Meet Method Money
Money is pervasive and integral to so many of our experiences. Recent changes in the financial landscape – from mobile payments to peer-to-peer lending and the rise of local and cryptocurrencies – mean that now is the time to take a critical perspective on the future of money and the interactions that we will have with it.
Challenge
Method ran an exploratory research project on the future of money using an insights-led approach to speculative design. The project used trend analysis and ethnographic research to inspire future scenarios. We sought to bring the future into the present and create social experiments in which possible futures could be lived and experienced to stimulate critical discussion.
We asked ourselves three primary questions:
- Privacy: If finances were public, would you change?
- Personality: If money were smart, would it have personality?
- The Body: If behavior is hormone-driven, should financial services monitor the body?
Achievements
Our research resulted in five press features including:
- Wired
- Wired Japan
- LS:N Global
- Design Week
We also received two design awards including:
- FastCo Innovation by Design
- Awards UX Awards
Service
- Future Business Vision
Capabilities
- Brand Design
- Experience Design
- Product Design
- Prototyping
- Research & Insights
- Speculative Design
Location
- London
“We wanted to take a step back from those everyday problems and really think about some of the major trends that we felt were going to affect these experiences in the future. Financial services are designed for entirely rational beings. It assumes that we always make the right, informed decisions.”
Phillip O'Dwyer If finances were public, what would they say about you?
We challenged our staff to log all of their transactions over one month. Using Instagram, we shared every transaction in a candid stream. Our goal was to challenge finances as a social taboo, sparking a conversation.
Our experiments suggested that even our most mundane financial transactions can provide private information that we don’t realize is saying something about us.
If money was smart, would it have personality?
We designed artifacts for five potential personalities – frugal, mindful, jealous, adventurous, and hedonistic. Method employees lived with the artifacts of a specific personality for one week. Each person shared their behaviors over text messages with an AI.
We found that while mood and spending are closely related, care must be taken in the collection of this data as there are severe credibility issues in a bank overreaching.
If behavior is hormonal, should financial services monitor the body?
Inspired by the effects of hormones on financial workers, we designed the Bank of Physiology – a hypothetical institute at the intersection of finance and healthcare that delivers hormone-powered financial advice. We used hormone analysis devices to capture data that led to fiscal recommendations.
Our findings indicated that there is much room to interact with our money in a more personal way, even going so far as giving our money AI to act and spend itself on our behalf.
