Cashee wasn’t just another digital banking app. It was a bold attempt to redesign financial education from the ground up for teenagers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. At The Gradient, we didn’t just refresh screens – we redesigned the entire relationship teens and parents have with money.
This is the behind-the-scenes story of how we turned a promising fintech prototype into a design-first youth platform that was playful, culturally grounded, and ready for market.
Understanding the Problem Space
Cashee approached us with an existing product that had already launched in the UAE. The team wanted to expand to Saudi Arabia, and they knew the design needed work, but weren’t sure how deep the changes should go.
Their brief was modest: audit the app, suggest improvements, and localise it for the Saudi market. What we uncovered was a product with real promise, but also real gaps in experience and emotional resonance.
Discovery: Users, Culture, and Constraints
We began with a series of interviews with both kids and parents in the region. And what we learned reshaped everything:
Kids don’t just want a bank card
They want status. One teen told us, “Getting a card means you’ve made it. You’re no longer a kid.” What surprised us most was how much emotional weight they placed on the card’s design. When we asked what kind of card they wanted, many replied without hesitation: "Black." Not gold, not colourful, just black. For them, a black card wasn’t just visually appealing — it felt elite, adult, powerful. It symbolised independence and maturity.
Parents don’t want complexity
They want visibility and control. "I just want to know what my kids are doing with their money without digging through menus." Many of them aren’t particularly tech-savvy, and this shaped how we approached onboarding. In several cases, kids were more confident using the app than their parents. So we built an onboarding flow that allowed children to initiate account setup, complete their steps, and then send a notification to parents for approval. This not only streamlined the process but also made it feel collaborative and familiar. Parents stayed in control, but kids could lead the way, reducing delays and frustrations on both ends.
Asking for money is emotionally loaded
Teens feel nervous, parents feel busy, and everyone wants it to feel less awkward. To address this, we turned the request flow into a moment of lightness and expression. Instead of a dry transaction, teens could send requests using playful messages, GIFs, or emojis, making it feel more like a personalised note than a financial ask. On the backend, we ensured that the parents’ experience was equally smooth: they received clear, contextual prompts with all the necessary information to quickly approve or deny the request. And because not all parents are tech-savvy, we introduced a progressive, step-by-step flow where the child could initiate the request and the parent could approve with just a few taps – no hunting through menus or confusion over where to look. This flow helped bridge the generational tech gap while keeping communication smooth and intuitive.
These insights led us to reimagine not just features, but the tone, layout, and emotional journey. We also conducted deep research into:
- Cultural design constraints: right-to-left interface logic, conservative visuals, limited use of photography, reliance on paternal figures.
- Onboarding and legal complexity: In KSA, registration involved national ID validation, external bank flows, and multi-stage account approval.
- Gamification norms: Teens in the region already expect rewards, coins, and community competition.
Market Research & Competitive Benchmarking
Before jumping into solutions, we stepped back to ask: What does teen banking even look like around the world? And how do you build something meaningful in a region where financial apps often feel dry, overly serious, or simply not built for youth?
Our research team mapped out more than 30 teen-focused banking products globally. We downloaded apps, studied onboarding flows, reviewed their visual styles, and explored how they handle saving, allowance, card management, and more. Some were playful but shallow; others were secure but cold. None balanced all three pillars Cashee needed: fun, safety, and cultural sensitivity.
What made the benchmarking powerful wasn’t just the comparison—it was how we transformed those references into actionable insight. We assembled huge Figma boards with stickers, screenshots, dissected microinteractions, flagged gaps, and turned patterns into hypotheses we could test.
Here’s what we found
- Most global apps focused on the Western norm of teen independence. That model didn’t fully work in Saudi, where the family unit—especially the father—holds more formal financial control.
- Gamification was everywhere, but not always effective. We saw where coin economies worked, where they flopped, and how to adapt rewards for real engagement, not just dopamine hits.
- Some apps had clever ideas hidden deep in navigation. We brought the best of them forward.
From this work, we defined our north star: Cashee should be as intuitive as Revolut and as gamified as Duolingo. And still fun, and feel like something you'd want to open every day.
Design Strategy: From Card to Community
This wasn’t just a redesign. It was a chance to rewire how financial habits are formed between teens and parents — and turn something functional into something aspirational.
