ways for financial inclusion to improve livelihoods here in Philadelphia.

People came up with ideas to gamify their savings accounts and distribute credits for donated books to encourage more reading.

The Stellar team also played with Jesse Pollack and other members of @GetClef at our summer meetup in San Francisco:

And at OSCON in Portland in July, the open-source folks brought their A-game with ideas for community-based currencies, time-banking, and reputation management — so fun!

Testing Make Change has brought out amazing and imaginative fintech product ideas. We can’t wait to see these ideas become reality on the upgraded Stellar network.

Why Design Constraints?

Ever had a great idea for a blog post, but it evaporated in front of a blank page? Or been excited to tinker with a new camera, but then spooked by the complexity of the buttons?

Funny how, as soon as you are given a challenge — e.g. “write a novel in 140 characters” or “take a picture of the nearest tree” — the ideas just flow.

This is the simple magic of a design constraint. Constraints ignite new ideas, unlock apprehensions about unfamiliar topics, and help us lose ourselves in the projects we create.

Stellar is essentially a blank canvas for any kind of financial application. As an Educator, I knew that constraints would help shape new ideas for products.

Inspired by values-based games like Grow-a-Game and Yams, I sketched out a collaborative design game to provoke more a-ha! about the importance of open-source finance.

Download and Play

Make Change is freely available for play. We can’t wait to see your ideas! Please share your Make Change creations with us on Twitter. We’re @Stellarorg.

Download the game.

Written by Vanessa Gennarelli. Editing help from Jessica Collier. Design brought to you by Romina Kavčič.