Shuhao Ma – Design and Research

by Shuhao Ma - Januar 24, 2019Januar 24, 2019

Financial Literacy in MobilePay Application.

Part I: About China

After extensive searches and surveys, I found that in the mobile payment applications design in China, we would consider more about the user experience design for most of the public, and very few for children. At the same time, I found that mobile payment applications designed specifically for children can also be significantly challenged in Chinese society. Why? There may be two reasons.

First，strong traditional thoughts and cultures, such as “The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain”, make the financial topic very sensitive. Therefore, our education about finance and money in the primary stage is very weak, and the public doesn’t know the importance of financial literacy.

Second, the mobile payments market is occupied by two company so that any who want to pursue a new children experience must meet the biggest challenge. Regarding market share, Alipay has 54% compared to 40% for WeChat Pay, according to iResearch Consulting Group.

But more and more companies and universities start to pay attention to optimise digital service for children. AliPay did a lot of work about education, but it doesn’t work well because, in Chinese people mind, AliPay is an absolute financial tool and improper for children. WeChat Pay looks simpler in financial aspect and attracts more children for its history in social platform and game industry.

Basically, everyone who has WeChat can use WeChat pay, but The relative card in Wechat Pay offers an official way for children to use their mobile payment. This is the only specific way that children can use and parents can supervise in China.

Part II: About Europe and USA

In Europe and USA, The financial education system has matured, and the concept of children receiving financial education from an early age has been widely recognised by families, schools and society. Better education and better social recognition create more different mobile payment experience or financial experience for children.

“As society becomes cashless, making payments becomes as easy as tapping a card or pressing a button,” says Clint Wilson, founder of the Nimble app. “This can be convenient, but it can also be a problem. In the past, children would be able to tell how much they’d spent by how much their pocket jangled. Nowadays, it is easy to forget that each tap and press costs real money and can add up.”

The days of the piggy bank could be numbered. Instead of saving their pennies, children as young as four can now learn to manage their pocket money on digital budgeting apps. From age six, there are contactless cards which parents can load and monitor via their smartphones.

Some adults might shudder at the thought of such innovations, but in our increasingly cashless society, many believe they are a better way of teaching young children about money. Parents are the single biggest influence in shaping children’s attitudes towards money from a young age, but more than half say they lack the confidence or knowledge to teach their children to manage money according to Experian research.

Unlike a conventional bank account, these app-based services appeal to parents who are keen to educate their children about the value of money but want to retain a margin of control over what their children do with their cash. For example, they might want to monitor their child’s purchases or restrict what they can spend on in-app purchases or digital downloads. It is also possible to set tasks — such as completing chores — for your child to complete to earn their pocket money.

I find two application below, the RoosterMoney is a financial education and management App for children, and the GoHenry can support children in using mobile payment.

– Take control of your pocket money. – Know how much money you have and how it has been saved and spent by checking your statement. – Create goals to save for, and you can upload your own photos! – Save money to add to a Savings Account. – Customise your Dashboard and make your account your own.

-Earn: Mark tasks as complete for extra cash / Budget with their set weekly allowance -Spend: Use the card within your limits / Use contactless and online for games and more / Receive real-time explanations for declined transactions -Save: Pay automatically into savings goals / Ask relatives to contribute towards savings

by Shuhao Ma - Januar 24, 2019Januar 24, 2019

The Digital Dilemma To Children Who As A Digital Citizen

A digital citizen refers to a person utilising information technology (IT) in order to engage in society, politics, and government. K. Mossberger et al. define digital citizens as „those who use the Internet regularly and effectively“. Digital citizens understand digital citizenship, which is the appropriate use of technology.

On this free image is a little boy (my son) playing a game on tablet PC while his toy (red teapot) is deferred next to him. Photography symbolizes the general problem of today’s parents and children with modern technologies such as smartphones, tablets and computers.

According to nine elements of digital citizenship from the digitalcitizenship.net, I would like to divide them into four parts to illustrate.

The access to the Internet:
Digital access: We talked about this in China in the first part. As data showed before, we have more than 23.9 million children can be classified as a digital citizen.

