👋 Welcome to Your Internship!
You're here for 6 days to design a real fintech app — a digital wallet made for teens in the UAE. This isn't a school project. You'll work like a real UX professional: researching real problems, making real design decisions, and building something people could actually use.
The first 3 days are about understanding the problem — who the user is, what they struggle with, and what already exists. The last 3 days are about building the solution — designing, prototyping, and presenting. Your mentors are here to guide you every step of the way.
🎯 What You're Building
- A wallet app designed for teens in the UAE
- Based on real research into what teens actually need
- A working prototype showing how it looks and works
- A documented process of every step you took
- A final presentation to the Alpheya team
🛠️ Your Toolkit
You'll be introduced to each tool on the day you need it. Claude AI is your research and thinking partner, Notion is where you document everything, FigJam is your digital whiteboard, and Claude Code is how you'll build your prototype.
Mai — Research Mentor
Mai guides you through Days 1–3. She'll help you ask the right questions, challenge your assumptions, and turn your research into real insights. Quick check-in every morning.
Doaa — Design Mentor
Doaa takes over Days 4–6 and guides you through the design process — from rough ideas to a polished prototype. She reviews your work daily.
📅 Your 6-Day Journey
🏆 Final Deliverables
- A Notion workspace documenting your full process
- A proto-persona built from desk research
- Research insights + How Might We questions
- A working app prototype built with Claude Code
- A final presentation to the Alpheya team
Research Phase — Days 1 to 3
This phase is about becoming an expert before you design anything. You'll explore the UAE teen money landscape, look at what apps already exist, and figure out what's truly missing. The best part? You are the user. Your own experience as a teen is real, valuable research — trust it!
Get familiar with the project and explore what already exists. You'll look at how teens in the UAE deal with money, then check out apps that already try to solve this — like a detective exploring the scene before solving the case.
- Understand the brief + write 3 assumptions: In your own words — who is this for and what problem does it solve? Then write 3 things you assume UAE teens find hard about money. You'll check if you were right by Day 3!
- Research the UAE context: How do teens here get money? (Pocket money, Eid gifts?) Any restrictions on teens having their own bank accounts? Use Google + the Claude prompt below.
- Explore 2 apps: Look at Greenlight (global) and YAP (UAE). For each — what does it do? What do you like? What feels missing for a teen in the UAE?
- Add your notes to a Notion page — your assumptions, context research, and app notes all in one place.
A Notion page with: your 3 assumptions, notes on UAE teen money context, and a comparison of 2 apps (what you liked, what's missing).
Go deeper into what teens say online about money, explore global trends, and then build your persona — a character profile of the person you're designing for. Since you and your peers are the target user, you already have a head start!
- Search what teens say about money: Look on TikTok, YouTube, or Reddit — what do teens complain about? What do they wish existed? Note 5–8 specific things you find. Bonus: think about your own experience too.
- Build your persona: Using what you found + your Day 1 research, create a fictional but realistic character. Give them a name, age, how they get money, what they spend it on, 2 goals and 2 frustrations, and a quote. Use the template on the right — Claude can help fill in the gaps!
- Check your Day 1 assumptions: Were you right? Write one sentence for each — "I thought X, but I found Y." Wrong assumptions are the most interesting!
Gets money from: ___________
Spends it on: ___________
Top goals: 1.___ 2.___ 3.___
Top frustrations: 1.___ 2.___ 3.___
Their quote: "___________"
Your completed persona (name, goals, frustrations, quote) saved in Notion, plus a short note on which Day 1 assumptions held up and which surprised you.
Turn your raw notes into clear insights — then present everything to Mai. By end of day, Doaa will have a handoff document ready to kick off the design phase tomorrow.
- Affinity mapping in FigJam: Open a new FigJam board. Write each key finding from Days 1–2 on a sticky note, group similar ones together, and name each group. Aim for 3–4 theme groups — e.g. "No way to track spending" or "Parents control the money."
