Turning Financial Concepts Into Play
MoMoney is an interactive financial museum in Dallas that transforms concepts such as compound interest, currency design, and bartering into playful physical experiences. Fivestone collaborated with a larger cross-functional team to design and develop six digital exhibits across the museum.
I joined during the pitch phase and later became the UI/UX designer for three of the six exhibits. I translated early briefs and an established museum-wide creative direction into exhibit-specific flows, interfaces, motion concepts, and implementation-ready assets.
I led Design Your Own Currency and Interest Invaders from early concept exploration through client-approved Unity handoff. For Market Shuffle, I led the final UI, tutorial, sticker assets, motion feedback, prototype, and developer handoff within a broader concept developed by the team.
3 of 6
Exhibits designed
15
Cross-functional teammates
10 → 7
Steps after simplification
Designing for Quick Engagement
Each exhibit introduced a different financial concept and physical interaction, but all three needed to communicate clearly, respond immediately, and reward participation before visitors lost interest.
Designing for the Museum Floor
Across three exhibits with different content and interaction models, I focused on making the first action clear, connecting physical input to immediate feedback, and reaching a rewarding outcome before visitors lost interest.
01 Make the Action Obvious
Help visitors understand what the exhibit is about and what to do next without relying on lengthy instructions.
02 Connect Screen and Space
Use immediate visual feedback to make the relationship between physical controls, visitor actions, and screen responses clear.
03 Reach the Payoff Faster
Reduce unnecessary setup and move visitors toward a visible, rewarding outcome before attention fades.
Three Concepts, Three Interactions
I designed three of MoMoney’s six interactive exhibits, translating different financial concepts into distinct physical and digital experiences.
Interest Invaders
A retro arcade experience that turns compound interest into immediate visual feedback through physical controls, real-time choices, and a large-scale 8-bit payoff.
I led the concept direction, UX flow, visual design, motion, prototyping, and implementation-ready Unity assets.
Design Your Own Currency
A guided kiosk experience where visitors create personalized currency using color, imagery, stickers, and their own portrait, then see the finished bill presented and shared digitally.
I led the UX flow, wireframes, final UI, visual design, motion, illustration assets, and developer handoff.
Market Shuffle
A tactile barter experience where visitors negotiate with dynamic vendors, build increasingly complex trade chains, and complete exchanges through a physical touchscreen interface.
I led the final UI, tutorial, trade stickers, feedback states, prototype, and developer handoff.
Interest Invaders
The exhibit began as “Compounding Interest Calculator,” with the goal of making long-term financial growth feel dramatic and immediately understandable on a custom 512 × 256 LED display. Because the resolution was defined from the start, detailed interfaces and conventional high-fidelity animation would not translate effectively to the final hardware.
I used the constraint to guide the concept, exploring an 8-bit arcade language built around bold silhouettes, modular graphics, readable numerical changes, and frame-based motion. As the direction developed into a complete visual and interaction experience, the client renamed the exhibit “Interest Invaders” to align its identity with the arcade concept.
Design Rationale
Design Your Own Currency
The initial brief asked visitors to choose a denomination, customize a bill with colors and graphic elements, add their portrait, and receive the generated currency through email or mobile. Because the exhibit appeared near the end of the museum journey, the number of decisions risked creating fatigue before visitors reached a finished result.
I proactively mapped the complete kiosk-to-delivery journey so the team and client could evaluate the experience as one connected flow. The flow exposed unnecessary repetition and helped reduce the experience from 10 steps to 7 before Unity development.
Flow Strategy
Market Shuffle
Market Shuffle is a fast-paced barter experience where visitors negotiate with dynamic vendors and build increasingly complex trade chains without using money. Because the experience combined a touchscreen, physical controls, and multiple possible outcomes, visitors needed to understand the rules and recognize available actions quickly.
Working within the broader concept and scenario structure developed by the team, I led the wireframes, final UI, tutorial, trade stickers, feedback states, prototype, and developer handoff. My focus was to make the controls easier to recognize, clarify unsuccessful exchanges, and keep visitors moving through the experience without unnecessary frustration.
Interaction Strategy
01 Develop the Direction
Working with the Art Director showed me how early explorations become a cohesive experience through clearer hierarchy, consistent states, and deliberate detail.
02 Resolve Structure Early
On Design Your Own Currency, I learned to align on the flow before investing heavily in visual polish, so reviews could focus on real interaction decisions.
03 Validate in Context
A selection state that looked clear in the design file needed a stronger yellow highlight on the installed display, reinforcing the value of testing on actual hardware.