The access to digital commerce:
Digital commerce: This is the ability for users to recognise that much of the economy is regulated online. It also deals with the understanding of the dangers and benefits of online buying, using credit cards online, and so forth. As with the advantages and legal activities- there is also dangerous activities such as illegal downloads, gambling, drug deals, pornography, plagiarism, and so forth.

The access to understanding including digital communication, digital literacy and digital etiquette:
Digital communication: This element deals with understanding the variety of online communication mediums such as email, instant messaging, Facebook messenger, the variety of apps, and so forth. There is a standard of etiquette associated with each medium. The children have the same right in these digital applications but do not understand all of them, that’s why the designer should re-think the interaction between children and digital use.

Digital literacy: This deals with the understanding of how to use various digital devices. For example, how to properly search for something on a search engine versus a database. How to use various online logs. Oftentimes many educational institutions will help form an individual’s digital literacy.

Digital etiquette: As discussed in the third element, digital communication, this is the expectation that various mediums require a variety of etiquette. Certain mediums demand more appropriate behaviour and language than others. The digital transaction can be a specific medium, which reflects family relationship, social status and personnel management. We should explore more appropriate design language for mobile payment.

How children understand the consumption content, consumption patterns and consumption etiquette in the digital world are blank now, and these three parts will play an essential role in the cultivation of children’s monetary consciousness. The Communication of these three parts is directly related to the design.

The primary access:
Digital law: This is where enforcement occurs for illegal downloads, plagiarizing, hacking, creating viruses, sending spams, identity theft, cyberbullying, and so forth.
Digital rights and responsibilities: This is the set of rights digital citizens have such as privacy, speech, and so forth.
Digital health: Digital citizens must be aware of the physical stress placed on their bodies by internet usage. They must be aware to not become overly dependent on the internet causing eye strain, headaches, stress problems, and so on.
Digital security: This simply means that citizens must take measures to be safe by practising using difficult passwords, virus protection, backing up data, and so forth.

As a digital citizen, Why children need to reconstruct their monetary consciousness? First, the ubiquitous Internet poses specific health and safety threats to children’s mental and physical health. Second, children also have the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens and are also subject to legal constraints. All of these first accesses of a digital citizen should be accepted and be respected by all digital designers.

by Shuhao Ma - Januar 24, 2019Januar 24, 2019

Mobile payment in China and its effects on Children

Main Background in China on Mobile Internet.

China had 772 million netizens by the end of 2017, with a penetration rate of 55.8 per cent, and 40.74 million more than the number in the previous year. Among them 753 million (97.5%) surfed the internet via mobile phones, 57.34 million more than the last year (95.1%), the report said.
Mobile social software has become an absolute necessity for mobile phone uses, with nearly half of them using this software more than three times each day. The top three most used social apps are WeChat Moments, Qzone and Sina Weibo, with the usage rate of 87.3 per cent, 64.4 per cent and 40.9 per cent respectively. This will be related to why I choose this topic.

Children’s scale of using the Internet

Up to June 2017, 72.1% of Chinese Internet users were aged 10-39. Specifically, 29.7% of Chinese netizens were aged 20-29, 19.4% aged 10-19 and 23.0% aged 30-39. We can calculate that the proportion of Children (below 12 years old) can be over 3.1%. There have over 23.9 million children that are surfing on the Internet.

Mobile Payment in China.

China had 531 million online payment users at the end of last year, 11.9 per cent or 56.61 million more than the previous year. Among them, 527 million people use mobile online payment, 12.3 per cent or 57.83 million more than the last year. Since the end of 2016, the proportion of internet users that pay with their phones offline rose from 50.3% to 65.5%.

Immense Contrast between popular mobile payment and small consideration for Children

In today’s China, online shopping and mobile payments have become a part of life. How to help children to deal with money in the digital world should be one of the most critical factors that designers must consider when designing digital payment experience. What’s more, the mobile payment is simultaneously connecting online and offline events, which makes developing mobile payment interaction and experience for children significant and vital.