Making finance fun: Playful affordances and gamified interface designs in children’s FinTech apps

Abstract

Children’s FinTech apps are digital mobile platforms that incorporate features for managing children’s financial activities ranging from the setting and tracking of chores, the payment of allowances or pocket money, the capacity for saving and spending, and the facilitation of investment options. As we show in this paper, a key aspect of these child money and finance apps is the inclusion of playful affordances such as gamified interface designs and elements that aim to make financial activities fun and appealing to younger users. In doing so, we build on emerging research on children’s FinTech to identify and discuss key implications of playful finance in children’s app environments. Method..