1. Card-First UX
The moment we heard, “I want a black card because it feels grown-up,” we knew the card needed to be more than a utility. We treated it like a brand symbol — central, hero-like, with physical and digital presence aligned. We redesigned the home screen to give the card pride of place: it sat front and centre, not tucked away in a menu. We tested various visual styles with teens — flat, glassmorphic, embossed — until we landed on one that balanced aspirational aesthetics with cultural taste.
2. From Requests to Self-Expression
Our user interviews were full of nervous laughs when we asked teens how they asked their parents for money. The emotional tension was real. So we turned the request flow into a tiny theatre of self-expression. Kids could choose pre-set GIFs, attach photos, write short notes, or customise requests with inside jokes. One teen told us they’d use a cat meme every time, just to make their dad smile. That tiny shift transformed what could be an awkward moment into a familiar, even endearing, routine.
3. Visual Identity: Choose Your Team
Instead of a single-brand aesthetic, we gave teens the power to align with one of three personas: Bolt (green for hustle), Rocket (blue for curiosity), and Hearts (pink for empathy). This was more than theming — it drove colour palettes, avatar design, animations, and even sound design. It wasn’t gamification for points — it was designed as self-expression.
4. Spending vs Saving: Visual Nudges
Kids could instantly see how they were tracking, and the app nudged them when they drifted too far into spending mode.
5. Parental UX: Two Worlds in One App
Parents weren’t an afterthought. We designed their experience as a distinct product within the product. From a single dashboard, they could monitor all linked kids, approve or deny requests with one tap, and get insights like "Your daughter saved 80 SAR this month." We used clean layouts, large tap targets, and minimal copy to support non-tech-savvy users, while still making it feel like a premium experience.
6. Microlearning Built In
One of our favourite additions was a financial literacy centre — but hidden in plain sight. Lessons were tied to real-life scenarios: "What do you do with your first 100 SAR?" or "How can you save for a gaming console over 3 months?" We made them swipeable, snackable, and visually engaging. For every lesson completed, kids earned Cashee Coins, which they could use for digital customisations or unlockable perks.
7. Collaborative Onboarding for Real Families
This two-part onboarding flow had multiple benefits: it let the tech-savvy child take the first step, it reduced friction for hesitant parents, and it reinforced a shared sense of ownership. It wasn’t just user-friendly, it was family-friendly, built for real-world digital gaps between generations. Kids could complete their side of registration and send a ready-to-review bundle to their parents for approval and bank verification. After that, the child could access a limited version of the app to explore features while waiting for a physical card to arrive. This not only respected how families actually operate, but it also made kids feel responsible and proactive. Parents, in turn, received a clear prompt: "Your child has completed setup — review and approve." No confusion, no bouncing between screens. We tested this in family sessions and saw smiles from both sides — a rare win in fintech onboarding.
The design work for Cashee went far beyond visual polish. We reimagined how young people interact with money and how their parents stay in the loop — all through a user experience that had to feel friendly, modern, and safe.
Challenges We Faced
Balancing Fun with Finance
How do you make sending money joyful without feeling frivolous? Teens wanted playfulness, but parents needed trust. So every playful microinteraction had to be grounded in purpose. We experimented with animations, rewards, and emoji-enhanced messaging, but always ensured the core action felt secure and informed.
Multi-User Logic
One parent. Multiple kids. Separate flows. Shared oversight. Sounds simple, but most fintech tools aren’t built for this. We had to architect dual-layered experiences: a dashboard for parents that gave clarity across accounts, and separate, gamified flows for each child that still tied back to a central source of truth.
Complex Onboarding
From verifying national ID numbers to complying with KSA’s banking regulations, onboarding was a minefield of edge cases. We built flowcharts to cover scenarios like: "Parent doesn’t have ID on hand" or "Child doesn't have a phone number yet." We prototyped each variation, tested them with real families, and turned the chaos into a smooth, friendly, 3-step experience.
What Came Out of It
- A fully redesigned Cashee app is now live in Saudi Arabia
- Hit the top 25 finance apps in KSA
- UX Design Award Winner 2024
- User retention increased by 30%
- Transaction volume grew by 50% within six months
- A new visual identity that teens love and parents trust
- Internal currency, avatars, gamification mechanics, and learning modules
