Redflags
Helping Young Adults Make Confident Financial Decisions
AI Financial Literacy Tool
Project Overview
Redflags began at the 2025 Build for Good (BFG) Community Hackathon, co-organised by Open Government Products and the People’s Association. Out of 21 teams, we placed in the Top 5 and advanced to the Accelerator Programme, receiving $20,000 in funding to further develop the solution.
(As seen on The Straits Times)
As the lead product designer, I drove the research and usability testing that shaped our 0 to 1 design process. Since the product introduces a new step in the financial contract signing journey, I focused on uncovering user behaviors, validating assumptions, and designing our solution to support users’ needs and empower more confident decisions in the pre-signing stage.
The Impact
Users expressed strong demand for a tool like Redflags
Increased user confidence and clarity when reading financial contracts
Earned user trust in AI by giving them control and transparency
The Problem
For many young adults, stepping into financial independence means signing insurance or investment contracts, but these documents are often long, full of jargon, and overwhelming. The challenge became real for our team when a teammate shared how they signed a policy without fully understanding it and later regretted the decision.
We soon realized this struggle was widespread. Many young adults lack the confidence and financial literacy to navigate complex financial documents, leaving them exposed to blind spots and costly mistakes.
Research & Validation
To validate our assumptions, I led interviews with hackathon peers and distributed surveys to gather insights from young adults navigating financial documents. The research confirmed our hypotheses and uncovered key pain points:
Financial documents are too long and filled with jargon
Users often lack support or guidance because they don’t know which questions to ask
Many have limited financial literacy or access to trusted experts.
Without guidance, young adults risk blind spots and decisions they may later regret, underscoring the need for a solution that reduces cognitive load and builds confidence.
Design & Solutions
To tackle this challenge, our team designed a web app powered by AI that analyzes financial contracts, highlights critical terms, and explains complex jargon in plain language. I focused on crafting a guided experience that prioritized intuitiveness and clarity, helping users feel more confident as they navigated their documents.
Testing & Iterations
To test how our prototype faired, I designed and conducted usability tests with 3 young adults of deferring financial literacy levels. The research uncovered what worked well, what didn't, and even gave us greater insight into the signing journey that we did not knew before hand.
We initially envisioned Redflags as a tool for the research phase of the signing journey. However, sharing from our users reveal that most only see financial documents like product summaries and illustration tables right before signing a contract with their financial advisor.
Learning & Outcomes
I learned how small tweaks in design and copy can reduce cognitive load and make documents easier to scan, helping users feel more confident in their decisions.
Designing for trust was critical. Pairing simplified explanations with the original highlighted text gave users control and framed the AI as a guide rather than a decision-maker, boosting confidence and adoption.
I also discovered how the product could change the signing journey itself. By adding a step just before users commit to a financial document, our app provides an extra layer of protection and helps them make more informed decisions.
Reflections
This project really allowed me to see first hand how design is able to empower and support users. By simplifying financial documents, we weren’t just solving a usability problem, we were also giving young adults the confidence to make informed decisions about their future.
On top of that, this experience has also helped me to gain a deeper understanding of how to use design to guide trust in AI and get a glimpse into what its like to lead a 0-to-1 design process.