- Write 3 insights + 3 HMW questions: Each insight starts with "Teens..." and describes a real problem. Then flip it into a "How Might We" question. E.g. Insight: "Teens receive cash with no way to track it." → HMW: "How might we make it easy for teens to see where their money went?"
- Present to Mai (15–20 min): Walk her through your persona and top 3 insights. Start with your most surprising finding — that's what grabs attention!
- Write a one-pager for Doaa: Persona + 3 insights + 3 HMW questions. Keep it to one page — Doaa will use this to prep for Day 4.
FigJam affinity map, 3 insight statements, 3 HMW questions, a short presentation to Mai, and a one-pager handed off to Doaa. You are officially a UX Researcher!
Design Phase — Days 4 to 6
Now it gets exciting! You'll take everything you learned from research and turn it into a real app — from rough ideas to a polished, clickable prototype. You'll use Claude Code to build it: just describe what you want and it creates it. No coding experience needed. Design is about solving real problems in smart, enjoyable ways.
Use your research as fuel for big ideas. Brainstorm features, decide what to build, map your user flow, and plan the app structure — all before touching any building tool. Good planning today = faster building tomorrow.
- Crazy 8s — fast sketching: Re-read your top HMW question from Day 3. Then fold paper into 8 squares and set a 5-minute timer — one rough sketch per square, no judgment. This exact technique is used at Google and Apple to break creative blocks!
- Pick your 4–5 core features: Looking at your sketches, which ideas come up most? Which ones would your persona use every day? Choose 4–5 and write one sentence explaining why each one matters.
- Sketch a simple sitemap in FigJam: Draw your app as a tree — Home screen at the top, branching out to each section. Keep it simple: 4–6 boxes total. This is the skeleton of your app.
- List your 4 priority screens: Which 4 screens best tell the story of your app? Write them down — these are what you'll build on Day 5.
A Crazy 8s sketch (photo in Notion), a feature list of 4–5 features, a FigJam sitemap, and a list of 4 priority screens to build tomorrow.
Claude Code builds a real, working app just from your description — no coding needed. You describe what you want in plain English and it builds it. Today you'll get your 5–6 priority screens looking like a real app. It might not be perfect yet — that's okay!
- Set up + write your first prompt: Go to claude.ai/code, sign in, and use the Claude AI prompt below to help you write a detailed description of your app — what it does, who it's for, your 4 priority screens, and your visual style (e.g. "purple and white, modern and friendly for teens"). Paste it in and see what comes out!
- Build your 4 priority screens: Work through them one by one. Be specific with each prompt — instead of "make a home screen", describe exactly what should be on it. Iterate until each screen feels right.
- Test it yourself + share with Doaa: Click through your app — what feels real? What feels off? Write down 2–3 things to fix tomorrow, then send the link to Doaa for her feedback.
A working first version of your app with your 4 priority screens built. Link shared with Doaa — her feedback is your starting point for tomorrow.
Apply Doaa's top feedback, do a quick 10-minute reality check with someone nearby, put together a short presentation, and deliver it. Today you go from "intern" to "product creator." You've earned it!
- Apply Doaa's top 3 fixes: Don't try to fix everything — focus on the 3 most important pieces of feedback. Use Claude Code to make each change, one at a time.
- Quick reality check: Ask one person nearby (a friend, family member, or colleague) to try one task on your app — watch silently, don't explain anything. Note the one thing that confused them most and fix it.
- Build your 5-slide presentation in Canva: Slide 1: The problem + your persona. Slide 2: What you found (top insight). Slide 3: Your design + why you made those choices. Slide 4: App demo (screenshots). Slide 5: What you'd do next if you had more time.
- Practice once, then present! 🎉 Run through your slides once out loud. Then go for it — you've done 6 days of real UX work. Be proud of it.
A polished app in Claude Code and a 5-slide presentation delivered to the Alpheya team. In 6 days you went from zero to a real UX project. That's something to be genuinely proud of.